193. Letter From the Director of the United States Information Agency (Streibert) to the Secretary of State1
Dear Mr. Secretary: This is by way of report to you that following our conference in your office on August 31,2 I had a visit with the President in Denver on Labor Day and discussed with him the broad post-Geneva opportunities for our U.S. information and cultural work in the exchange of persons and ideas.3
I went over the attached memorandum with him.4
It was the President’s view that we should plan ahead for whatever increases can effectively help us clarify the peaceful objectives of the United States to the world’s peoples and build on the foundations laid at Geneva. I told him of your suggestion that there be stimulated the maximum help from non-Government private sources, with which he fully agreed.
The exact budgetary level of the new program will, of course, be determined by what we believe we can effectively accomplish. We are at work on this now. I have discussed the subject with Herb Hoover5 particularly with respect to the Department’s related programs: exchange of persons and cultural presentations.
[Page 560]In addition to the general level of increased activity in this whole field, we will have to anticipate budgetarily the progress you may well make on this item at Geneva6 next month. I have also discussed this with Rowland Hughes and indicated that we will attempt to make adequate provision for this.
Sincerely yours,
- Source: Department of State, USIA/IOP Files: Lot 59 D 260, I–Director, 1953–6. Confidential. Drafted by Abbott Washburn, Acting Director of USIA.↩
- The only memorandum in Department of State files on the
August 31 meeting was a note of September 1 from Assistant Secretary of
State McCardle, marked “Personal
for the Secretary.” It reads as follows:
“I could not help getting the feeling in the meeting with Streibert yesterday that they are rushing into the Cold War too fast just because Russia is smiling. I think that Streibert may have gained the impression that he had a green light really to change the nature of his operations and was, indeed, anticipating for himself policy matters which properly should be left to the State Department. He seemed to be enchanted by the Soviet smile. I think that you will agree that much more work has to be done to make that smile into a reality.” (Ibid., Central Files, 103.02–USIA/9–155 CS/E)
↩ - According to the President’s Appointment Book for 1955, USIA Director Streibert saw President Eisenhower on Monday, September 1, and Tuesday, September 2, at Denver, Colorado.↩
- See supra.↩
- In a memorandum of September 14 to Secretary Dulles, Under Secretary Hoover expressed his disapproval of Streibert’s proposals. Hoover wrote that he had told Streibert that any increase in expenditures should be built on specific projects, which should be judged on their own merits, and that the whole proposition would have to be discussed with Secretary Dulles. Hoover advised Dulles further as follows: “My first reaction to the proposal is not favorable—it smacks too much of the shotgun, grandiose spending of money for spending’s sake … . I think that one point that this program emphasizes has been our own lack of leadership and policy direction over USIA in the Department of State.” (Department of State, Central Files, 103. USIA/9–1455)↩
- Reference is to the Foreign Ministers Conference, scheduled to begin October 27 in Geneva.↩
- Printed from a copy which bears this typed signature.↩