The document provides a history of U.S. public diplomacy from the early 20th century to present day. It discusses the establishment of various public diplomacy organizations over time such as the Committee on Public Information during WWI, the U.S. Information Agency during the Cold War, and cultural exchange programs like the Fulbright Program. It also examines public diplomacy tools and activities used over the decades, including libraries, art performances, films, radio broadcasts, and more to share American culture and values abroad.

1. History of U.S. Public Diplomacy
Tim Standaert
Foreign Service Institute
June 2014

2. Public Diplomacy
Aims
• The aims of a country’s Public
Diplomacy activities are to:
– 1) influence how foreign
citizens perceive that country,
correcting misperceptions
about its policies and values,
battling stereotypes, etc;
– 2) promote greater mutual
understanding, keeping in
mind that this should be a
two-way street;
– 3) indirectly impact official
relations with the foreign
government in a way that
serves the country’s national
interests.

3. U.S. Public Diplomacy:
Continuing debates/tensions/questions
• Importance of information
(“fast media”) versus
culture (“slow media”), e.g.,
exchange programs,
libraries, performing arts,
English language, cultural
preservation, etc.
• Aiming for the elites in foreign
countries, verus the average
citizen/broad masses in our
PD efforts,

4. U.S. Public Diplomacy:
Continuing debates/tensions/questions
• Funding, Congress
• Measuring success
• Coordinate of the PD or PD-
like efforts of other
agencies, e.g., military,
Peace Corps, USAID, etc.

5. International Background: Europe
• French Revolution: Appealing directly to foreign
publics to promote a revolutionary ideology.
• 1883: In wake of defeat in Franco-Prussian War,
France creates Alliance Francaise to repair
national prestige, promote French language and
literature.
• Italy soon follow suit, setting up Dante Alleghieri
Society (1899)
• By end of 19th century, Germany’s Foreign
Ministry coordinating nearly all cultural activities
abroad. (Division of Cultural Affairs in MFA
formally established in 1921.)
• NOTE: Soviets set up VOKS in 1925. Rhodes
Scholarships established in 1902, but British
Council not founded until 1935.

6. Early U.S. Public Diplomacy
• The U.S. lacked any organized, official Public
Diplomacy of any sort until the early 20th
century.
• However, informal people-to-people
connections, Americans did exist:
– Diplomats, e.g., “Founding Fathers”
Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, etc;
– Missionaries: schools, libraries,
hospitals;
– Entertainment: minstrel shows, Buffalo
Bill’s Wild West Show, etc;
– World’s Fairs: Including 1893 Columbian
Exposition in Chicago;
– Foreign Study, Travel: U.S. students and
scholars travelled to Europe in the 19th
century.
• Tremendous influence of German
university structure on America’s.

7. Boxer Rebellion
•1899: Secretary of State John Hay’s
sends note to European counterparts
•general opposition to “spheres of
interest”
•U.S. “Open Door” Policy.
•1900 Boxer Uprising in China
•Qing Empire defeated, fined $333
million.
•U.S. share of indemnity: 7.32% (plus
interest)
•U.S. sets up program in 1908/1909 using
indemnity funds for education.

8. Boxer Rebellion Indemnity Scholars
•In China:
•1909-1929: 1300 Chinese students
prepared for future study at
American universities.
• Most study at Tsinghua College,
established in Beijing in 1911.
•1929: Tsinghua College
expanded into a university,
with 4-year undergraduate and
post-graduate school.
•In America:
•1926: China Foundation (later the
China Institute) founded in New
York. 5 groups of scholars educated
in U.S. before 1937 Japanese
invasion of China.

9. Boxer Rebellion Indemnity Scholars
•Famous alumni:
•philosopher Hu Shih (later Chinese
ambassador to US);
•physicist Chen Ning Yang (Nobel
Prize-winner);
•mathematician Kai Lai Chung;
•linguist Yen Ren Chao;
•rocket scientist Tsien Hsue-shen.
•UK, France, Japan later follow suit, set
up similar academic programs.
•Boxer Rebellion Indemnity Scholars
Program became model for Fulbright
Program (established in 1946).

