“the military mind, if there is such a thing.”--General James Logan Jones, Jr., the US national security advisor; image from
VIDEOS
1) North Korean People's Army Funky Get Down Juche Party; via
2) Putin and the Lada. Yellow - Global Chaos
PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
Under Secretary of State Judith A. McHale Travel to Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile Office of the Spokesman Washington, DC August 23, 2010 – U.S. Department of State: "Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Judith A. McHale will travel to Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile August 24 - September 2. This is Under Secretary McHale’s first visit to Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile as Under Secretary." Below image from
Council of the Americas combines gov’t, business and political opinions Conference sends coded messages - Michael Soltys, buenosairesherald.com: "Fireworks from the annual Council of the Americas conference were not limited to the hot issue of Papel Prensa and the confrontation between the eternally fiery Cabinet Chief Aníbal Fernández and Fiat chief executive Cristiano Rattazzi — sparks were left smouldering between the lines by other speakers, including Supreme Chief Justice Ricardo Lorenzetti and even the main guest speaker Judith McHale, Washington’s Under-Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. ... In a generally upbeat account of 'deep and broad' relations, McHale was at pains to spell out the US stance on press freedom. Talking of the cultural vibrancy and the futuristic technology here in a relationship anchored by 'over 500 US companies active in Argentina, employing about 155,000 Argentines,' she spoke at length on the problems of income inequality and poverty with a special mention of TOMS Shoes (for children in need), an example of corporate social responsibility and a stress on quality education (including English) as the answer. After praising 'the courage of journalists such as Jacobo Timerman and Robert Cox, who stood up at great personal peril and spoke out for human rights,' McHale said pointedly: 'I believe passionately in the critical role media must play in a 21st century economy. In our two countries, there is recognition that freedom of the press and freedom of expression are fundamental human rights that are essential to democracy ... None of us has all the answers ... The United States will continue to uphold freedom of expression and media freedom as fundamental human rights, and that freedom comes with the responsibility of maintaining media standards and ethics.'" Text of McHale speech at. Image from Congress must override Obama on global AIDS fight - McClatchy-Tribune News Service: "The following editorial appeared in the Dallas Morning News on Thursday, Aug. 26: Obama also wants to decrease America's commitment to a global fund run by Western industrialized nations to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in Africa and other developing nations. He would lower the U.S. contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria by $50 million. Congress, upon its return to work in September, should rebuff the president and make good on U.S. commitments to both funds. Some lawmakers seem willing to stand up, so we hope they succeed. ... The pushback is important for several reasons. ... [including] ... the public diplomacy aspect. U.S. humanitarian investment sends a message to other parts of the world, particularly places where people are poor and suffering. Instead of seeing the world's only superpower as only an oppressor, Americans are there with a helping hand."
Entanglements: Hillary Clinton's Naïve, Muddled Approach to Development - David Rieff, New Republic: "A ... [grave] mystification is Secretary Clinton’s claim that investments in global health are an important tool of public diplomacy. 'For millions of people worldwide,' she said, 'the prevention, treatment or care that the United States makes possible is their main experience of us as a country and a people. ... Giving people a chance at a long and healthy life or helping protect their children from disease conveys as much about our values as any state visit or strategic dialogue ever could.' Image with caption: with following caption: Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #56 in a story that finds him in what is undoubtedly a loveless marriage with comics’ greatest harridan, Lucy Lane. What’s more, he and the shrew are even raising a son, the imaginatively named Jimmy Olsen Jr–or as I like to call him, “The Deuce”–who finds himself mired in his own impassioned entanglements with a super-powered lass. But whereas Pops was able to find happiness with Supergirl in our previous story, James the Lesser has a whole new set of problems…
