By Guest Contributor Hans N. Tuch
Hans Tuch is a retired Career Minister in the U.S. Foreign Service. His latest book is "Arias, Cabalettas and Foreign Affairs: A Public Diplomat's Quasi-Musical Memoir."
The following speech by Mr. Tuch was given on July 9 at Spaso House, the American Embassy Residence in Moscow:
In January 1958, the United States and the Soviet Governments concluded their first Cultural Exchange Agreement. It represented the initial evidence of a developing thaw in the icy relationship that had prevailed between the two countries during the previous forty years. Under this agreement--renewed subsequently every two years--cultural, educational, scientific and informational exchanges would thrive, an early manifestation being the hugely successful American exhibition here in Sokolniki Park in August 1959.
While the U.S. had participated in earlier World Fair expositions, this was the biggest, comprehensive, most carefully planned and executed endeavor the U.S. Information Agency had ever undertaken in its worldwide public diplomacy efforts. Others here will, of course, talk in detail about the Sokolniki exhibition, especially the cooperative involvement of the private sector, represented here today so generously by Pepsi Cola's former chairman Don Kendall. Let me just say here that the impact of this exhibition on the U.S.-Soviet relationship was tremendous.
This initial U.S.-Soviet Cultural Agreement was also a first for the US government. Unlike a number of other nations, the US had traditionally opposed making cultural treaties with other countries. Intercultural relations, we reasoned, flow from normal, friendly relationships between countries and, in turn, contribute to the comity of nations without any need for interference or participation by governments.
The principle of reciprocity
The US realized in the 1950s that the only way it could promote its culture, its society, its ideals and ideas in certain countries abroad--in this case, the Soviet Union--was on the principle of a reciprocal relationship. We hoped that negotiating and signing a cultural exchange agreement with the USSR would enable us to accurately present our society, our ideas and our policies to Soviet citizens. In short, the US wanted to achieve public diplomacy objectives in the Soviet Union.
The confluence of goals on a reciprocal basis between our two countries made these agreements possible. They were also concluded with other countries where the principle of reciprocity governed ever-widening opportunities to organize cultural, educational, scientific, technological, intellectual and informational exchanges.
Why public diplomacy was vital to the conduct of US foreign policy
At the same time, on a world-wide scale, the US recognized that a number of changes in the conduct of international relations had been significant in making public diplomacy such a vital element in the foreign affairs process.
First, the communications revolution, which began shortly after the Second
World War and continues today, makes possible the instantaneous transmission of information of all kinds to the remotest areas of the world, disregarding national boundaries and penetrating into the tightest fortresses of thought control. It is no longer only nations' governments that know what is going on abroad; their citizens are able to obtain the same information at almost the same time--and act on it.
Second, the information now available to large publics everywhere directly affects the formation of public attitudes and the expression of public opinion. Thus, public opinion has become an important factor in international affairs, exerting influence on the decisions and actions of governments.
Third, the proliferation in the post-World War II era of new states in the international arena, each with a profile to show and a face to save, became both practitioners and targets of public diplomacy.
Perceptions often as important as reality in public opinion formation
Finally, the most obvious yet elusive factor is that in the formation of public opinion, perceptions are often as important as reality. If people believe something to be true, it is frequently the same, in political terms, as if it were true. Thus it is a function of US public diplomacy to try to correct perceptions that cloud reality.
We also recognized that information programs--radio, TV, publications, speakers--and cultural programs--educational exchanges, exhibitions, libraries--are inter-related: long-term cultural and educational programs are designed to create a climate of knowledge and understanding of the United States that is necessary as a basis for foreign peoples to comprehend and accept policies and ideas that are promulgated through short-term information programs.
The Sokolniki exhibition proved to be our finest long-term public diplomacy project in the USSR, in that it presented the Soviet public with a comprehensive picture of America as it exists in its complexity and vitality so that Soviet citizens were able, for the first time, to learn and understand who we were as a nation and as individuals.