10. Charitable and Philanthropic
Foundations
• Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace (1910)
• First Rotary Club overseas
(Ireland, 1911)
• Rockefeller Foundation first
international effort:
International Health Commission
(1913)
• Institute for International
Education (1919)
• American Red Cross, YMCA, etc.

11. First World War:
Committee on Public Information (CPI)
• One week after U.S. enters war
in April 1917, President
Woodrow Wilson creates the
CPI (Executive Order 2594).
• Main purpose: Build U.S.
public support for the war.
• But also had a Foreign Section,
plus offices in 9 foreign
countries, to counter German
propaganda.
• SEPARATE FROM STATE
DEPARTMENT!

12. First World War:
Committee on Public Information (CPI)
• CPI headed by George Creel,
editor of The Rocky Mountain
News.
• News articles, movies, lectures,
posters, signboards, wireless
cable service, foreign press
bureaus, film division, leaflet-
filled balloons.

13. First World War:
Committee on Public Information (CPI)
• News Division:
– Official Bulletin, an 8-pages
(later 32 page) paper, with
positive news and speeches,
distributed to all US
newspapers, post offices,
government offices, military
bases.
– Foreign Press Bureau: Under
novelist Ernest Poole, created
longer features on US law,
culture, and society by
authors like Ida Tarbell, Booth
Tarkington

14. First World War:
Committee on Public Information (CPI)
• Films Division: Three feature-length
films released in 1918: Pershing's
Crusaders, America's Answer to the
Hun, Under Four Flags. Also assumed
control of foreign distribution of all US
films.
• Division of Pictorial Publicity: posters.
• Other activities:
– Cooperate with military to
undermine enemy morale. Leaflet-
filled balloons over enemy territory.
Get information into hostile
territory via offices in Holland,
Denmark, Switzerland, etc.
– Draft estimates of public opinion
around world.

15. First World War:
Committee on Public Information (CPI)
• Criticism of CPI at home. Psychological
warfare? Propaganda? (Creel said no, instead
an honest attempt to counter German
disinformation.)
• CPI ends domestic work with Armistice in
November 1918, Congress ends funding for
foreign operations in June 1919
• CPI formally abolished by Wilson in August
1919.
• No formal USG Public Diplomacy operation or
office for another 18 years.
– Movies, foundations/charities,
missionaries, etc.

16. U.S Involvement in Latin America
•Monroe Doctrine
•Uneasy relations with
Latin America before
FDR:
•neglect, unfair
business deals
•exploitation
•intervention:
•War with
Mexico (1848)
•Spanish-
American War
(1898)
•Panama Canal
(1904-14)

17. Franklin Roosevelt, the Good Neighbor
Policy, and Internationalism
•Pan-American Union founded 1889/90.
(Later, the OAS.)
•Good Neighbor Policy
•FDR’s speech at Pan American Union
(1933): need for mutual
understanding
•Montevideo Inter-American
Conference (1933): Announcement
of lower tariffs, plans to establish
cultural exchanges. (Buenos Aires
1936, Lima 1938.)

18. Establishment of State Department’s
Division of Cultural Relations (1937)
•By 1937, U.S. (and Britain and France) aware
of threat German and Italian propaganda and
cultural diplomacy
•US State Department sets up Division of
Cultural Relations in 1938 to promote
exchanges, English language study, set up
libraries and reading rooms, translate books,
provide, technical assistance, etc.
•Note: Focus is on Latin America only at
first.
•But in pre-war period, Congress still does
not want to fund fully. (1938 budget: $28k.)

19. Second World War:
Coordinator for Inter-American Affairs
• Meanwhile, August 1940 (before US entry
into WW2), FDR names millionaire Nelson
A. Rockefeller to position as Coordinator for
Inter-American Affairs, separate from State.
• Responsibilities: Coordinate cultural (art /
education) and commercial relations with
Latin America.

20. Second World War:
Coordinator for Inter-American Affairs
• Rockefeller’s contributions:
– Promotion of American high
culture, including modern art
(though very controversial
Washington!)
– Positive portrayal of Latinos in
Disney movies, e.g., Saludos
Amigos, Three Caballeros
– Assistance to Mexico’s
railroad industry
• But Rockefeller also mixed in
business, propaganda (paying for
placement of positive stories in
newspapers), and intelligence-
collecting. (Bad formula.)