Where to begin? Leaving aside the astonishingly tone-deaf contrast between foreign aid and a state visit—as if any ordinary citizen, whether in the U.S. or anywhere else, gives a toss about state visits—if the secretary really is suggesting that that recipients of foreign aid in very poor countries are so childlike that they view these contributions as dispositive about the nature of America’s values and intentions, then however unintentionally, she is speaking of these adults as if they were children. ... But perhaps this hyper-conceited, hyper-complacent conviction of America’s good intention is so internalized in U.S. policymakers—even in one as intelligent as Secretary Clinton—that they are incapable of thinking clearly about how U.S. foreign aid, whether for emergency relief, health, or long-term development, is received by its beneficiaries. The administration’s wishful thinking about how its efforts to win hearts and minds in Afghanistan and, latterly, in Pakistan where a relatively large deployment of U.S. military helicopters to deliver substantial amounts of American relief assistance to people in the flood zones, has been painful to watch." Image, with caption, from: What’s more, he and the shrew are even raising a son, the imaginatively named Jimmy Olsen Jr–or as I like to call him, “The Deuce”–who finds himself mired in his own impassioned entanglements with a super-powered lass. But whereas Pops was able to find happiness with Supergirl in our previous story, James the Lesser has a whole new set of problems…US clutches at flood relief opportunities - M K Bhadrakumar, Asia Times: "The needs of Pakistan are of stupendous proportions. Even cold statistics bring this out. One fifth of the landmass of Pakistan is inundated and the lives of 20 million people have been affected. Nothing further needs to be said about the enormity of the human sorrow. The fact that the United Nations launched an initial appeal for US$460 million for the immediate relief underscores the magnitude of the crisis - although, according to the Pakistani foreign minister, that amount 'will only cater to about 6 to 8 million people for 90 days only'. Yet, Pakistan's crisis presents itself as a theater of public diplomacy for the United States to burnish its image among Pakistani people, of whom 59% regarded America as an enemy country, according to a July 29 Pew Global Attitudes Project poll. ... The Obama administration's best hope is that Pakistan will reciprocate the robust US support - financially, materially and politically - by helping out on the Afghan front. Quite obviously, US officials are bending over backward to create goodwill with Pakistan."
The Indus Floods and “disaster diplomacy” - Himal Southasian Indus Flood Relief Fund Collection Drive, McArthur Foundation: "It would seem that the ability of governments to move quickly in the face of disasters is limited by policy precedent and public opinion, but sections of the same public move just as quickly to get around constraints placed by government policy. These channels and initiatives contribute to changing the environment in which diplomatic relations work and in the long run to mitigating the constraints that limit government action. 'Disaster diplomacy' is then, public diplomacy in the best sense: outreach by the public in the larger public interest."
10 Questions with ‘The Closing of the Muslim Mind’ author Robert R. Reilly - The Daily Caller: "7) What can the U.S. do, if anything, to help spurt reform in the Muslim world? ... We should be forthright in our message that using force to impose religion, any religion, is unacceptable to our Founding principles and to the basic human right of freedom of conscience. We should say that we respect Islam as a source of moral and spiritual order in the lives of millions of people but that to the extent Islam cannot itself respect peoples’ freedom of conscience, it is not acceptable to us. Image from
Good Grief: Ground Zero Imam’s Wife Now Being Sent on U.S. Taxpayer Funded Trip to Middle East to Trash America… - weaselzippers.us: "Yes, fresh from denouncing America on national television as a place rife with 'hate of Muslims,' a place so Islamophobic that 'it’s beyond Islamophobia,' Daisy Khan, co-planner of the Ground Zero mosque project, will soon be hopping a plane at taxpayer expense, courtesy of the State Department, to jet from New York to the United Arab Emirates and deliver to the Emiratis her views about Muslim life in America. This is what the State Department calls 'public diplomacy' — a program that enlists about 1,200 Americans each year to fly with plenty of leg room to foreign lands and tell folks over there what it’s like to live in America. You might think a lot of these junkets would by now be redundant, in a world so interconnected that the Fort Hood shooter took cues from an imam in Yemen. But then, the web just doesn’t have the zing of international business class and $496 per diems. For Daisy Khan’s circle, State’s public diplomacy program is a boom industry. Khan’s husband and 'bridge-building' partner, the man behind the Ground Zero mosque, Imam Feisal Adbul Rauf, is already on a more extensive State Department tour. After stops in Bahrain, where he has just been, and Qatar, where he will be this week, Rauf will meet up with Khan in the UAE, from Aug. 29-Sept.2. His trip will cost U.S. taxpayers $16,000. Hers will cost $12,000." US wars: People vs Generals - Marwan Bishara, Aljazeera.net: "Barack Obama's promise to open a new page with the Muslim world on the basis of mutual respect and interests - supplemented and enforced by the use of soft rather than hard power - now rings hollow. This is most evident in the withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq and the corresponding surge in Afghanistan - an exercise in redeploying military forces, not extracting them. As the gap between words and deeds; declarations and policies; public diplomacy and military strategy deepens, so the political and strategic crisis facing the Obama administration continues to deepen."
