by John H. Brown, Guest Contributor
I’d like to write a few words about Dr. Condoleezza Rice’s “Benjamin Franklin Awards for Public Diplomacy,” recently in the news . Public diplomacy is defined by the State Department as “engaging, informing, and influencing key international audiences.” As a Foreign Service Officer who practiced public diplomacy for over twenty years, mostly in Eastern Europe, I find it disconcerting that such awards should be given by a person -- the Secretary of State -- who has shown such elementary disregard for foreign public opinion.
One of the favorite occupations of communist leaders during the Cold War was awarding prizes for activities they were unwilling to carry out themselves. They had, for example, a much-hyped Lenin Peace Prize. But what the Soviets really believed in, despite their talk of “peaceful co-existence,” was propaganda-propelled perpetual war, domestically and overseas, as the sure way for them to justify their hold on power. Or at least that it how they -- until, conceivably, Gorbachev -- saw it.
Secretary of State Rice, whose academic specialty is the non-existent Soviet Union, appears to be following the path of the communist Mafiosi she studied in her youth. Like them, the Doctor in her official capacities in the Bush administration has had the dubious distinction of using the basest form of propaganda, shamelessly employing it to mislead the nation into an immoral and wasteful war and occupation of a country that did not attack us -- supposedly in order to “win” an even wider war, the indefinable “war on terror.” Some would say that this seemingly endless conflict and the fears it evoked in the United States are why Mr. Bush, our “war president,” got reelected.
Now Rice -- the holder of a Ph.D. who, by the way, has penned only one book by herself, a superficial volume panned in 1985 by The American Historical Review because it “frequently does not sift facts from propaganda and valid information from disinformation or misinformation” -- is offering her own version of the Lenin Peace Prize.
She’s called it the Benjamin Franklin Awards for Public Diplomacy. Here’s a blurb from the “media note” recently issued by the State Department:
"The creation of the Benjamin Franklin Awards for Public Diplomacy was announced by Secretary of State Rice in January 2007 at the Private Sector Summit on Public Diplomacy to recognize that all sectors of American society -- individuals, schools, foundations, associations, and corporations -- actively contribute to advancing America’s ideals through public diplomacy. The awards highlight that solutions to the challenges of the 21st century will come from these sectors working together."
But were Benjamin Franklin, arguably America’s greatest diplomat, to witness the harm “Condi” has done to America’s relations with the rest of the world (and America’s public diplomacy) through her gross misuse of facts and language and approval of torture, he would roll over in his grave, with much condolence for our country, seeing his name a cover-up for the Bush administration’s failure to reach out to the world in a civilized fashion.
The recipients of the Benjamin Franklin award -- among them the legendary composer and pianist Dave Brubeck, who did so much to introduce jazz in Eastern Europe during the Cold War -- deserve recognition from ordinary Americans for showing, in the words of the Declaration of Independence, “a decent respect to the opinions of mankind.”
But by ordinary Americans, I do not mean Rice and the administration she serves, given the damage they have done, despite the awards they hand out, to America's image and credibility overseas through their neglect of public diplomacy, including educational exchanges and cultural presentations, the best antidote to the appalling propaganda they themselves have promulgated for far too many years.
Author Note: John H. Brown is Adjunct Professor of Liberal Studies at Georgetown University. His most recent articles on line can be found at American Diplomacy.org and Common Dreams.org.
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