21. Second World War:
Office of War Information (OWI),
Voice of America (VOA)
• 6 months after Pearl Harbor,
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
(FDR) establishes Office of War
Information (OWI).
• Again, separate from State!
• OWI’s goal: Explain US policy to
domestic and foreign audiences,
public and media through movies,
leaflets, magazines, and RADIO.
– Soviets had begun radio
broadcasts in 1926, with regular
shortwave programs in 1929.
– Germany, Japan, Britain,
Holland follow suit.
– “Voice of America” (VOA)
inaugurated July 1942.

22. Public Diplomacy
Post-War Germany and Japan
• How to “reorient” society?
• Weeding out Fascist textbooks, revising
curriculum, establishing radio
broadcasts, etc.
• Exchange programs.
• Performing arts, e.g., Tokyo Symphony.
• Protection of art and other cultural
treasures, e.g., Kaiser Friedrich
collection.
• Establishment of Amerika Hauser
(libraries) throughout Germany. (Warm
places to read in the awful winter of
1946-47. Initially set up by US military,
later supported by USIA.)

23. Public Diplomacy
Post-War Germany and Japan
• Rebuilding the media, other parts of
civil society.
• English language training. Book
translations.
• Censorship of films, including samurai
epics in Japan that ostensibly fueled
militarism.
• No demands for restitution or
indemnities. (Kind of.)
• VERY EXPENSIVE!

24. End of Second World War
Fulbright Exchange Program
• Sen. William Fulbright
(Democrat – Arkansas)
• Himself a Rhodes Scholar
• 1946: Sponsored legislation
to begin exchange programs.

25. Exchanges
Fulbright Program
•First handful of exchanges with China and Burma.
•First massive wave of Americans go to France and Italy.

26. Exchange Programs Case Study:
Ukraine
•20000 Ukrainians (1992-2011),
including 9000 on academic and 11000
on professional exchanges, including:
•700 on Fulbright Programs
(Master’s Degree students, young
faculty, scholars, etc)
•Over 950 on the Muskie Program
(Master’s Degree)
•Almost 850 on the Global
Undergraduate Program
•Over 650 secondary school
teachers
•Over 5000 secondary school
students (Future Leaders
Exchange, or FLEX, Progam)
•Plus, over 400 American students and
scholars came to Ukraine on the
Fulbright Program (1992-2011).

27. Cold War
• Rivalry between USSR and
U.S./West in many areas,
including Public Diplomacy
• Culture: The arts, exchanges,
exhibits, etc.
• Information: Voice of
America (continued), Radio
Free Europe/Radio Liberty
• Libraries, books, etc.
• Obstacles/challenges for U.S.:
– racism/segregation
– McCarthyism/Red Scare

28. Establishment of USIA (1953)
• 1953: Establishment of U.S.
Information Agency.
– Post-war: Responsibilities
of OWI and Coordinator’s
office
– USIA takes books, libraries,
English language, and
broadcasting (include.
VOA).
– Exchanges remain
responsibility of State
Department until 1977.
– 1999: USIA merged into
State Department.

29. Broadcast Media
Cold War and Today

30. Dance Diplomacy. Classical Music.
• Jose Limon: 1954 and 1957
• Martha Graham to 16 Asian cities in
1955
• Alvin Ailey to Asia in 1962
• American Dance Performances in Kyiv:
– 1960: American Ballet Theater
– 1962: New York City Ballet
– 1963: Joffrey Ballet (President
Kennedy assassinated while troupe
in Ukraine)
• Leonard Bernstein and New York
Philharmonic in USSR in 1959.
• Etc.

31. Jazz Diplomacy
Cold War
• Parallel developments: Cold War, Jazz Diplomacy,
U.S. Civil Rights Movement.
• 1954: President Eisenhower convinces Congress
to fund cultural exchanges as part of the Cold
War battle of ideas and ideologies.
• During thaw following Stalin’s death, U.S. and
USSR agree to bilateral cultural exchanges at
Geneva Summit (1955).
• VOA begins broadcast of Jazz hour with Willis
Conover
• Purpose of Jazz Diplomacy during Cold War:
– Promote better understanding of American
society, including musical heritage.
– Part of bilateral cultural exchanges with
Soviet Union and other nations.
– Weapon in U.S. cultural competition with
Soviets.
– Also helps U.S. combat “image” problem with
racism and segregation.