Mideast peace is not in sight - Aref Assaf, blog.nj.com: "The US has interests throughout the Islamic world. While U.S.-Israeli relations are not the sole point of friction between the Islamic world and the United States, they are certainly one major point of friction, particularly on the level of public diplomacy. Indeed, though most Muslim governments may not regard Israel as critical to their national interests, their publics do regard it that way for ideological and religious reasons. ... Peace talks give the United States the appearance of seeking to settle the Israeli-Palestinian problem. The comings and goings of American diplomats, treating Palestinians as equals in negotiations and as being equally important to the United States, and the occasional photo op."
if some agreement is actually reached, all give the United States and pro-American Muslim governments a tool — even if it is not a very effective one — for managing Muslim public opinion. Peace talks also give the United States the ability, on occasion, to criticize Israel publicly, without changing the basic framework of the U.S.-Israeli relationship. Most important, they cost the United States nothing." Image: "Not By Sight! A Guide to Ministering to Believers Living with Chronic Illness and Pain. $6.50 or Less Includes Shipping"
USA Pavilion at World Expo Lets Down USA - Abe Sauer, brandchannel.com: "The World Expo is China is now half over. However, the reviews are already in on the United States' presence at the event. In a word: Overbranded. ... The USA pavilion is a 6,000 square foot 'grey steel structure' boasting the theme ' Rise to the Challenge.'
The challenge? Putting a corporate logo on every possible element. Even the pavilion's 'no smoking' signs carry a Pfizer sponsorship. ... Bob Jacobson says: You offer a nice synthesis of prevailing opinion, but you are wrong about the organizers being legally handicapped with regard to funding. THERE IS NO LAW PROHIBITING FEDERAL FUNDING OF US PAVILIONS AT WORLD EXPOS. And the 'organizers' were actually pirates. That was a Big Lie promulgated by the Bush Administration and maintained by the Obama Administration to cover for a deliberate policy to privatize the US Pavilion and American public diplomacy in general. The Congress could have appropriated the necessary $30 million or so (what a good pavilion should cost) at any time. But it was never asked by either Administration. It's so much easier to horse trade political and financial favors when the public isn't involved. " Image of "student ambassadors" from article
Obama’s Missing Trade Stimulus - Jason Reese, frumforum.com: "China is making inroads into South America via trade. Russia is reasserting hegemony over Eastern Europe. Meanwhile, the administration has shown its contempt for trade and public diplomacy by appointing a political hack to run the U.S. Trade Representative’s office in Geneva. Public diplomacy is difficult because it never quite ends. It’s an obstacle that is overcome face-to-face, one person at a time. While using new media is a great mechanism for reaching larger audiences, tools such as Facebook can work when there is some underlying sense of trust. Vague messages and statements on behalf of the U.S. government do not work in an environment of mistrust and serve to only frustrate people further. Our government can definitely do more to effectively communicate and explain American policies. This happens through international visits and face-to-face encounters. "
Is This Thing On? - Laura McGinnis, manIC:
"It's no secret that international broadcasters like the BBC and VOA are operating in an increasingly competitive environment. And the Economist notes wryly that the situation is an unavoidable consequence of succeeding in another goal--namely the spread of free expression around the world. But as more voices join the fray, the need for good reporting becomes increasingly important, even as the job becomes exponentially harder. If only there were a correlation between need and funding for international broadcasters. But funding's not the only possible response, of course. Restructuring, outsourcing to/collaborating with local news sources, developing more reciprocal programs and targeting specific audiences have all been proposed as potential solutions to the challenges PD broadcasters face abroad." Image from
Two International Broadcasting Consolidation Proposals (One Eclipsing The Other)
- Kim Andrew Elliott, Newswire – CPD Blog & Blogroll, USC Center on Public Diplomacy: "Because enough members consider NPR and PBS to be left-wing, I don’t think Congress would approve a merger of these two organizations with VOA and RFE. On the other hand, an exchange of content between USIB [US international broadcasting] and U.S. private broadcast news organizations might be possible and beneficial."
