1

Press and Publications.-More than 10.000 newspapers and magazines in the free world, with an estimated circulation of more than a billion readers, regularly receive information material through the Agency's Press and Publication Service.

The Service sends by wireless a 7,000-word news file from Washington 6 days a week to USIS posts in 66 countries. The posts translate and adapt the file and furnish it immediately to local newspaper and radio editors. In addition to news, features and commentary, the wireless file includes full texts of important foreign policy statements by the President, the Secretary of State and other Government leaders. Newspaper and magazine features, background kits on subjects of international interest, such as the peaceful use of atomic energy, as well as photographs and plastic plates, are also distributed for use in thousands of overseas publications. This includes 59 newspapers and magazines which are published abroad by the Agency itself.

The Service also provides cartoon strips and panels to many newspapers in foreign countries. Some of these strips appear in more than 940 newspapers in 65 countries, with a readership estimated at more than 100 million.

During an average year, about 150 million leaflets, pamphlets and posters are distributed throughout the free world.

Voice of America.-Broadcasting around the globe, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, the Voice of America speaks in 39 languages, presenting more than 75 programs daily from its studios in Washington, as well as other programs from Munich, Germany. Voice broadcasts consist primarily of factual news and commentary. They are designed as a continuing, reliable source of truth to peoples overseas.

More than three-quarters of the daily program schedule of the Voice is directed over the Iron and Bamboo Curtains to the U.S.S.R., the satellite countries of Eastern Europe and Red China. More than 55 hours of programs daily are directed to the Soviet Union and the Communist areas of Eastern Europe. Twenty hours daily, programs are transmitted to peoples behind the Bamboo Curtain in three Chinese dialects, and in Korean and Vietnamese. To overcome Communist jamming, programs originating in Washington and Munich are recorded at overseas relay bases and repeated over short, medium and long wave. Many of the programs are repeated several times a day, on various wave lengths, at peak listening periods.

Letters from behind the Curtains and reports from escapees and defectors attest that Voice programs do get through, despite Red jamming.

Other Voice language programs, totaling 22 hours a day, are beamed to free world countries. In addition, English-speaking foreigners are served through seven daily half-hour, world-wide English programs. Voice facilities include 14 modern broadcasting studios in Washington, a radio center in Munich, Germany, and Station RIAS in West Berlin. Million-watt transmitters are located at Munich, the Philippines and Okinawa. The Agency's floating transmitter, installed on the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Courier-now anchored in the Mediterranean-relays programs to the Soviet Union and the Near East. The

Voice's 30 transmitters in the United States are operated by private broadcasting companies.

Public tours of the Voice of America studios are conducted Mondays through Fridays. Studios are at 330 Independence Ave., S. W., Washington, D. C.

Newsreels and Feature Programs on TV Film.-These are provided weekly to 33 television stations in 22 countries of Europe, Latin America, the Far East and Africa. One weekly program, "The Magic of the Atom," documents U.S. progress in the peaceful use of atomic

energy.

Motion Picture Service.-Films showing American life and supporting U.S. foreign policy, as well as pictures exposing international communism, are produced (or acquired) and distributed by the Agency's motion picture service. Some are sent abroad in as many as 39 languages. An increasing number are being produced overseas, with local backgrounds and actors. All films are based on the recommendations of overseas information officers, who know what will be effective in their particular areas.

Many of the pictures are shown in the commercial movie houses abroad, and all are shown noncommercially to selective audiences, including leaders of public opinion, government officials, business and labor leaders, professional, educational and civic groups.

The Agency operates 210 film libraries abroad. More than 6,000 16-mm. sound projectors are maintained for use by USIS personnel and for loan to groups and organizations.

To make film showings possible in remote areas, the Agency_has 336 mobile units equipped to generate their own electric power. Concentrated largely in the Near East and Far East, these units provide many people with their only opportunity to see motion pictures. In many cases, films are the only means of reaching these people with the United States' message.

Information Centers and Exhibits.-The Agency's information centers are located in 67 countries. In Latin America, the centers are operated in co-operation with the local governments and are known as "binational centers." Each center includes a library. In addition, staffs of Americans and citizens of the country conduct lecture and concert programs, provide classes in English, arrange film showings, exhibits and special cultural events.

The centers provide direct contact with the people, and are an effective means of presenting U.S. culture to the world.

Through the use of traveling exhibits and bookmobiles, the information centers reach people in remote areas. Some exhibits are prepared especially for local, national or international fairs. Others are designed as traveling exhibits. Particularly effective have been the "Atoms for Peace" exhibits already seen by millions in Europe, Latin America and the Near East.

The Agency's book translation project, to date, has put into circulation overseas some 18 million books by U.S. authors. In addition.

about 4 million other U.S. books have been distributed to key individuals and institutions abroad.

American publishers and motion picture distributors are encouraged to sell U.S. publications and films abroad through the informational media guaranty program which assures the conversion into dollars of foreign currency receipts.

Office of Private Cooperation.-Through the work of the Agency's Office of Private Cooperation, private American groups, business firms, nonprofit organizations and individuals are encouraged to assist in carrying out the Government's overseas information program.

