'PROJECT DEMOCRACY': REAGAN TRIES TO EXPORT THE US WAY OF GOVERNING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000200920007-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 16, 2010
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: March 16, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/16: CIA-RDP90-008
.16 MARCH 1983
66R000200920007-1
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITO
`Project Democracy': Reagan tries to export
the US way of ,governing
By Rnshworth M. Kidder
Staff writer of
The Christian Science Monitor
Boston
Can the United States export both bullets
and ideas?
As Congress chews over President
Reagan's $110 million proposal for in-
creased arms aid to El Salvador, America is
brooding over a far larger question: bow
best to spread the values of democracy
among developing nations.
Even as it plumps for increased military
aid, the Reagan administration is weighing
in with an information campaign - a two-
year, $85 million plan described by officials
of the United States Information Agency
(USIA) as "an ambitious, long-term, posi-
tive program ... to advocate the principles
of democracy."
Known as "Project Democracy," it gath-
ers together some 44 separate proposals for
seminars. institutes, publications, and fel-
lowships, largely carried out by private
foundations. The latest in a string of cold-
war efforts to export democracy dating at
leas` from the Truman era, it includes:
? A $15 million grant to the Asia
Foundation.
? $1.7 million for assisting Liberia's
transition to democracy.
? $10.7 million to support "Centers for
the Study of the US Abroad."
? A $5.5 million proposal to make Ameri-
can textbooks available abroad.
? A $1.1 million regional newspaper to
serve rural populations in Honduras, Guate-
mala, and El Salvador.
? Symposiums to help build "positive at-
titudes toward democracy" among third-
world military leaders.
In explaining Project Democracy, a
senior administration official close to its de-
velopment said that it set "a remarkable
new tone in our foreign policy" because it
involved "going up front with the advocacy
of democratic values."
The latest effort, be said, began with the
President's address last June to the British
Parliament, in which Mr. Reagan called for
a major "competition of ideas and values"
with the Soviet Union and its allies.
The President's address to Parliament
last summer, sa}ys this official, was "in
many ways the most important presidential
speech since World War II" - because it
turned away from ".the policy of contain-
ment" of the Soviet Union and toward a pro-
gram aimed at 'building respect for a sub-
structure of democratic values." STAT
But so far the project has faced tough
sledding on Capitol Hill. Both Secretary of
State George P. Shultz and USIA director
Charles Z. Wick faced bard questioning
from a congressional subcommittee over its
workability and over potential Central Intel-
ligence Agency involvement. CIA director
William Casey attended a planning meeting
for the initiative in August. although admin-
istration officials insist the CIA is no longer
involved. But "I think it's fair to say that
there's widespread skepticism," a USIA
spokesman admits.
The proposal has also met resistance
from the academic community. "If the
United States wants to propagate -democ-
racy, it should do-it by example," says Prof.
Stanley Hoffman of Harvard's Center for In-
ternational Affairs. Peter Magrath, presi-
dent of the University. of Minnesota, calls
the project "propaganda and hard-sell,"
and notes that, as a means for promoting
democracy, "hard-sell doesn't work."
Jeswald Salacuse, dean of the law school
at Southern Methodist University, calls it "a
mixed bag of things put under one label." "I
don't see that there's any coherent philos-
opby behind it," he adds. And Hampshire
College president Adele Simmons worries
that the proposal's tone smacks of "cultural
imperialism" and "suggests that our way is
better than their way ."
Most scholarly criticism, however,
arises out of a concern that Project Demon
racy will drain funds from the Fulbright
programs for academic exchange - which,
in the eyes of many scholars, have a proven
record at showcasing the values of democ-
racy by example instead of indoctrination.
Sen. Claiborne Pell (D) of Rhode Island,
author-of the "Pell amendment" passed by
Congress last year to double the funding for
exchange programs between 1982 and 1986,
insists that such exchanges must remain
"USIA's top priority." The administration's
1984 budget proposes $84.3 million for ex-
change programs - significantly less than
the $135 million which, says an aide to Sena-
tor Pell, is needed to meet the 1986 goal of
doubling the exchanges.
USIA officials see Project Democracy as
a continuation of the Reagan administra-
tion's "Project Truth" - a counter-props-
ganda effort of the USIA aimed at combat-
ing Soviet "disinformation" by providing
positive views of democracy abroad.
(-i. ?. --l'J,' h J?A-.:-' , SI'R'." 'Y.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/16: CIA-RDP90-00806R000200920007-1