The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn The New 'Voice' Clears Its Throat Since August 1, 1953, we have had a new outfit to direct our information program for foreign countries. The fact that it is not...
...To be up and down and in and out is very wasteful...
...Now Mr...
...Like the President speaking about national defense, he tries his best to make out that we are getting more for less: "In every country, programs are fewer but more vital...
...I must say that, up to now, there has been considerable evidence that our information service has been weakened...
...From day to day, they had no idea what would happen to them...
...But, in an interview with U.S...
...And the good men who were lost??largely through McCarthy's blathering??have left great holes...
...spends on a single country like France...
...Information Agency reports to the President through the National Security Council...
...Now this sort of thing has been going on between towns and institutions here and abroad for so long that people have forgotten when it started...
...With about twice as much money as it has now and a new confidence in itself, this outfit could still play a terrific part in the cold war...
...All the sounds of battle have died away...
...The morale has come back somewhat, but not completely...
...After he took charge, the reduction in personnel was only about 16 per cent...
...This broad hint is probably intended for Congressmen...
...But he has some doubts: "It is a bad thing to be so inconsistent with this [program...
...And that was not the worst...
...In some cases, Mr...
...News and World Report, he says that "appropriations have been as high as $120 million," but now they are "down to $75 million...
...It was taken for granted that about 25 per cent of the staff members would have to walk the plank...
...It was impossible for them to continue their work in any sort of efficient manner...
...He remarks drily that 31 persons have been dropped for various security reasons but "there were no Communists discovered...
...Streibert is an able and energetic man, who believes in the importance of his work...
...So the U.S...
...The McCarthyites were on the warpath...
...The fact that it is not under the Department of State may be related to the circumstance that, when this setup was being arranged, Secretary Dulles and his associates were under suspicion in certain quarters...
...To fight an epidemic, you don't send physicians who have never been to medical school...
...As far as this record is concerned, they are forgotten...
...Streibert allows his organization to take credit for projects which have been going on for years...
...In fact, in his official report he is distinctly reticent...
...In his interview, he makes a great point of "private-enterprise cooperation," as illustrated by Montclair, N. J. and its close ties with Graz, Germany...
...Without mention of McCarthy and his hullabaloo about the Voice, the new Director reports that a new Office of Security has been set up...
...But the total decrease since the beginning of the Republican Administration was a good deal more than that...
...Naturally, there were books about Communism in the libraries scattered over the world and there were men and women who knew about Communism serving on the Voice...
...The Director does his best to keep our spirits up...
...But I am happy to report that the organization as a whole is coming back...
...Streibert is rather shy...
...All this happened last fall...
...Streibert sends out his first Review, covering the period from August to December 1953...
...The director of this new and far-reaching agency is Theodore C. Streibert, who was formerly chairman of the board of the Mutual Broadcasting System and president of radio station WOR...
...One of the old hands on the Voice remarks rather sourly that the latter sum is just about equal to what the U.S.S.R...
...Streibert has now sent out his first Review of Operations, which endeavors within 30 pages to describe activities of many sorts covering a good part of the world...
...the employes have confidence in him...
...Last summer and autumn, I suffered along with many other interested friends when these agencies went through the agonies of reorganization...
...I see little chance of finding capable substitutes for the best of them...
...But these workers on the voice and in the information centers were on the griddle...
...You have to be continuous to get the full effects...
...In harmony with Republican campaign promises, their appropriations were cut down...
...The only features of the USIA activities which I know anything about are the Voice and the information centers...
...In addition to operating the Voice of America, it directs a number of activities formerly scattered among various departments...
...About the cutting of appropriations Mr...
...All goes forward as cheerfully as a marriage ball...
...I confess that this publication shows him to be not only a very able man but a very clever one...
...I am glad, nevertheless, that it is being kept up...
...Streibert does his best to minimize the shrinkage...
Vol. 37 • April 1954 • No. 17
