United States Information Agency (USIA)
The United States Information Agency (USIA) was established in 1953 to provide authoritative information about American society, political processes, and both domestic and foreign policies. It was rooted in earlier initiatives from World War I and World War II, including the Committee on Public Information and the Voice of America. The agency's primary mission was to promote mutual understanding and a favorable view of the United States abroad, focusing exclusively on international audiences until 1990. USIA sponsored various educational and cultural programs, such as cultural exchanges and international broadcasting, aiming to influence foreign perceptions of American democracy and market principles.
During the Cold War, the agency played a significant role in countering Soviet propaganda and promoting American values globally. With offices in 150 countries, it also served as a hub for academic and intelligence research. Although it was instrumental in encouraging immigration to the U.S. and fostering global cultural exchange, the USIA was discontinued in 1999, with its remaining functions transferred to the State Department. The legacy of the USIA highlights the complexities of cultural diplomacy and the promotion of national interests on the world stage.
United States Information Agency (USIA)
Identification Independent foreign affairs agency within the executive branch of the U.S. federal government supporting and explaining U.S. foreign policy and promoting U.S. national interests to foreign audiences
Date Established in August, 1953
The United States Information Agency (USIA) served as an important Cold War tool for the United States, disseminating wide-ranging information about issues such as American ideology, culture, and foreign policy that fostered better relationships with the global community and gained allies and support for the United States.
Upon its inception, the USIA provided authoritative information about American society, political processes, and U.S. domestic and foreign policies. It provided facts, statistics and other information on American history, government, politics, economics, trade, media, information technology, laws, treaties, education, geography, travel, employment, and the individual states. The agency also sponsored a variety of international educational, cultural, and information programs, including those related to cultural exchanges, broadcasting, publishing, news bureaus, traveling exhibitions, and lending libraries.
The USIA had its roots in several sources: the Committee on Public Information (Creel Committee) of World War I; a variety of scientific, commercial, information, and cultural exchange programs initiated during World War II; and the creation of the Voice of America in 1942 to counter foreign propaganda. President Dwight D. Eisenhower established the USIA in August, 1953. His authority came from the Fulbright Act of 1946, which mandated a peacetime international exchange program, and the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948, which authorized a peacetime overseas information program. Until changed in 1990, the USIA was strictly aimed at an overseas audience with Congress prohibiting the distribution of USIA information or services to American citizens.
The agency operated to promote mutual understanding, create a favorable impression of life in the United States, and to influence foreign audiences on the advantages of American-style democracy and markets. Until the fall of communism during the 1990’s, the USIA’s mission and function were inseparable from Cold Wargeopolitics. The agency’s local offices in 150 countries and three hundred cities also provided a base for academic, commercial, and government research and intelligence gathering, including testing propaganda techniques. Agency officers were often alleged to serve as covers for Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operations.
Impact
The agency promoted mutual understanding between the United States and other nations and promoted the spread of American values, popular culture, and economic, cultural, and political expectations and institutions worldwide, thus promoting the process of global homogenization. The agency also educated the world on the differences between the United States and its Cold War rival, the Soviet Union, and thus checked the spread and encouraged the eventual fall of communism. By creating a favorable impression of American life and promoting the American Dream, the agency encouraged immigration to the United States and encouraged scholars, skilled workers, and working professionals to relocate to the United States, thus contributing to the future “brain drain” from Europe and the developing world. The agency was discontinued in 1999 and its surviving programs were transferred to the State Department.
Bibliography
Bogart, Leo. Cool Words, Cold War: A New Look at USIA’s Premises for Propaganda. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1995. Case studies in operating assumptions, use, and successes and failures of pro-American propaganda.
Dizard, Wilson. “Telling America’s Story: Learning from the United States Information Agency’s Long War.” American Heritage, August-September 2003, 41-47. Highlights from the USIA’s history and discussion of the reemergence of public diplomacy to counter terrorism.
Elder, Robert. The Information Machine: The United States Information Agency and American Foreign Policy. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1968. History of the program to 1968.
Snow, Nancy. Propaganda, Inc: Selling America’s Culture to the World. Emeryville, Calif.: Seven Stories Press, 2002. History and impact of government and private information activities, including an argument that the USIA was a front for corporate America.