32. Jazz Diplomacy
Cold War
• Early jazz ambassadors :
– Dizzie Gillespie: East Pakistan,
Turkey, Syria, Greece, Egypt,
Lebanon, Yugoslavia (1956);
Uruguay, Ecuador (1956).
– Benny Goodman: Asia (1956).
– 1957: Louie Armstrong cancels
State Department tour of Soviet
Union to protest President
Eisenhower’s slow response to the
school desegregation crisis in Little
Rock, Arkansas. But later that
same year, goes on tour of Latin
America. Also goes to Africa
(1960-61).
– Dave Brubeck: Poland, East
Germany, Turkey, South Asia (India,
Afghanistan), Middle East (1958).
– Etc…
• One criticism of this an other cultural
programming: expense.
Jazz in Ukraine:
•Benny Goodman (June 1962): First visit to Soviet
Union by an American jazz group, between the
Berlin Crisis (August 1961) and Cuban Missile
Crisis (October 1962).
•Earl “Fatha” Hines (1966)
•Duke Ellington (1971)

33. Jazz Diplomacy
Then and Today

34. Cold War
American Exhibit at Sokolniki in Moscow
• World’s Fairs as background
• During thaw following Stalin’s death, U.S. and USSR agree to cultural exchanges at
Geneva Summit (1955).
• Soviet exhibit in New York City (June 1959)
• American exhibit at Sokolniki in Moscow (July 1959)
– Importance of the young exhibit guides
• YouTube video on Nixon-Khrushchev "Kitchen Debate” (GWU)
• "Nixon, Khrushchev And A Story Of Cold War Love” (NPR)

35. Cold War
1959 American Exhibit at Sokolniki in Moscow

36. Binational Centers
• 1928: President of Rotary Club in
Buenos Aires sets up Instituto
Cultural Argentino-Norteamericano
(ICANA).
– Self-funded through teaching English
– Later: promoted cultural exchange
in accordance with resolutions from
Inter-American Conferences (1933,
1936, 1938)
– USG-supported libraries often
associated with binational centers
• First “binational center,” replicated
in many other countries.
• NOTE: 1970s – largest binational
center was in Iran.

37. Libraries, Reading Rooms, Books:
Cold War and Today
• Books/Libraries were a CPI focus starting
in 1917.
• Rockefeller revived idea again in Latin
America in 1942, reopening reading
rooms and building 3 major libraries.
(First: Mexico City.)
• Mexico, Iran, Pakistan, etc.
• McCarthy era purges of USIS libraries
• Through the decades, USG support for
libraries rose and, particularly after end
of Cold War, fell.
• American Corners – established first in
Russia (IRO Eric Johnson), concept then
spreads.
• Book translation programs.

38. Libraries in Ukraine
• “America House” (old-style library) set up in Kyiv,
eventually transferred to a local university
(National University Kyiv-Mohyla Academy).
• The U.S. Embassy maintains an Information
Resource Center (IRC) and additionally assists
libraries throughout Ukraine.
• As of 2011, Embassy had established Window on
America Centers (same as American Corner) in
almost every oblast center, and has set up over 140
free Library Electronic Access Project (LEAP)
internet centers all over the country, including (in
2011) three special centers for the blind in Kyiv,
Kherson and Rivne.
• Click here to see the impact of one LEAP center on
a small Ukrainian village.

39. Educational Advising
• Promotion of U.S. universities and colleges
• Ukraine:
– Almost 1700 Ukrainian students are currently studying in the U.S. at American
universities.
– A network of 4 EducationUSA advising centers provides assistance to
Ukrainians on the application process and the search for financial assistance.

