POLITICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL ACTIVITY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP86M00886R002400020025-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 16, 2010
• Sequence Number: 25
• Publication Date: August 16, 1984
• Content Type: MEMO

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 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/06/14: CIA-RDP86M00886R002400020025-0
Executi:a F^~'^try
4 September 1984
NOTE FOR: David Gries
NIO for East Asia
Wil iam J. Casey
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 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/06/14: CIA-RDP86M00886R002400020025-0
THE WHITE HOUSE
MEMORANDUM FOR THE HONORABLE CHARLES Z. WICK
SUBJECT: US Books Abroad
The time is right for amajor new commitment to the provision
of US books abroad. A distinguished American publisher has
written that "The American book abroad is in the vanguard of
all our battles to improve our nation's present position and
its future relations with all countries of the world." The
power of ideas have-been projected through the written word.
Whether we are dealing with the "war of ideas" or looking at
the problem in terms of fostering the "infrastructure of
democracy"--twin goals eloquently stated by the President in
London on June 1982, we must compete. Statistics have graph-
ically demonstrated in Curtis Benjamin's book, "US Books
Abroad: Neglected Ambassadors," that the United States has
virtually unilaterally disarmed in this field. One simple
statistic bears repeating: In 1983 the Soviet Union produced
83,000,000 highly-subsidized books for export overseas. In
the same year USIA brought out 581,000 volumes in its publish-
ing and translation program.
The problem is not simply the weakness of current federal
programs. Donation programs by private American publishers
have been reduced. Funds handled by quasi-public/private
organizations have been cut back. We need to renovate our
total approach. The Benjamin study, The Asia Foundation and
the President's Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy have
all spoken forcefully about the problem. What is required now
is a sharply-focussed report designed to develop a coherent
strategy for the long-term. This effort would best be under-
taken by the establishment of a Task Force whose composition
draws upon US Government expertise, the publishing sector, the
academic world and the experience of those quasi-public groups
such as The Asia Foundation. The study should review a number
of related issues, several of which are defined below:
-- What should be the size and thrust of a USIA program?
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-- How can we best utilize the expertise and professionalism
of existing organizations, such as The Asia,Foundation, the
Inter-American Foundation and other groups to develop private
distribution programs. We should build upon existing capabil-.
ities and experience whenever possible.
How can we stimulate more direct involvement of.the
American publishing industry?
-- What legislative and tax amelioration would be appropri-
ate?
What type of book selection process is appropriate?
-- What international conditions prevail? Are programs
better managed by official US involvement or by a non-govern-
ment organization?
-- Develop a book distribution program to reach totalitarian
states, particularly the USSR and East Europe.
-- Should we establish an International Books Council (or
Foundation) as a Title VII under the State-USIA Authorization.
If so, provisions should be made for public, quasi-public and
private programmatic initiatives under this Title.
The "book gap" is serious. It is solvable by national commit-
ment. We are prepared to make that commitment. I request
that USIA take the lead in commissioning a comprehensive study
which addresses the need, the respective roles of the private,
quasi-public and public elements sectors concerned with this
issue and present a comprehensive package for legislative and
administrative action. I have in mind a commissioned study by
an independent structure in much the same fashion as the
American Political Foundation was as':ed to undertake the
Democracy Study Project which led to the legislative package
creating the National Endowment for Democracy. It would be
within USIA's charter to fund the Task Force/Commission. Two
organizations worth consideration to undertake the study would
be the National Endowment for Democracy and the Ad Hoc Advisory
Committee of the Center for the Book (Library of Congress).
These organizations clearly have a role to play as does the
President's Advisory Commission of Public Diplomacy and the
Quasi-public sector. The Asia Foundation, for example, has
done pioneer work in this field. Lastly, I would strongly
urge that there be congressional representation on the Task
Force. This is an issue with genuine bi-partisan support and
it would be best to start out with strong Congressional
support for an initiative which will presumably have legisla-
tive and budgetary ramifications.
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 The study group should be formed immediately and I-would like
to see the study completed by 1 July with precise recommenda-
tions for budget, legislative actions and organization. In
addition, a timetable for implementing actions should be
included. I would request that USIA work the action in
conjunction with the IIC.