Pedro Roig resigns as director of Radio/TV Martí - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting
"More than a million people" used Radio Farda's proxy server in July (updated) - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting
Russia Today (RT) increases its often-controversial coverage of the United States - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting
BBC, VOA, RFA broadcasts to China in the news - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting
Karen Hughes: I don't remember any of my work with Imam - Greg Sargent, Washington Post: "As you may have heard, former Bush senior adviser Karen Hughes came out against Cordoba House over the weekend. Hughes called on Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf to move the project in order to 'provide a path toward the peaceful relationships that he and his fellow Muslims strive to achieve.' What was mystifying about her opposition, as TPM noted,
was that she did not mention that Rauf had a long-term relationship with the Bush administration. Nor did she mention that as the Bush State Department's chief of outreach to Muslims she participated with him in multiple bridge-building efforts to the Muslim world. Here's her explanation: Hughes claimed in a statement to me that she doesn't remember any of the work she did with him." Hughes "image" from
Madeleine K. Albright, Chair, NATO Strategic Concept Expert Group - NATO Review: Albright mentions public diplomacy in a video.
VOL. VI NO. 17, August 13-August 26, 2010 – The Layalina Review on Public Diplomacy and Arab Media:
"A Divisive Dialogue over the Cordoba House The Islamic community center planned near Ground Zero continues to create a divide among both American and Muslim communities, while conservative parties are using the debate for political advantage.
Al-Arabiya Director Rejects Ground Zero Mosque Abdul Rahman Al-Rashid, General Manager of Al-Arabiya, stated his opposition to the misnomer “Ground Zero Mosque,” as he believes that it only contributes to promote a negative image of Muslims.
An Abu Ghraib Deja-Vu for Israeli Soldier on Facebook
Israeli and Palestinian officials expressed their outrage after Eden Abergil, a former Israeli soldier, posted pictures of herself with blindfolded Palestinian prisoners on Facebook, reminiscent of the American soldier Lynndie England, who posed with blindfolded Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib.
Public Diplomacy Begins with Charity
The Obama Administration recently added an aid package for flood-struck Pakistan, as part of the US efforts to win the hearts and minds of its people.
Drawdown from Iraq Affecting US Image
As the last US combat troops pull out of Iraq and cross into Kuwait, Iraqis and its regional partners perceive the move as a unilateral decision by Washington, affecting America’s image and standing in the region.
Sectarian Series Pulled from the Airwaves
Lebanese television channels Al-Manar and NBN recently pulled a religious series from their Ramadan programs. The series, which tells the story of Jesus through an Islamic lens, has fueled tensions between religious and political groups in Lebanon. America’s Struggle with Islam
The fiery debate about the Muslim community chinese near Ground Zero coincides with new poll numbers indicating that an increasing number of Americans believe that President Obama is Muslim. While some commentators defend their position on the issues, others question whether 'Islamophobia' may be what is fueling these responses.
Al-Jazeera Collects Awards
For the third consecutive year, the Qatar-based channel Al-Jazeera English was nominated for an Emmy award in the 'News and Current Affairs' categories for its reporting on the Israeli onslaught on Gaza in 2009."
What is Public Diplomacy in the XXI century? - Alexey Gromyko, Russkiy Mir Foundation: "Public diplomacy is quite a complex phenomenon. There are cultural, sport, political, corporate, religious and diplomatic PD. On the one hand it is easy to overestimate the meaning of PD to a point when it is so broad that gets meaningless. On the other, it seems equally wrong to try to fit it in the Procrustean bed of a too narrow interpretation.
