Mr. ROONEY. Mr. Flood, have you any questions on the over-all picture, before we take up the details?

Mr. FLOOD. I have one question, which I think should be off the record.

(Discussion off the record.)

MONDAY, JULY 17, 1950.

BACKGROUND AND PREPARATION OF EXPANDED INFORMATIONAL PROGRAM

Mr. ROONEY. I take it the next matter we might inquire into is whether or not Mr. Barrett has a statement that he wishes to make at this point before we start cross-examination with regard to expenditure of last year's money and concerning the money requested in this appropriation. Do you have a general statement ?

Mr. BARRETT. Yes.

Mr. ROONEY. We shall be glad to hear from you.

Mr. BARRETT. Since this is an extraordinary budget, prepared in a rather extraordinary way and under rather extraordinary circumstances, I would like to fill in the background and tell you a bit about how this was prepared.

I came into this job as assistant Secretary of State exactly 5 months ago yesterday. I came in after a career that involved studies in international relations here and abroad, newspaper work, radio work, magazine work, psychological warfare during the war, and 4 years as editorial director of Newsweek.

Just after I came down here I looked into the whole operation as thoroughly as I could with the cooperation of Mr. Sargeant and Mr. Hulten, the new general manager of the program.

After rather long study I came up with three pretty clear conclusions: First, that the personnel and the operations here in the Department were far ahead of what I expected to find with good sound operations, good hard-working people.

The second conclusion was that the content and ideas, the things we were saying, were good, sound, and helpful, but that they were not going far enough; that is, not going far enough in the way of the psychological offensive in this rather critical period.

And, the third conclusion I reached was that in this field, on the whole, they were not getting the entire program out enough, that it was not penetrating deep enough. It was not getting it out into the hinterland far enough, not far enough out into the provinces in most of the countries. It was not getting down into the groups of labor, the farm groups, the youth groups, which are often the fodder on which communism thrives.

It was 3 months ago that the President instructed the Secretary of State to develop what he called an expanded program for a great new campaign of truth. So we rolled up our shirt sleeves and went to work.

We felt that we needed two things in particular: We needed ideas and we needed the mechanism for carrying out those ideas. Ideas are not worth very much unless they are carried out, and the mechanics for carrying them out are not worth very much unless you have the things to say. So, you must have the ideas and you must have the way to say them.

On the plans, we brought together the best brains in the Department and some fresh minds from the outside, and we worked out a master plan for taking the psychological initiative. That, Mr. Chairman, was a plan that involved not just the State Department, but it necessarily involved the whole United States Government, because the whole United States Government makes up the real Voice of America.

It is a plan that covers 11 pages. Just to summarize it, it calls for the establishment of confidence in a free world, by a number of steps, including not putting so much emphasis on gratitude, which does not work anyway, but in putting more emphasis on self-help, self-reliance, and cooperation in the great plan for peace, freedom, and

recovery.

Mr. ROONEY. You are becoming quite general now.

Mr. BARRETT. I will be more specific. Just let me state the steps by which the program was developed.

Mr. ROONEY. You see, the committee is quite familiar with the program

Mr. BARRETT. Yes.

Mr. ROONEY. From its inception. We know something about it; we know the purpose of it. What we want are some details as to what you have done and what you are going to do.

Mr. BARRETT. Very well. Having completed this plan for ideas we went back to the plan for the mechanics. We got this particular plan, and then we got the authorities in the Department together to single out the critical areas of the world; as you have been told, there are 28, as shown on that map. The Secretary has covered that map, so I do not need to go into details on that.

Next, were the objectives to be attained in each area, the groups that needed to be reached in each area, and to spell out the details of what else needed to be done in order to achieve these objectives.

Those, Mr. Chairman, were suggested by the missions abroad and by our advisory panels abroad, made up of local citizens, and the net result from that plan is before you now.

I think it has been worked out as systematically as any such plan can be worked out, and I know it will receive your serious consideration.

