United States Information Agency

United States Information Agency (USIA), a governmental agency created by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953 to provide information about the official policies of the United States and its people, values, and institutions.Its predecessors included the Committee for Public Information (created during World War I), the State Department's Interdepartmental Committee for Scientific and Cultural Cooperation (operating on the eve of World War II), and the Office of War Information (established during World War II).

In the aftermath of World War II, U.S. officials expressed dismay at international stereotypes of the United States. These concerns, combined with a desire to combat communism, created support for peacetime information activities. In September 1945, President Harry S. Truman ordered all overseas information and cultural programs consolidated into the State Department. Until 1953, the State Department controlled these activities under a variety of names including the International Information Administration and the Office of International and Educational Exchange.

Throughout its history, the USIA engaged in both overt and covert activities designed to extol the virtues of American democracy and society. At times, domestic political controversies affected the agency's budget and personnel levels. In 1978, President Jimmy Carter combined USIA and the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (including the Fulbright program) into the U.S. International Communications Agency (USICA).

In 1982, President Ronald Reagan signed legislation readopting the name USIA. In the 1980s, USIA director Charles Wick instituted Spanish broadcasting to Cuba, greater use of television (Worldnet), and youth exchanges. By the 1990s the USIA maintained two‐hundred offices in 140 countries and supervised a wide array of activities, including the Fulbright scholarships, “Voice of America” radio broadcasts, and cultural exchanges. With the end of the Cold War, the USIA cut staff and discontinued several publications. The agency was terminated in 1999 as its functions again were incorporated into the State Department.
See also Anticommunism; Federal Government, Executive Branch: Department of State; Foreign Relations: The Cultural Dimension; Propaganda.

Bibliography

John Henderson , The United States Information Agency, 1969.
Walter L. Hixson , Parting the Curtain: Propaganda, Culture, and Cold War, 1945–1961, 1997.

Laura A. Belmonte