PD can be both inward and outward looking depending on which audience the state wants to inform and to influence – domestic or foreign. ... Unlike traditional diplomacy PD is not about state-to-state communication but about state-to-society or society-to-state interaction. This kind of communication is a two way street. It implies not so much projection of what you think but rather a quest for a proper place for your ideas in the world." Image from
Editor's Memo: Acerbic attacks prolong Zim's bad boy image - Constantine Chimakure, Zimbabwe Independent: "The art of diplomacy is the defining element of a state, but what we have seen this week with Foreign Affairs minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi is the destruction of the state as his actions have cast Zimbabwe as a rogue member of the international community. On Tuesday Mumbengegwi, taking a leaf from President Robert Mugabe, lashed out at Western diplomats telling them that the country was not a 'candidate for humanitarian assistance' as it had the capacity to look after itself. 'Just remove the sanctions,' the minister said. Mumbengegwi would do well to trace the origins and history of diplomacy from ancient Egypt and Greece to modern diplomacy which emerged during the Renaissance. Any observer would realise that diplomacy, or at least public diplomacy, is all about building relationships, not destroying them."
High Ranking Personnel on U.S. Advisory Commission Meet on Public Diplomacy - newsblaze.com: Topic of meeting: "Measurement of U.S. Government Public Diplomacy Efforts."
China's first public diplomacy research center established in Beijing - People's Daily Online:
"Beijing Foreign Studies University recently announced that it has established a Public Diplomacy Research Center during a press conference in Beijing on Aug. 26. This is China's first institution to specialize in public diplomacy research and its establishment will promote China's public diplomacy research to provide intellectual support for the practice of the government's public diplomacy and a platform for the public to participate in public diplomacy." See also. Image from article: The press conference venue. (People's Daily Online/Yan Meng). PDPBR compiler note: According to a reliable source in Asia who is kind enough to look at the harmless "Public Diplomacy Press and Blog Review," meant above all to be humorous, it's "filtered out" in mainland China by its authorities even though the Party (see above) now seems enthused by Public Diplomacy -- as it interprets it. FYI, "Axis of Evil" Iran, as best as I can discern from Google Analytics, which supposedly keeps track of how many people bother to look at this silly blog, has not "nixed" the PDPBR.
Should Public Diplomacy Be About Values? - Public Diplomacy, Networks and Influence: "It’s only recently that I’ve noticed how often the idea of ‘values’ crops up in conjunction with public diplomacy. I’ve seen this as something that is advocated (public diplomacy should be about communicating a country’s values) and something that is practiced, for instance speeches that emphasize the common values between two countries. I wonder to what extent this emphasis on values is really thought through and the extent to which it is a habit."
Event: Information Operations, the New Frontier in Full-Spectrum Warfare – Matt Armstrong, MountainRunner.us.: "Information Operations: The New Frontier in Full-Spectrum Warfare is a continuing education course taught by Chris Paul through the Organizational Effectiveness Institute. It will be held September 20-21 in Washington, DC. ... [among subjects covered by the course are] Efforts related to IO, such as public affairs, strategic communication, and public diplomacy."
RELATED ITEMS
How Arabs view the anti-mosque movement - Marc Lynch, Foreign Policy: “I have no doubt that al-Qaeda and like-minded extremists will eventually use the anti-mosque movement in their propaganda, since it so perfectly fits their narrative of a West at war with Islam --- the very narrative which both the Bush administration and the Obama administration worked so hard to combat over the last few years. ... Where the anti-mosque movement and escalating anti-Islam rhetoric is really resonating is with the Arab mainstream --- that vast middle ground which had hoped that the election of Barack Obama would mark a real change from the Bush administration but have grown increasingly disappointed.”
CENTCOM's Digital Diplomacy – Philip Seib, Huffington Post
North Korea's idea of social networking: 10,413 followers, following zero - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting
Those North Korean social networking accounts are not actually from North Korea - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting
Propaganda film portrays Moscow, not Minsk - Lukashenko - Andy Potts, themoscownews: Russia’s alleged information war against Belarus is a personal affair – and attempts to portray president Alexander Lukashenko as a backwards-looking tinpot dictator merely reflect on Russia’s leadership. So says Lukashenko himself, commenting on recent films shown by NTV painting him as an autocratic Godfather figure as the two halves of the so-called Union State struggle to find any harmony. The films suggest that Lukashenko has mental health issues and rules over a corrupt state where political opponents mysteriously disappear.