I would like to emphasize that it has been approved in principle by the National Security Council. It has been gone over, the work in final form has been gone over and approved by the advisory commissions, which the Congress set up, and has, of course, been approved by the White House.

Now, Mr. Chairman, that is all, except to reemphasize that the plan calls for $41,000,000 for new equipment-$41,000,000, plus $15,000,000 counterpart funds for activities that we think we need to get going on an urgent basis right away-much as this Government did in Italy when it faced a critical situation.

I might add that calls for a good deal of decentralization, with reliance on the local panels which we have abroad, who have been selected by the missions.

I might also add that I am very much heartened, of course, that we have worked out better arrangements with the other free nations in the radio fields, which I mentioned earlier in the hearings.

In the case of Korea-I think that has been covered pretty well, but let me say this, that I think the Korean experience shows that an organization of this sort can be of extraordinary effectiveness in a crisis.

I have here with me today Mr. Sargeant, my deputy, and Mr. Hulten, general manager, who has acted as ringmaster in pulling together this program in its final form, and between us we will be glad to answer any questions.

Mr. ROONEY. Are you not going to tell us something about the details? You stated you have only been with the State Department for 5 months, but you are doing pretty well. We must now suspend to answer the roll call.

VALUE OF EDUCATIONAL EXCHANGE PROGRAM

WITNESS

DR. HARVEY BRANSCOMB, CHAIRMAN, UNITED STATES ADVISORY COMMISSION ON EDUCATIONAL EXCHANGE

Mr. ROONEY. At this point we shall temporarily suspend with the testimony of Secretary Barrett, and listen to the distinguished gentleman, who I understand is pressed for time, the chancelor of Vanderbilt University, Dr. Harvey Branscomb, Chairman of the United States Advisory Commission on Educational Exchange.

Doctor, you heard what we said to Mr. Barrett about dealing in generalities?

Dr. BRANSCOMB. Yes, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for letting me speak out of order. I think I can do my part rather quickly, because I think what you want concerning specific details can be offered much more effectively by those who have worked up this program.

Mr. ROONEY. That is what everybody says.

Mr. BRANSCOMB. I want to confine my testimony to about two or three points.

First of all, I am sure that you gentlemen remember that this Advisory Commission was established by action of you gentlemen to advise the Secretary of State on educational matters. It consists of five private citizens, who serve without compensation. You are familiar with them?

Mr. ROONEY. Yes.

Dr. BRANSCOMB. So I need not go into that.

We have taken the position all the way through that the Commission is not an administrative body. We are not administering this program. That is for the members of the Department of State. Therefore we are not here to defend any particular figures presented

to you.

But I am here to say to you gentlemen that the Advisory Commission on Educational Exchange does feel that the program that is being carried out is one of greatest significance at the moment, and secondly, that we believe it is a good program.

Mr. ROONEY. I think the committee would probably agree generally with both of those statements. That has been evidenced by the appropriation of millions of dollars to this program since it started. I wonder if you have any personal acquaintance with the program? Dr. BRANSCOMB. Yes, sir.

Mr. ROONEY. Which will help the committee in passing on the requests of the Department of State and in determining whether or not it is a useful program considering the amout of money we have spent.

Dr. BRANSCOMB. Yes: I think I can offer some data on that, both from the standpoint of Latin America and from the standpoint of Europe.

I have had several different stays in Latin America, particularly in Brazil, since my university has a project for Brazilian students. I do know the program which was carried on in Latin American which served as the basis for this program in an expanded form.

Then, last summer I went over and made a trip around the Mediterranean, visiting Spain, Italy, France, Egypt, Greece, Yugoslavia, and Switzerland in inspecting the program over there.

Mr. Dodds of the Commission also went to England, on funds of his own, in connection with the program there.

Mr. Mark Stark, of New York, the educational secretary for the A. F. of L., also visited Great Britain. Mr. McGuire of the Catholic University of America, the fourth member, has been to Germany and to the Low Countries this summer, inspecting the program. So we are not unaware of the actual details of the program.

