46. Report of the United States Advisory Commission on Information1

[Omitted here is an April 27 letter to the Congress from Lewis and the members of the Commission, the Table of Contents, and the Preface.]

SUMMARY

1. The mission of USIA was, and remains, relatively well articulated and defined. Its flexibility to respond to an ever-changing international situation requires a reaffirmation of purpose and intent in order to assure the relevance of the programs. The Congress is urged to examine both. Public diplomacy is defined and identified as crucial to the U.S. Government’s participation in the quest for international understanding. The Commission notes specific areas where the Agency has been under-utilized, and other significant areas where its role and participation have been indispensable.

2. The Commission believes that the time has come for the Congress itself to reexamine the basic statutes that created and contain the legislative authority for establishing foreign information and cultural programs. For much has changed. It should address and reconsider the relationship of USIA to the world of 1980 rather than the world of 1950. It should review the adequacy of past legislation and of USIA’s relationship not only to the present times but to the emerging future. [Page 127] More than 30 years after World War II, the extraordinary challenges and opportunities afforded by vast changes in communications technology should be exploited more effectively. For example, the potential inherent in the direct broadcast satellite indicates the far-reaching ramifications of USIA’s mission. It transcends government agencies. It involves the Congress. And it involves the American people, many of whom can be drawn into the task of improving the effectiveness with which the mission is implemented.

3. USIA has been a 24-year experiment in openness. The Voice of America, one of its major elements and engaged in international radio broadcasting to the world, has been in the front-line battles for openness. The result has been a continuing tension and frequent clash between journalism and diplomacy in a process that has expanded the dimensions of openness. The Commission commends those who have struggled with this issue, reiterates that it is a healthy process beneficial to both journalism and diplomacy and concludes that this will be, and indeed should be, an eternal process. The Commission also urges the reinstitution of a Broadcast Advisory Committee that would focus exclusively on the problems and opportunities of international broadcasting.

4. The Public Affairs Officer (PAO) abroad plays a distinctive if not unique role in representing the American citizens’ continuing interest in public affairs. In representing the U.S. abroad to the people of foreign countries, he or she exemplifies and reflects this democratic character of our people. The PAO’s practice and policy of cultivating associates and prodding Embassy personnel for openness in communications become apparent to all groups and levels of a foreign country with which the PAO is permitted to communicate. The PAO is a specialist in communications whose primary interest is public affairs.

5. This Commission, taking into account the impact of the visits to the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and the People’s Republic of China, by former Presidents Nixon and Ford, and reiterating the need to promote and sustain a relaxation-of-tensions atmosphere, calls for “patience and fortitude” in improving communications channels and contacts with the peoples of these countries. For the Commission contrasts the rate of change in communist countries with the U.S. and other Western countries. The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) in Helsinki2 also opened new avenues of communication. Hopefully, the forthcoming conference in Belgrade3 will chart the achievements as well as retreats and then call for the continued lower[Page 128]ing of barriers and reduction of obstacles to communication that began during the initial period of detente.

6. The Commission applauds the successful efforts of President Carter and the Congress to recapture the initiative in the ideological arena and in the struggle over issues before the court of world opinion. The cause of human rights is probably the most revolutionary principle in the world. The President’s sustained interest in espousing it represents a continuing, albeit complex, challenge to those who guide the affairs of USIA. An effective and prudent use of this principle will inspire hundreds of millions throughout the world.

7. “The Commission believes that larger goals and tasks should be set for USIA and that a gradually stepped-up campaign should be mapped to augment its audiences by giving the people of the world more information about the U.S.—not necessarily more news but more information.”

8. The Commission does “not believe that the USIA should be returned to the State Department, as that Department is currently organized and constituted.” We believe that the structure of USIA must include all elements of public diplomacy—fragmentation is not the answer. The Commission recommends that the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs be removed from the State Department and merged with USIA. It also recommends that the Voice of America remain a vital participant in the U.S. information program, but with the injunction that its Director “command an appropriate share of responsibility, resource and authority,” by elevating the rank and position to a Deputy Director of USIA.

9. The Agency should remain independent. The Commission appreciates the current efforts to consolidate government operations, but feels that reduction of the number of agencies cannot be viewed as an end in itself. If the goal sought is increased efficiency and effectiveness of operation, the members of this Commission have concluded that, under present conditions, USIA should retain its present autonomy.