But the Belarusian leader dismisses the charges and accuses the Kremlin of portraying itself on screen. Image from article
AMERICANA
Discomfort food - Paul Rockower, Levantine: "After a frustrating morning that saw my external hard drive get reformated against my will, and all on it erased, I decided to opt for some good ol' American comfort food, and headed to Burger King to have it my way. BK has some strange adds on the metro here [Taipai], and I wish I could understand them. It appears that they have 2 gay dudes holding a whopper,
followed by a somewhat disheveled girl holding a ketchup-tipped french fries like a cigarette, and finally a guy holding with a burger in one hand and the contents of his office in his arms, along with a bandaid on his nose and a sign that reads in English 'You're Fired.' I think it is somewhat akin to their hysterical campaign in the Middle East. The other strange thing about BK is that all their identity-based adverts on the wall of their restaurants (if you can call them such) proclaim ideas about your identity because you went for bacon or triple cheese was all in English. Not a bit of Chinese for decoration. Strange. Anywho, I can't say that the whopper was much comfort food, as I am now feeling gross and lethargic. I can't imagine how people eat that stuff every day, or how much I loved it as a teenager. Once every few months is more than enough for me." Image from
HISTORY
Crusade for Freedom, Denver, Colorado, September 4, 1950 - Dwight D. Eisenhower (via)
"Americans are dying in Korea tonight. They are dying for ideals they have been taught to cherish more than life itself; but it will be written and said tonight in Warsaw - in Prague - in Moscow, that they died for American imperialism.
Unfortunately, millions of people will believe this devilish libel against American soldiers, who have taken up arms in defense of liberty - a second time in a tormented decade. Those millions will hear no other version but a hissing, hating tirade against America. We think it incredible that such poison be swallowed! But those people, behind and beyond the Iron curtain, have seen so much political wickedness and cold blooded betrayal - such Godless depravity in government - that they find it harder to believe in our peaceful intent and decent motives than in the calculated and clever lies that Communism is spreading every hour, every day, through every broadcast and newspaper that it controls.
This slander against our purposes and our men in Korea is merely one example of the campaign of hatred that is being waged against America and freedom around the globe. We face not only ruthless men, but also lies and misconceptions intended to rob us of our resolution and faith within, and of our friends throughout the world. Communists teach that America is a vicious enemy of humanity. They have embarked upon an aggressive campaign to destroy free government - as in the young republic of Korea - because regimentation cannot face the peaceful competition of free enterprise. The Communist leaders believe that, unless they destroy our system, their own subjects, gradually gaining an understanding of the blessings and opportunities of liberty, will repudiate Communism and tear its dictators from their positions of power. They know that free labor and management consistently out-produce Communism in the material things that humans need and want, and hold our a superior appeal to man’s spiritual aspirations. They know that, for the mass of humanity, America has come to symbolize freedom, opportunity, human happiness. They have a mortal fear that this knowledge will penetrate eventually to their own people and others in the world.
Communistic aggression, inspired by fear, carries with it the venom of those who feel themselves to be inferior; this accounts for the depth of their hatred, and the intensity of their thirst for power!
To destroy human liberty and to control the world, the Communists use every conceivable weapon - subversion, bribery, corruption, military attack! Of all these, none is more insidious than propaganda.
Spurred by this threat to our very existence, I speak tonight - as another private citizen, not as an officer of the Army - about the Crusade of freedom. This crusade is a campaign sponsored by private American citizens to fight the big lie with the big truth. It is a program that has been hailed by President Truman and others as an essential step in getting the case for freedom heard by the world’s multitudes. Powerful Communist radio stations incessantly tell the world that we Americans are physically soft and morally corrupt; that we are disunited and confused; that we are selfish and cowardly; that we have nothing to offer the world but imperialism and exploitation.
To combat these broadcasts the government has established a radio program called the 'Voice of America' which has brilliantly served the cause of freedom, but the Communist stations overpower it and outflank it with a daily coverage that neglects no wave length of dialect, no prejudice or local aspiration. Weaving a fantastic pattern of lies and twisted fact, they confound the listener into believing that we are war-mongers - that America invaded North Korea - that a Russian invented the airplane - that the Soviets, unaided, won World War II - and that the secret police and slave camps of Communism offer humanity brighter hope for the future than do self government and free enterprise.