40. Posters, Magazines, Publications:
Cold War and Today

41. English Language Programs
• Language as a PD tool.
– Remember Alliance Francaise example
• Examples:
– Pre-revolutionary Iran:
• self-funding
• 2 X full-time contract teachers
• 100k studies annually in 6 cities
– Ukraine (2011)
• RELO
• 3 X ELFs
• Access Microscholarship Program
(2009-10)
– Russian-leaning cities:
Luhansk (east) and Sevastopol
(Crimea)
– Kyiv (school integrating
differently-abled students into

42. Peace Corps
• Peace Corps (PC) founded in 1961
• Part of responsibility for English
language teaching shifts away from
State. But opportunity for synergies
exist.
• Peace Corps in Ukraine
– Largest PC program in the world (as
of 2011). All PCVs evacuated in
2014.
– 3 areas of activity:
• Teaching English as a Foreign
Language (TEFL)
• Community Development (CD)
• Youth Development (YD) Peace Corps
– http://ukraine.peacecorps.gov/proj
ects.php
– PC Volunteer (PCV) website:
http://www.pcukraine.org

43. Technical Assistance as a Form of PD
• Technical assistance and education
had been responsibility of State since
1938 establishment of Division of
Cultural Relations.
• Transferred from State to forerunner
of USAID in 1948 as part of Marshall
Plan.
• USAID formally established in 1961.

44. Technical Assistance as a Form of PD
• Some countries “graduate,” no
longer needing USAID assistance.
• Russia kicks out USAID (2012).
• Ukraine example:
(http://ukraine.usaid.gov)
• Economic Growth
• Democracy/Governance
• Health and Social Issues
• Combating trafficking in
persons.

45. Selection of Ambassadors: Politics
and/or Soft Power

46. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural
Preservation (AFCP) Case Study: Ukraine
Over the years, the AFCP has funded a number of projects in Ukraine to help
conserve, preserve, and/or promote or display the following:
•Fabrics in the Chekhov House-Museum (Yalta);
•16th century Golden Rose Synagogue (Lviv);
•Papers of Taras Shevchenko, rescued from archives in New York City (Kyiv);
•Mykytynska Sich fortifications in Nikopol (Dnipropetrovsk oblast);

47. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural
Preservation (AFCP) Case Study: Ukraine
• St. Nicholas wooden church in Kolodne
(Zakarpattiya);
• Crimean Tatar music, manuscripts and
handicrafts;
• Studion Icon Collection (Lviv);
• 12th century Khystynopolsky Apostol
manuscripts (Lviv).

48. QUESTIONS?

49. Bibliography
Arndt, Richard T., The First Resort of Kings: American Diplomacy in the Twentieth Century.
Asgard, Ramin, “Excerpts from US-Iran Cultural Diplomacy: A Historical Perspective,” International
Institute of Iranian Studies Annual Conference (Toronto, July 31 to August 3, 2008).
http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/texttrans/2009/07/20090716172735xjsnommis0.858
7109.html#axzz2zTBS21FZ
Asgard, Ramin and Barbara Slavin, “U.S. Iran Cultural Engagement,” Atlantic Council, June 2013.
http://riirpolitics.com/sites/default/files/sac130627usiranculture_0.pdf
Berghain, Volker (moderator), Cultural Diplomacy in Historical Perspective – From 19th Century
World’s Fairs to the Cold War. http://www.cceae.umontreal.ca/IMG/pdf/10_Round_Table_2.pdf
Cull, Nicholas J., The Cold War and the United States Information Agency: American Propaganda
and Public Diplomacy, 1945-1989.
Davenport, Lisa E., Jazz Diplomacy: Promoting America in the Cold War Era.
Espinosa, J. Manuel, Inter-American Beginnings of U.S. Cultural Diplomacy 1936-1948.
Hixson, Walter L., Parting the Curtain: Propaganda, Culture, and the Cold War, 1945-1961.
Ninkovich, Frank, The Diplomacy of Idea.
Prevots, Naima, Dance For Export: Cultural Diplomacy and the Cold War.
University of South California’s Center for Public Diplomacy: http://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/
Von Eschen, Penny M., Satchmo Blows Up the World.
Wagnleitner, Reinhold, and May, Elaine Tyler, eds., Here, There and Everywhere: The Foreign Policy
of American Popular Culture.

50. Public Diplomacy
Three Dimensions
According to Joseph Nye, author of
Soft Power, there are 3 dimensions to
PD
1) Daily communications:
Explaining decisions and
policies to the media, the
public, elites, etc.

