The Fourth Face of U.S. Imperialism
Reivich, Lois
In the last twenty-five years the American government has become deeply committed to cultural and education exchanges. Such efforts have been called the fourth dimension of U.S. foreign policy by...
...len the Deartment of State entered the realm of cultural activities it sought, from the beginning,to make use of such private grous...
...AID, under the leadership of David Bell (now vice-president of the Ford Foundation) increased expenditures for educational projects overseas...
...The Department of Cultural Relations was modeled after the British Council which was created in Great Britain in 1934 to counter the "ruthless propaganda machine of Dr...
...For most of the first half of the 20th century these functions of cultural exchange were c arried out by foundations, universities and other private agencies...
...the foreign vizior t-o -he United States e increase 'mutual ur.derstanal- - a!nd try to dis-el along foreign visitors misconceptions and ugly stereo-y'es...
...foreign policy which says "no" to revolutions or any change that is not favorable to U.S...
...life...
...Our investment in humar resources today il:l 'a -s , in -tie cears o come...
...We export Americans to work abroad...
...Napoleon said I have been forced to conquer Europe by the sword...
...As educational exchange became increasingly irlortant after the Second UIorld W!ar, this division of labor becarle increasingly elicit...
...It has hel-)ed to remove the scourge of disease, has suoorted critable establisnments and has made blades of grass grow where none did previously . Of late, the Ford Foundation has taken its honored place beside is cder sister institution...
...Shuster, p. 19) One rivate agency established in 1917 hich was designed to held foreign students in the U.S...
...American education as a whole is being internationalized...
...Priiitive eo:le who o to Led not qc ce - a:: .~..e ihe U.S...
...The Peace Corps puts a high priority on educational projects abroad by staffing foreign universities and secondary schools...
...It is contracting to organize whole sectors of education programs in foreign countries...
...Tow;ards ,:.hat foreign r,olicy objectives do these exchange rcgr:s ';oI': ' . b-ingin2...
...The Department of Cultural and Educational Affairs administers the Fulbright Program with the help of IIE and other private agencies...
...Goebbels designed to till fields of the minds and emotions in all parts of the world...
...The job of Inter-agency Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs created in 1940 was held by Nelson Rockefeller throughout the War years...
...hnt is one meaning of exchange.-- 5 -The American exchange program also flows the other way...
...and followed back to his o.r...
...They pidgeonhole the activities of the USIA as the "sychological1 approach", and ropaganda"f, while educational and other exchanges are tetrmed 'boonerative" ventures for mutual understanding" of a reciprocal , nature...
...the other thee being economic, diplomatic and military...
...The Office of War Information and Rockefeller's agency carried on a world-wide campaign of psychological warfare...
...It was created and financed by those uDper class internationalists" who saw the forelrin student as a otential agent for the American ;ay of life in their home countries...
...A new program for bringing African high sc: oo -go uLes to he Uited Sates is designed to begin this mericanization rocoss . a more receive age...
...Education is in reality one of the basic factors of international relations -- quite as important as diplomacy and military power in its implications for war or peace.,, (Fulbright, foreword to Coombs) The creation of the Division of Cultural Relations in the Department of State in July 1938 was the first step towards official U.S...
...The more so?nis ticated advocates of this program themselves ackrnojlreage -chat educational exchange must blend in with our propaganda abroad d our "tecnnical assistance as - of a broader scoe of U.S...
...Sufficiently i%.:ressed he returns to his native land -- and American al...
...It is incorporating the growing number of foreign students and helping them adjust to U.S...
...is the :'valuable educaional eerience" we rovide for these foreign u rs 'h foreign student is shunted afrom the academic vacuum of the universe - to Lho seminars of 3rezac'aged cross-cultural contact to travel to the im-.ressie lar-mlarks in our nation...
...For the spirit is always more powerful than the sword...
...George Shuster in Cultural Relations and Foreign Affairs, American Assembly publication, 1963, p.ll...
...e are even told that educational programs must be objective non--political" activities imlirng a clean separation from the context of their warti.me ?ro-z~'&d T origins...
...American business has adopted an image of educator and social reformer in its private aid programs in an effort to destroy the image of capitalist "exploiting the natives...