The exhibits
The tremendously effective exhibits--the seven-screen film presentation in Buckminster Fuller's Geodesic Dome, the science exhibit, the art show, Edward Steichen's "Family of Man" photographic exhibit, the consumer displays, led by PepsiCola, the model house--location of the famed Kitchen Debate that literally put the exhibition on the world map--all these displays were there for Soviet visitors to see and experience. What made the whole show comprehensible and memorable to Soviet visitors were our Russian-speaking guides--young Americans, there not only to explain the various exhibits, but, even more important, to answer the thousands of questions of Soviet visitors, to talk to them, to listen to them, to present to them the literal face of America. There are those here who served as guides, including Ambassador and Mrs. Beyerle, who know so much better than I do the impact they had on the long-term relationship between real Americans and real Soviet citizens.
What then was the lasting legacy of Sokolniki on the U.S. public diplomacy effort? For one thing, we found that smaller traveling exhibitions on such topics as medicine, transportation, recreation, consumer products in the provincial cities of this country and in other cities in Eastern Europe, accompanied by language-qualified American guides, were an excellent way of re-introducing ourselves to their people--so long denied such contact.
We found exchanges of all kinds of people--students, teachers, politicians, academics, scientists, journalists, intellectuals, writers, musicians, performing arts groups--all these were instrumental, as I mentioned earlier, in creating the climate of knowledge and understanding of America that is so necessary for foreign people to comprehend and accept our ideas, our institutions and culture as well as our national goals and current policies.
I should emphasize that we understand that for US public diplomacy to be effective, we must also engage in the important "learning experience:" if we strive to be successful in our efforts to create understanding and support for our society and for our policies, we must first understand the culture, the language, the history, the psychology and the motives of the people with whom we wish to communicate.
Youth exchange at its best
In my experience, one of the most effective and long lasting programs was and still is youth exchanges--teenagers, 15 to 18 years old-- who spend a year in our country, living with a family, going to high school, becoming integrated into a community. At the same time young American teenagers go abroad and live in a foreign family environment with corresponding experiences and insights.
I don't expect youngsters at the end of the year to go home, uncritical of everything they had seen in this country. But their criticism will be based on their actual experience and not on what some teacher had told them at home or what they had gleaned from a local newspaper or TV program.
I came to Moscow in 1989, exactly 20 years ago, on behalf of the American exchange organization, Youth for Understanding, to negotiate the first American-Soviet youth exchange program. I dealt with the Komsomol, and we worked out a program to exchange high school sports teams. This modest exchange program became the forerunner of the Freedom Support Act, sponsored by then-Senator Bill Bradley, which provided for an exchange of 1,500 youngsters from Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States to spend a year in the US, a program that is still going on today. I can only guess at the impact that the 18,000 alumni--now established citizens , many nearing middle age--what impact they have within their society in regard to the United States and the US-Russian relationship.
Permit me, in conclusion, to read a letter that one youngster, who had spent a school year in San Jose, California, wrote to his host family. It may illustrate my strong view about youth exchanges:
He wrote, "To explore and discover a foreign culture and to live in it may be the most adventuresome and most challenging opportunity there is. Culture itself is rooted in customs, traditions, routine and day-to-day living. To be part of an American family and thus to be wholly integrated into the culture presented me with a view of the real United States. The diversity of religions, beliefs and races is universal and exposed me to many different aspects of life. I often got involved with my friends in hot discussions about our countries, but prejudice did not prevail, rather tolerance and bilateral understanding. The experience of being an exchange student does not only last a year--it lasts a lifetime. In summation, the year in the United States was definitely a high point of my life. I wish every youngster could have the opportunity to spend a year in the U.S. because this is the most effective way to create better understanding between our countries. I will return home with memories of unforgettable experiences, friends and especially my lovely host family, thus taking back a transcontinental, everlasting tie with the United States of America."