51. Public Diplomacy
Three Dimensions
2) Strategic Communications: Focusing on simple themes, with
symbolic events and activities planned over the year, relying to some
extent on individuals and groups outside government.

52. Strategic Communications

53. Public Diplomacy
Three Dimensions
3) Lasting relationships: With key individuals, institutions, and
organizations, through exchanges, conferences, seminars, etc.

54. U.S. Public Diplomacy
Embassy Country Team Structure

55. Soft Power
• Term coined by Joseph Nye,
former U.S. Assistant Secretary
of Defense, Dean of Kennedy
School of Government (Harvard
University), etc.
– Watch Nye’s TED talk on
global shift in power at:
http://www.ted.com/talks/
lang/eng/joseph_nye_on_g
lobal_power_shifts.html
• Definition: The ability of a
country or organization to
shape the preferences of
others, i.e., to get them to
behave in a way that supports
interests, without overt tangible
benefits coming to them, i.e.,
without threats (sticks) or
payments/ inducements
(carrots).

56. Soft Power
• Three vehicles: According to Nye, soft power rests largely on: 1) a
country’s or organization’s culture, both high and low; 2) its political
values; and 3) its foreign policy.

57. Soft Power
Audience
• Soft power depends on the existence of willing interpreters and
receivers in a country or in group.

59. Soft Power: Culture, Political Values,
Foreign Policy

60. Soft Power: Culture, Political
Values, Foreign Policy

61. History of U.S. Public Diplomacy

62. U.S. Public Diplomacy:
Continuing debates/tensions/questions
• How does new technology impact
the conduct of Public Diplomacy?
• Which PD tools are the most
effective? How do you measure the
effectiveness of Public Diplomacy
anyway? What are the “metrics”?
How important are the numbers
anyway?
• Are we spending the right amount of
money on PD?
• Is the U.S. good at PD? Are other
nations better? How can we do it
better?

63. Public Diplomacy
Definition
• PUBLIC DIPLOMACY: The efforts by a country’s government to communicate
and interact openly and directly with foreign audiences – academics, NGOs,
businesses, institutions, and even the general public – to deepen mutual
understanding and to promote/protect national interests.

64. Other Programs
Ukraine

65. Other Programs
Ukraine

66. Other Programs
Ukraine

67. Other PD Programs
Ukraine

68. Cautionary Tale: Ramparts Scandal
•Prominent pacifists and leftists take part
Peace Conference in March 1949 in NYC,
urging peace with Soviet Union.
•Congress for Cultural Freedom (Kongress
für Kulturelle Freiheit) founded in 1950 in
Berlin.
•Aim: Gather liberal and socialist
intellectuals – from U.S., Germany,
France, etc – to counter
Communism.
•Produced many intellectual and
cultural magazines.
•Cultural diplomacy effort, relatively
successful in countering Soviet
propaganda.
•However, Ramparts magazine exposes
scandal in 1966/67: CCF had been
funded all along by the CIA.

69. Soft Power:
Bush, Africa and HIV/AIDS
• President's Emergency Plan For
AIDS Relief (PEPFAR): Bush
commited $15 billion over five
years (2003–2008, much of it
going to Africa.

70. Soft Power:
Bush and Iraq

71. Soft Power:
Sometimes Beyond Government’s Control
• The central government, at least in liberal, democratic countries,
cannot (and should not) control all levers of soft power, e.g.,
television, movies, music, sports, products, companies/firms,
groups and individual citizens, etc.
• These other agents can have a positive or negative impact on a
country’s soft power.

72. Soft Power
Negative impact of Bhopal
•A subsidiary of Union Carbide was operating
a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India.
•Night of December 2-3, 1984: A leak of gas
and chemicals from the plant killed perhaps
3000 within the first week and 8000 more
since, plus over 550,000 injuries, including
almost 40,000 temporary or partially
disabling and almost 4000 severely and
permanently disabling.
•8 ex-employees were convicted in 2010.

73. U.S. Public Diplomacy:
Continuing debates/tensions/questions
• The role of academia, cultural
institutions and foundations,
business, private citizens,
educational institutions (public
and private), and other non-
governmental partners.