The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2003

rogue investigation by Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-Wis., centered on alle- gations of left-wing influences with- in the information program. Other congressmen were also suspicious of the new agency and its operations. The result was a one-third cut in USIA’s first budget, and the firing of 25 percent of its employees. Despite this inauspicious start, the agency quickly thrived. Within a few years, it had operations in over 270 cities and towns around the world, with the major expansion tak- ing place in Asia and Latin America. This was a broader overseas pres- ence than that of any other U.S. gov- ernment agency, then or since. The U.S. Information Service — USIS (as the overseas offices of USIA were known) — post in Kathmandu predated the establishment of the embassy by five years. Similarly, USIA was operating in Kirkuk in northern Iraq well before State opened a consulate there. For many years, USIS posts were the sole American presence in scores of other cities, from Rajshahi, Bang- ladesh, to the Norwegian town of Tromso, 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle. Most USIS posts were small, staffed by two or three officers (ini- tially limited to Foreign Service Reserve status) together with a local support staff. The posts’ most promi- nent feature was usually a street- front library, which was often the first open-shelf lending library in the city. Available to all comers, the libraries were filled with students throughout the day. In Morocco, the traffic was so heavy that USIS issued library cards in seven colors, allowing borrowers entry only once a week. In Calcutta, students had to sign up in advance to assure a read- ing-room seat. Most libraries had large street- front windows which became conve- nient targets for political demonstra- tions by students and others. A New Yorker cartoon in the 1960s depict- ed a USIA training class where employees were being taught win- dow glazing. In agency lore, the libraries were wryly described as being just a stone’s throw from the local university. The agency’s officer corps was, by and large, a pick-up crew that got its training as propagandists on the job. As such, they were exceptions to the traditional Foreign Service officer pattern. Most came from the media industries or from academia. Several were Hollywood actors, including one who had starred as a child in the “Our Gang” comedies. Gene Karst had been a press agent for the St. Louis Cardinals. John Maddux was a former Jesuit. Ed Harper wrote successful detective- story paperbacks. Patricia van Delden served in the anti-Nazi underground, later returning to Europe to run the USIS post in Holland. Steve Dachi had been a dentist in Budapest, while Frank Snowden had been head of Howard University’s classics department. Overall, USIA officers brought professional diversity and different perspectives to the Foreign Service. John McKnight, a former newspa- per reporter, illustrated this new nimbleness. As head of the USIS post in Rome, he was once sum- moned to testify before a congres- sional budget committee. What would he do, one congressman 58 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J U LY- A U G U S T 2 0 0 3 The United States was a latecomer to the practice of international propaganda. Year-End Roundup of FOREIGN SERVICE AUTHORS As we have done each year since 2000, the November 2003 Foreign Service Journal will include a list of recently published books by Foreign Service-affiliated authors in a special section: “ I n The i r Own Wr i t e . ” FS authors who have had a book published either by a commercial or academic publisher last year or this year (2002-2003) that has not previously been featur- ed in the roundup are invited to send a copy of the book, along with a press release or backgrounder with information on the author, to: Susan Maitra Associate Editor Foreign Service Journal 2101 E Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20037-2990 Deadline for submissions is Sept. 1.