Presidential Papers, Doc#178 Personal To John Foster Dulles, 3 June 1957. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower
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Doc #179

Document #178; June 3, 1957
To John Foster Dulles
Series: EM, AWF, Dulles-Herter Series ; Category: Personal
The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XVIII - The Presidency: Keeping the Peace
Part II: Civil Rights; June 1957 to September 1957
Chapter 3: "I am astonished and chagrined"

 

Dear Foster: As you know, I have been emphasizing for some years my belief that the Voice of America is destroying a great deal of its own usefulness when it engages in the field of propaganda.1 This is a function that I believe should be performed by other agencies, with the governmental connection concealed as often as may be possible.

I am firmly of the belief that the Voice of America ought to be known as a completely accurate dispenser of certain information. Emphasis should be placed on:

(a). Policies, pronouncements and purposes of the United States government;

(b). News of a character that has world interest and the dissemination of which can assist other peoples to understand better the aims and objectives of America and the progress of the world's ideological struggle.

I have heard it argued that some items of entertainment must be on the Voice of America in order to get people to listen. The Hungarian record shows that those people listen to the BBC rather than to the Voice of America because "the BBC provides us with more worldwide news."2

Because one of your responsibilities is to provide policy direction to the USIA, I should like for you to ponder this matter and issue such broad directives as may seem appropriate to you. Of course I have no objection to listening to contrary views. But I have been listening to them since 1950 and I am not yet convinced.3 As ever

1 For Eisenhower's previous statements regarding the role of the Voice of America, a division of the United States Information Agency, see Galambos and van Ee, The Middle Way, nos. 112 and 169. This letter was probably prompted by the conclusion of congressional debate on the 1958 budget for the USIA, resulting in a bill that cut Eisenhower's request for the agency by $48 million (Congressional Quarterly Almanac, vol. XIII, 1957, pp. 697 - 700; see also Memorandum of Conversation, May 17, 1957, Dulles Papers, White House Memoranda Series).

2 On April 24 the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Subcommittee on Europe, had compared the effectiveness of the Voice of America and the BBC during the Hungarian uprising of October 1956 (U.S. Congress, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Europe, Hearings on Poland Aid Program and Eastern Europe, 85th Cong., 1st sess., 1957, microfiche HFo-T.28).

3 On June 27 Dulles would include this letter in one of his own to USIA Director Arthur Larson. The State Department had studied the President's letter, Dulles told Larson, and agreed that his suggestions would "achieve ever greater audience and credibility" for the Voice of America. He asked Larson how he could comply with the President's wishes. Larson replied that the problem was to suffuse a large organization such as the VOA "with a unified set of working ideas, particularly in view of the wide variety of backgrounds and convictions among the operating officials." Larson agreed to centralize the news desk and concentrate on output of news and policy rather than features and commentary.

Dulles would tell Eisenhower on August 9 that Larson had taken steps to provide the kind of credible broadcasting the President wanted. "Mr. Larson has provided for more emphasis on objective news broadcasts with particular attention to believability," Dulles wrote. "Features and music are dealt with as a means of retaining audiences so that our objectives can be achieved, not as ends in themselves" (State, Foreign Relations, 1955 - 1957, vol. IX, Foreign Economic Policy; Foreign Information Program, pp. 590 - 93).

Bibliographic reference to this document:
Eisenhower, Dwight D. Personal To John Foster Dulles, 3 June 1957. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 178. World Wide Web facsimile by The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission of the print edition; Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/second-term/documents/178.cfm

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