I think I can testify that when you go into a country and stay there for several days, and begin to talk to the people there, both American citizens and others, and to some of the leading journalists and educators in these various countries, you discover first of all two things: Number one, the extent of the tremendously widespread criticism of the United States which is due to a number of causes, primarily the Communist press, which calls us warmongers, say that we are rich, we have no vision for the future. That is number one.

The second fact you discover is that the individuals who have been to this country and who have had an opportunity to get to know the facts concerning what our Government is trying to do, are the best representatives which this country has.

Let me give you a specific example. I have met people from Egypt who have been to the United States during the last several years. I ran into some acquaintances, about 75 native Egyptians who had been to America on one or more occasions. Some of them were instructors in the University at Alexandria. Some were in the Government service, and some served in other fields. That group had formed, several years ago, an association of Egyptians who have studied in this country. They are our best defense of the United States, from what they found here. They knew what we were doing, and the net effect is that the professor of agriculture in the University of Alexandria, Egypt, was giving to the students in that university the American methods of scientific agriculture. He taught what he had learned here.

I did not get acquainted with all 75 of these individuals, but that is an example of the sort of thing they are doing. It is the type of thing that we are going to have to do.

Now, we are told that this is not a drop in the bucket in reference to the amount that needs to be done, but I do think that we are going to have to realize that we will have to start this type of program. Mr. ROONEY. What is not a drop in the bucket?

Dr. BRANSCOMB. This whole idea-program of bringing in a few people and sending a few people into those countries. But I think we have a simple answer to that. First of all that we are going to have to work with the key individuals exactly like the Communist group have done in their approach, that is, through people who believe in this country and who know something about it, and who in turn will contact their acquaintances, who in turn will reach others; it is in that way this whole orientation all the way through is going to be determined. The second thing, from the standpoint of the future of this program, is the placing of films and the use of libraries, circulating libraries. It is not a small program. In Italy, for example, last year we showed films to just under a million people, documentary films on America; by those who have been working with the program now for some 2 years. And I can say that over the last 2 years, from our experience with the program, that the program has been improved, has been sharpened, and it has become more effective. We are convinced that this is a new undertaking; we have had new ideas as to what should be done and how it should be done on a broader scale. We are doing something we have never done before and which is absolutely necessary in the present world order, and we are constantly refining our weapons.

Now the next point which I would like to make and I hope this will continue to be so-is that this is a flexible program, in putting overseas some knowledge of the United States. That has been done through the use of films. The Department has used photographic exhibits, using whatever devices seem to be the most effective under the circumstances. It will vary in some countries like Italy and countries like Yugoslavia, which I visited.

So that what we are doing broadly are about three things. We are trying to bring over to this country key individuals who are familiar

EXCHANGE OF PERSONS FROM YUGOSLAVIA

Mr. ROONEY (interposing). While we are on that point I notice you have a request for $440,272 under the title of "Exchange of Persons From Yugoslavia." Who are the people you propose to bring to the United States under that part of the exchange program?

Dr. BRANSCOMB. They will be-I was in Yugoslavia before Mr. Allen went out-and there will be some educators; but mostly technicians, agricultural experts, some chemists, specialists, mostly.

Mr. ROONEY. Communists?

Dr. BRANSCOMB. I expect there will be Communists, simply because everybody in Yugoslavia is officially labeled a Communist, otherwise he does not get anywhere. But the program is set so as to get a number of people from representative fields in Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia has indicated a willingness to reciprocate and to let our people come into Yugoslavia. We do not have anyone who wants to go, to be sure, but there may be some who want to study communism, and they are willing to let our people come in. In other words, Yugoslavia will really reciprocate with the United States in the exchange program, and that reciprocity means something new in this field.

Mr. ROONEY. Are the gangsters willing to reciprocate in the release of the saintly Archbishop Stepinac whom they have had in prison for the last 4 years?