142. Letter From the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs (Sylvester) to the Director of the U.S. Information Agency (Murrow)1
Dear Ed:
Your letter of November 30,2 has delivered me into the “hands of your enemies,” friendly ones that is, in my shop.
They have argued from the outset exactly as you do, that USIA representatives are not “correspondents” in the sense that representatives of the Washington Post or CBS are, to use your own examples. They agree wholeheartedly with you, and always have, that USIA men are not in the news business but are in the business, as you say, “of furthering United States objectives through information activities abroad.”
Under these standards they are not entitled to the accreditation, which you had wanted them to have. As you well know, accreditation intended for commercial newsmen cannot be extended to government employees except in the lenient formula I devised for your people.
If you want me to rule that USIA representatives are not to be equated with the non-government news media representatives for the purpose of accreditation that will make you a hero among my staff. It will confirm their conviction I was wrong all along and they will happily dis-accredit USIA men.
What I have been trying to do is make life easier for the USIA reporters with whom I have worked abroad and for whom I have great admiration. Because of that, I have insisted they be accredited, a policy I will change if you desire.
Ever sincerely,
- Source: Washington National Records Center, RG 306, USIA Files: FRC 68 A 4933, Government Agencies-DoD/1962. No classification marking.↩
- Document 141.↩