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r-
The U.S. Disarms in the Book Distribution Race
By JA+f>s E. Lvovs bassador to Italy, recently wrote in the dies su
American books abroad, once re arded New York Times Magaz ne, "We seem to pensive pp?rt the local publication inex-
g have forgotten the obvious truth that you publishers rs throughout b indigenous
..by foreign-policy makers as important y same year. hrougpt comparison, world.i der
:tools of international public diplomacy, don't
on " Mr. Gardner argues with arms same yeat Dy pm generated under
have fallen on hard times. alone." Gardner argues that our ne- its translation program, generated 12.5
The translation of American books into glect of public diplomacy denies American million books-the same number of books
foreign languages is at an all-time low. foreign policy one of our greatest sources published by the Soviets in 1933 in the
One dramatic illustration of this develo of strength as a nation-our system of Spanish language alone.
men, is that on the eve of the bicentennial higher education and our rich, pluralistic What is shattering in these figures is
of the U.S. Constitution, nowhere in the culture. He concludes," 1Se are thus delib- the possibility, and by no means a remote
world is there a forei lan a e edition of erately destroying some of our principal one, that the Soviets may be spending
"The Federalist Papers- in print. Another vehicles for influencing future generations more hard currency-which is to say, do)-
do)-
cause for concern is the precipitous decline of leaders in allied, neutral and adversary lays-on their program than we, the source
in cause for-donation programs. Since 1970, the nations." of those dollars, spend on ours.
book
Internal Revenue Service has allowed the These concerns are echoed in a recent Clearly, the Soviet Union views the book
same deduction for donated books as it report published by the Center for the as a vital foreign-policy tool. share
thrown away. Since donating books entails Books Abroad: Neglected Ambassadors" ' that view. While funding for USIA pro-
the added cost of transporting them, most examines the decline of international book grams has increased under the Reagan ad-
the hers dispose of, rather than donate, programs and argues that "a greater na- ministration, public diplomacy remains the
publis tional effort is imperative as matters both stepchild of U.S. foreign policy. The
their excess inventory. of societal moralityand enlightened self-in- agency's 1983 budget of $568 million is a
Federal programs designed to enhance terest." The report concludes that the U.S. mere 0.280 of the $209 billion 1983 defense
the role of the book abroad have tradition- book abroad is far more than an ordinary budget. Many-supporters of Increased
ally been the province of the U.S. Informa- commercial commodity;.It is in the van- funding for USIA agree with Undersecre-
tion Agency. Since It was founded in 1953, guard of all our efforts to Improve U.S. tary of Defense Fred tkle, who recently
the agency has assisted In the publication relations with countries -around the remarked that a marginal hundred million
of some 24,000 books totaling 183 million :world.
copies in 57 languages. Major programs in.: The sorry state of U.S. book pro dollars for public diplomacy can. do more
elude book publication, book translation, abroad Is in sharp grams Tor taU. i gon or Gthe al security D than it nt. In der
and the administration of USIA libraries grams in other Weesterndemocracies Birtt current circumstances, however. the U.S.
throughout the world. Unfortunately, since ain. France and Canada al place a higher has unilaterally -disarmed in the war of
the mid-1960s when agency book programs priority .on the `dissemination of books Ideas.
were bt their zenith, funding has fallen to abroad than do we: Britain.ifor example, Help may be,on the`way."This spring,
the extent that the programs are now funs- has always maintained that' trade follows President Reagan's national security ad-
tioning at a subsistence level..For exam. the book." In .1982,the?-rltish Council viler, Robert McFarlane, requested that
ple, the number of books published with funded the publication of 1.8 million Eng- USIA form a bipartisan group to Inves-
agency assistance dropped to 600,000 in lisb-language textbooks. for distribution tigate ways of strengthening the role of the
1953 from a high of 12.5 million In 1965. The throughout the Third World. The 84 British book abroad. Publishers, librarians, educa-
number of USIA libraries has fallen to 131 libraries, located around the globe, house tors, and others who, in Barbara Tuch-
from 182 in 1963. Foreign visitors to agency 1.7 million books-twice as many as are man's words, view books as carriers of
libraries numbered 24 million in 1963 and housed in USIA
+`' as~? y,uIr unweformen's minds. theSoviet
(Shorter operating
hou
rsand a shift away Union floods the world with inexpensive port this fall.
from general-interest collections acceler. copies of its books. For example, in 1962
ated the decline.) During the same 20-year the Soviets produced and distributed some Mr. Lyons is vice president of Univer-
period, the number of books in USIA li- 70 million volumes translated into various sity Press of America Inc., which he says
braries declined to 800,000 from 2.4 mil- languages, including English. (This fi
lion gure has no financial interest in these pro-
. does not include books published outside grains. He is a member of the USIA Book
Richard X. Gardner, former U.S. am- the U.S.S.R. and Eastern Europe; subsi- and Library Advisory Committee.
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