127. Memorandum From the Deputy Assistant Director, Office of the Assistant Director, East Asia and Pacific, United States Information Agency (Schneidman) to the Director (Shakespeare)1
SUBJECT
- The Media Aspects of ICS
ICS, like all other Agency elements, will have to face up to your mandate to zero in on the key political, psychological and philosophical problems that face us in the world. Doing this will undoubtedly require considerable change, both in organization and in overall tone.
Putting muscle into the operation is only part of the task. It seems to me that equally important is coming to grips with the media approach to ICS’ mission.
1. The Communists appear to be more alert than we to the use of the cultural approach. Worldwide, we are seeing increasing difficulty in making important placement of entire media products. This stems from the growing sophistication, affluence and overseas correspondents of foreign media organizations. There has been no comparable difficulty in reaching leaders through the use of books, exhibits, seminars, etc.2
2. The Agency has in the field 223 information officers who are serviced continually by three Agency media elements. We have, for comparison purposes, 285 cultural officers in the field, and I submit that they are not properly serviced by any Agency or USG element.3 IOP certainly provides policy guidance, and both ICS and CU serve as passive supermarkets from which the PAO may order what he wants and what he knows about. I believe our cultural officers need as much service as our information officers and should have available to them a large variety of up-to-date and effective material carrying a full share of Washington policy thrust. This would allow the PAOs to pick, adapt and use from abundance.
3. The Agency is somewhere between a decade and a generation behind in the use of audio visual techniques which in themselves attest to American progress. ICS seems the logical place to take advantage of this opportunity, and to be given the responsibility for arming our [Page 328] officers everywhere with the techniques and materials for effective one-on-one and other in-person efforts at persuasion.
- Source: National Archives, RG 306, Director’s Subject Files, 1968–1972, Entry A1–42, Box 23, INC—General 1971. No classification marking. Copies were sent to White and Loomis. Loomis initialed the top right-hand corner of the memorandum twice. There is no indication that Shakespeare saw the memorandum.↩
- Loomis underlined this sentence.↩
- Loomis underlined “cultural officers in the field,” and the portion of the sentence beginning with “are” and ending with “element.”↩