...e receive the foreign student as a potential recruit for the American .::y of lie...
...This general label embraces: (1) information (propaganda) co-ordinated by the USIA (2) leadership exchanges and education of foreign students co-ordinated by the State Department's Bureau of Cultural and Educational Affairs and (3) technical assistance co-ordinated by the Agency for International Development...
...They preempted the government in understanding the importance of this kind of penetration in the Third Wiorld...
...Financed by corporations and ,oundations in wThose interest it is to see these prograins succeed, the IIE is able to carry out functions for the government which ould othern:ise be al;ward and burdensome for the federal bureaucracy...
...As educational exchange developed into a sizeable governr:ent enterprise at the time of the Kennedy administration, the overnr.len:l sought increased coo'eratiorn in this field with the private sector (business, universities, foundations...
...security and welfare and it was necessary to combat Nazi influence in Latin America...
...The more sensitive liberals who react to this sometimes crude means of reaching the "peoples" of other countries find the leadership and foreign student exchanges sponsored by the Fulbright Amendment and Smith-Mundt Act after the Second World Wear more their liking...
...Coombs p. 79) The French leaders were explicit in designating cultural expansion aimed at the elites of other societies as the major means of building and assimilating the second French Empire in the late nineteenth century...
...orientation...
...interests...
...This U.S...
...The Big Three foundations -- Rockefeller, Ford and Carnegie -- have traditionally led the way in cultural penetration through strategic demonstration projects...
...The main purpose of the agency was to insure hemispheric defense and coordinate economic activities, but information flow and cultural relations were also included as crucial...
...He is a vu.ble IhLnan resource, a merican culture carrier .ho ,will erha-us se '.a-:..: :or" a TJ.S...
...In 1939 the IIE began to serve as the oerational agency for government exchange grants...
...Tne fa-no f z...
...foreign policy by Philip Coombs (The Fourth Dimension of Foreign Policy, Council on Foreign Relations, Harper and Row, 1964...
...country...
...Even the radical foreign student is now seen as Ya :cr-i : 'l coontable...
...government use of cultural relations in foreign policy...
...riends...
...is have tne nme of the .oc!efeller Foundation on thiir li;s...
...government intelligence...
...TWhile in this role Rockefeller was also able to look after his family's oil interests in Latin America...
...wras the Institute for International Education (IIE...
...He is lavished rrith middle-class ios-itit a ity and cordiality and is inculcated with U.S...
...adjust in -. he U.S...
...In taking these initial steps the U.S...
...The USIA is a child of the Cold War which grew out of the Office of War Information...
...cora-tion n nhis om country or who as minister in his geov.rrnn will re--.,' his .nerica...
...The Latin American republics were seen as essential to U.S...
...government was copying the eforts of those great powers like France, which, ever since Napoleon's Egyptian campaign, had realized the importance of cultural relations as a component of foreign policy...
...technical efficienty and aciev.e.,en...
...As a tribute to the foundations, it has been said:- 4-.nd finally there are the eat foundations...
...o twe:i is world:ide...
...0 ' system has rich material rewards for those who see...
...Clever rhetoricians tell us about the advantages of demonstrating our deeply humanistic values -- in essence, windowdressing for a U.S...
...1 foreignn stu:ient is now recruited in his o country, preparedd, ).C..;.: .' h1 .el . J...
...penetration of higher education in the third world is carried out through contracts with 71 American universities...
...It is training foreign area specialists who, along with social scientists, will do U.S...
...The creators of the ulbright program of educational exchange have beuaud Americans with a rhetoric designed to convince us of the altruistic motives of these efforts...
...Recruited from the mass media experts, the staff of these of these operations are the image-makers and public relations engineers for the United States...
...It is not that they no longer exploit the natives but that their investment in human resources pays off with good propaganda and trained personnel who will be the partners of American-style progress...
...Behind this other side of exchange lies the realization of the necessity of understanding the cultural and social environment we have to influence in order to make our olicies effective...
...The foreign visitor is usually either a specialized person or a professional :ho cortes to meet his counLter-art in this country...
...It was conceived as an adjunct to the Good Neighbor policy...
...he who comes after will conquer it by the spirit...
Vol. 1 • December 1967 • No. 9