10. USIA remains a seriously under-capitalized agency. Both the Congress and the Executive must address this issue carefully. The following letter from Dr. George Gallup to the Chairman of this Commission4 contains a seasoned observer’s perspective of this matter.

Specific Recommendations:

1. The power of communications should be acknowledged, and confidence in its ability to effect increased international and intercultural understanding substantially strengthened. USIA should consider [Page 129] the effectively televised version of “Roots”5 as an example of how one mass media program provided new information and produced significant changes in attitude.

2. The assessment of foreign public opinion must be systematically and routinely undertaken, and the results made available to those engaged in foreign policy decisions within the Executive Branch as well as the Congress.

3. The Office of Congressional Relations must be strengthened and restructured.

4. The work of USIA is rarely appreciated, and the Commission invites the critical examination of Congress and the domestic media to substantiate Commission claims that recent USIA efforts in promoting worldwide celebration of the American Bicentennial have been outstanding.6

5. The internal structure of USIA must be reviewed: personnel, administration and management, media services, all are in need of examination to assure continuing relevance and responding to demands for flexible change.

6. The news reported by the Voice must be freely disseminated, and remain both credible and competitive. There can be no distortion or prior restraint of news broadcasts. “VOA has demonstrated over the years that it is an alert, competitive, extremely capable and credible international broadcaster; VOA . . . ranks with BBC as the two most-listened-to international radio broadcasters.”

7. The physical presence of USIA’s top management at VOA must become more regular, and the personnel and operations of VOA should be consolidated into greatly improved facilities.

8. The whole of USIA should be housed in one building.

9. The Research element of USIA should be strengthened in terms of financial support, the acceptability of its function, and the professional character and capability of its personnel. For without an “Ear of America” there can be no effective “Voice of America.”

10. All USIA personnel in top management should “demonstrate an understanding of research as well as (its) application . . .” before assuming positions of leadership in covering USIA’s responsibility for vast geographic areas of the world, managing the Agency’s media or coordinating USIA’s policy mechanism.

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11. USIA should continue its efforts to communicate with the academic community. It should also develop a “closer relationship with the fifty states of the Union.”

12. The Public Affairs Officer should be granted the status and career objectives currently available to the State Department’s Foreign Service Officers by increasing in USIA the number of Career Ministers and by establishing a new top-title comparable to that of Career Ambassador.

13. The personnel systems within USIA should be thoroughly examined and remedied in order to provide real service to the Agency, rather than forcing unduly the Agency’s employees to conform to overly rigid requirements. To further this goal, the Commission urges the return of the Office of Personnel to the Office of Administration, a practice that prevails in most government agencies.

14. More attention must be given to the coordinated efforts of the media support available to the field.

15. There are too many rules and regulations—the bureaucratic machinery is once again in need of cleaning.

16. Labor Information Officers were eliminated due to budget cuts—the Commission recommends their contribution be made available once again.

17. The effective role and positive impact of special exhibits are appreciated, and it is recommended that there be more, in all geographic areas.

18. English teaching requires quantum expansion.

19. USIA should begin to plan now for commemorating the bicentennial of the ratification of the American Constitution and its Bill of Rights.7

[Omitted here is the body of the 122 page report and four appendices.]

  1. Source: National Archives, RG 306, Office of Research, Special Reports, 1953–1997, Entry P–160, Box 37, S–8–77. No classification marking. The report is the 28th annual report of the Commission. On May 10, 1977, Washington Post reporters Lee Lescaze and Richard Weintraub wrote that the report, issued on May 9, “was rushed into print in order to reach Congress before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today takes up Sen. Charles H. Percy’s (R-Ill.) amendment that would break up USIA.” (“3 Drop Recommendation To Break Up the USIA,” p. A12) As of 1977, members of the Advisory Commission were Lewis, George H. Gallup, Nielsen, Reinsch, and Shaheen.
  2. July 29–August 1, 1975.
  3. See footnote 4, Document 25.
  4. Not printed. The letter follows the summary section of the report.
  5. Reference is to the television miniseries based on Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alex Haley’s 1976 novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family. Broadcast on the ABC television network from January 23 through January 30, 1977, the miniseries attracted millions of viewers and received 9 Emmy awards.
  6. See footnote 4, Document 37.
  7. 1987 and 1991, respectively. For additional information about USIA’s planning efforts to commemorate the bicentennials, see Document 92.