The Foreign Service Journal, January 2004

J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 4 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 25 ever before have so many countries around the world had governments depen- dent on the will of the people. And consequently, at no point in the history of the United States has it been more important for us to speak not only to the leaders of those countries, but also directly to their citizens. The former task, of course, belongs principally to the Department of State; the latter to U.S. international broadcasting and, especially, to its flagship service, the Voice of America. The practice of diplomacy, of speaking government to government, is well under- stood by most people. But the role of inter- national broadcasting in support of U.S. policy interests is much less so. So let me describe to you what we at VOA are doing to promote the nation- al interests of the United States. The Voice of America first went on the air Feb. 24, 1942 — just 79 days after the United States entered World War II. In its first broadcast, in German, fromNew York City, announcer William Harlan Hale began with the words: “The news may be good for us. The news may be bad. But we shall tell you the truth.” This date and these words taken together reflect the core of VOA’s activities throughout its more than 60 years of continuous service to the nation and to the peoples of the world. A Little History On the one hand, VOA was created by Congress and functions as a federally funded agency to respond to the foreign policy challenges faced by our country. During World War II, VOA focused its energies against the Axis powers in Europe and the Pacific. During the Cold War, the organiza- tion devoted its greatest attention to the peo- ples of the Soviet bloc and to places where what John F. Kennedy called “the long twilight struggle” was played out in Asia, Africa and Latin America. After our victory in the Cold War, VOA regeared its efforts to reach a different audience yet again, a process acceler- ated in the wake of the terrorist attacks on our country on Sept. 11, 2001. On the other hand, the journalists at VOA have always seen their role as telling the truth to the world. Like the American founders, they believe that truth works for us, that T HE U.S. FLAGSHIP BROADCASTER ’ S UNIQUE DUAL MISSION — AS A TOOL OF PUBLIC DIPLOMACY AND A SOURCE OF OBJECTIVE NEWS REPORTING — IS MORE RELEVANT TODAY THAN EVER . B Y D AVID S. J ACKSON F O C U S O N U . S . B R O A D C A S T I N G N T HE V OICE OF A MERICA E NTERS A N EW E RA When people say “I heard it on VOA” they can be confident that it’s true.