Office of the Historian

170. Memorandum From the Director for North African, Near East, and South Asian Affairs, International Communication Agency (Curran) to William Quandt of the National Security Council Staff1

Washington, April 30, 1979

SUBJECT

  • ICA Activity on the Subject of the Islamic Revival

In response to your request to ICA/NEA, our media divisions have supplied listings of material prepared by USICA for use by overseas [Page 495] posts or broadcast by the Voice of America thus far this year on the general subject of Islam. Attached are listings of the titles of articles (nearly all reprints from the press) distributed to our posts abroad via our daily Wireless File; articles (either reprints or original articles) published in USICA periodicals which are distributed by our posts; and titles of backgrounders or correspondent reports broadcast in English and by various language services of VOA.2 We have also listed two relevant projects currently being undertaken by our Office of Research, preliminary results of which are expected to be available by late summer or early fall.3

As you can see, the Wireless File and VOA items have been fairly frequent, particularly in backgrounding events in Iran, and we are submitting listings only back to January 1 of this year.4 The Voice of America lists do not record which items were broadcast by each of the more than 30 foreign language services. In two cases the items were originated by a foreign language service, and these are specified. Others were broadcast in English and also made available to all of the language services.5

USICA also brings leaders from Islamic countries to the U.S. under its International Visitors program, and our personnel in those countries maintain appropriate contacts with Islamic figures, particularly those in educational or media work. One Islamic leader expected to visit the U.S. later this year under our auspices is the Grand Mufti of Syria.6

If you would like further information about any of these categories or items, please let me know.

  1. Source: Carter Library, White House Central Files, Subject File, Foreign Affairs, Publicity International, Box FO–38, FO 5–3 4/1/79–9/30/79. No classification marking. Curran wrote “Ted” next to his name in the “from” line. Quandt sent a copy of the memorandum to Aaron under a May 1 covering memorandum, in which he stated: “By pushing ICA periodically, we can expect to see them do more in the future.” Aaron’s handwritten notations on the covering memorandum read: “Very good. Keep it up.” According to a notation on the covering memorandum in an unknown hand, copies were also sent to Thornton and Henze. (Ibid.) An attached NSC Correspondence Profile indicates that Aaron noted the memorandum on May 3. (Ibid.)↩
  2. Attached but not printed are “Voice of America Backgrounders and Correspondent Reports on Islam Since January 1, 1979;” “U.S. Press or Commissioned Reports Carried in Middle East Wireless File to North African, Near Eastern and South Asian Post Since January 1, 1979;” “Articles on Islam in USICA Publications;” and “USICA Research Projects Presently in Progress.”↩
  3. The “USICA Research Projects Presently in Progress” attachment (see footnote 2, above) listed two projects: “Study of Elites in Egypt, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia” and “The Role of Islam: Syntheses of Current Research.”↩
  4. An unknown hand, presumably Quandt’s, placed a vertical line in the right-hand margin next to this sentence.↩
  5. An unknown hand, presumably Quandt’s, placed a vertical line in the right-hand margin next to this sentence.↩
  6. An unknown hand, presumably Quandt’s, underlined “Grand Mufti of Syria.”↩