These private projects are varied and include: letterwriting, overseas advertising, mailing inserts, town affiliations, and collection of books and magazines for overseas distribution.

Communist Propaganda Expenditures.-The propaganda expenditures of Moscow and Peiping are variously estimated at from $1 billion to $3 billion yearly-roughly 10 to 30 times the amount the United States expends on its program of truth.

"The United States Government is in the international information field out of sheer necessity. It dare not pull out of this field any more than it would dare to pull out of military defense. Russia's military might is within her own boundary, but her propaganda might is on the loose in the world. We must do all in our power to thwart it, unmask its lies and pretenses, and break its hold over allegiances and loyalties of men."-United States Advisory Commission on Information

10. INTERNATIONAL EDUCATIONAL EXCHANGE PROGRAM: Publication of the Department of State (With Chart), March 19561

SCOPE. The International Educational Exchange Program is principally concerned with strengthening our foreign relations through the interchange of persons between the United States and other countries. The program [which began in 1938 with a small number of exchangees from the other American republics] involves an annual interchange of about 6,000 people between the United States and over 70 countries of the free world.

PURPOSE. The Congress of the United States has authorized this. program "to promote a better understanding of the United States in other countries and to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries." Specifically, it seeks

To build up a greater and more accurate store of knowledge and

International Educational Exchange Service, Facts About the International Educational Exchange Program (Department of State, March 1956). The accompanying chart was specially prepared for this volume by the International Educational Exchange Service.

information about the United States in other countries, so that respect for and confidence in our aims and policies will be increased;

To contribute to a better understanding in the United States of the way of life, the culture, and the aspirations of other people; and

To promote greater stability in international relationships by broadening the community of interests between the people of the United States and other free peoples and by increasing awareness of the common principles underlying a free and orderly society. PARTICIPANTS. The success of the program depends primarily on the careful choice of participants. Those selected are persons who, because of their background and experience at home and through their activities and contacts while abroad, can make a positive contribution to mutual understanding between us and the people of other countries.

About one-third of the participants each year are Americans who receive grants to go abroad to

Do graduate study for a year at universities and other institutions of higher learning;

Teach for a year in elementary or secondary schools;

Lecture preferably for a year or at least a semester or carry on advanced (post-doctoral) research for six months to a year at universities and other institutions of higher learning; and

Serve as consultants at the invitation of foreign groups or lecture before general audiences on topics of current interest. These people often visit several countries and spend from three to six months overseas.

The other two-thirds of the people exchanged each year are nationals of other countries who receive grants to come to the United States to—

Study for a year at our colleges and universities. Most of these grantees are between the ages of 25 and 35, are already launched on their professional careers at home, and are studying at the graduate level in this country;

Teach for a year in our elementary or secondary schools;

Undertake six months of specialized study and observation of teaching methods at the elementary and secondary school level; Lecture for a year or at least a semester or do advanced (postdoctoral) research for three months to a year at our colleges, universities and other institutions of higher learning;

Consult for three months with their American colleagues and become acquainted with the contemporary American scene; or Undertake three to six months of specialized training and ob

servation in their field, often combined with actual on-the-job experience.

Grants are also made to young people in certain other countries to attend American schools abroad.

SPECIAL PROGRAMS.-In addition to the exchange of persons listed above, the International Educational Exchange Service is responsible for three other types of educational exchange activity

The Cultural Presentations Program, financed by the President's Emergency Fund for International Affairs, provides limited assistance to outstanding American cultural and sports groups for tours abroad. These tours are building better understanding of and friendship for our country through the common language of music, art, and athletics. The program assistance supplements private financial support and the income received by professional groups for overseas commercial performances.

Books and scientific equipment to Finland and India are supplied
under special legislative authority.

Assistance to American-sponsored schools in the other American
Republics is also a special activity of the program.

EXCHANGE-VISITOR PROGRAMS.-The Smith-Mundt Act places in the Department of State responsibility for certifying exchange-visitor programs to facilitate entry of foreign nationals into the United States for educational activities which will further the purposes of that Act. In discharging this responsibility the Department must be assured that any program so designated does contribute, in a reasonably effective way, to the objectives of the Smith-Mundt Act.

Extensive and continuous assistance and guidance are given to the American sponsors requesting these designations so that their programs will measure up to required standards. Hospitals, medical schools, library groups, and industrial firms are among the groups which bring foreign nationals to this country for bona fide educational purposes. More than 2,100 exchange-visitor programs involving an estimated 30,000 visitors have been designated.

SIGNIFICANCE OF ACTIVITIES.-Whether grantees engage in study, teaching, research, or specialized observation and consultation, their activities, in addition to producing personal, professional benefits, serve the goals of the program in one or several of the following ways. Many of the activities which the program encourages are concerned with securing a clearer understanding of the life, institutions, and culture of Americans and their historical background. Among the activities are those which increase the knowledge overseas of our literature, language, history, and political and social institutions. Some spread information about characteristically American practices such as free public libraries or agricultural extension work. Others share specific skills of joint concern, for example, the peaceful uses of

1 Act of Jan. 27, 1948: A Decade of American Foreign Policy, pp. 1224–1234.