We need powerful radio stations abroad, operated without government restrictions, to tell in vivid and convincing form about the decency and essential fairness of democracy. These stations must tell of our aspirations for peace, our hatred of war, our support of the United Nations, and our constant readiness to cooperate with all who have these same desires. Only then can we counteract the Communist deceits that are being spread with every weather, crop and news report.
One such private station, Radio Free Europe, is now in operation in western Germany. It daily brings a message of hope and encouragement to a small part of the masses of Europe.
The Crusade for Freedom will provide for the expansion of Radio Free Europe into a network of stations. They will be given the simplest, clearest charter in the world: 'Tell the Truth.' For it is certain that all the specious promises of Communism to the needy, the unhappy, the frustrated, the down-trodden, cannot stand against the proven record of democracy and its day-by-day progress in the betterment of all mankind. The tones of the Freedom Bell, symbol of the Crusade, will echo through vast areas now under blackout.
In this Battle for Truth, you and I have a definite part to play. During the Crusade, each of us will have the opportunity to sign the Freedom Scroll. It bears a declaration of our faith in freedom, and of our belief in the dignity of the individual, who derives the right of freedom from God. Each of us, by signing the Scroll, pledges to resist aggression and tyranny wherever they appear on Earth. Its words express what is in all our hearts. Your signature on it will be a blow for liberty.
My friend General Lucius Clay - one of our great Americans - is directing the Crusade for Freedom. Your contribution, great or small, will help him provide the means of bringing the truth to a region vital to our welfare.
Even we, ourselves, sometimes overlook or forget factors of the utmost importance in the global situation, and which have direct bearing on our own security and prosperity.
Most of us have been enjoying a long weekend, terminating in this day dedicated to free American labor. How depressing it is to realize that on this Labor Day, 1950, one third of the human race works in virtual bondage. In the totalitarian countries, the individual has no right that the state is bound to respect. His occupation is selected by his masters; his livelihood is fixed, by decree, at the minimum which will give him strength to work another day; his pleasures and his thoughts are restricted to those of glorifying the bonds that hold him in servitude.
Because representative labor leaders of America know the record of Communism in beating down labor, they have long been in the forefront of those fighting the spread of this vicious doctrine. But Communism goes further than the exploitation of labor. Unless the individual accepts the governmental mastery of his life and soul, he can be convicted without trial; he can be executed without right of appeal; he can be banished to live out his life in a slave camp.
The people behind the Iron curtain have no concept of a free press, or free discussion; or of our right to a church of our own choosing, or any church at all. Their schools and periodicals are little more than propaganda mills. The people know nothing except that which their government says they should know, and, the effort to learn more is punished promptly and without mercy.
This is what the Soviet planners contemplate for all the world, including America.
We must meet this threat with courage and firmness. Unless we look, with clear and understanding eyes, at the World situation of today, and unless we meet, with dynamic purpose the issues confronting us, then we will lose the American birthright. The system of government established by our forefathers will disappear; the sacrifices of American patriots will have been in vain. The world will go back to the days of master and slaves - of darkness, ignorance and savagery. The American record, from Washington to the day of disaster, would be only a blank page in history. We - American citizens - can assure that this will never happen to us if the fervor of our devotion to freedom and country is equal to the seriousness of the threat. Amid these dangers, personal participation by each in public deliberation and activity is necessary to our safety. Each must make it his responsibility to see that we remain strong - morally, intellectually, materially. Our material strength must comprise a healthy, devoted and prosperous population, high productivity, financial stability, and such military power as can meet aggression on respectable terms.
Young and old - business, labor, professional men - 150 million of us - must rally as one man
behind our country and freedom! America is exactly as strong as the initiative, courage, understanding and loyalty of the individual citizen!
The die has been cast in Asia but we are in no limited conflict, Free Europe, struggling for moral and economic recovery, is still a tempting target for predatory military force. We must give real support to all aspects of the military aid program and re-examine, at once, our troop strengths in critical areas.
All this means that we must tighten our belts, both nationally and individually. We must insist upon facing up to the task of paying for the accomplishment of these vital measures, else the Soviets will take heart from their success in bringing us further inflation and closer to economic ruin.
We must have efficiency and economy in all governmental expenditures, and we must concentrate all our resources to assure victory in this bitter, and probably prolonged struggle! Until it is won we must practice Spartan frugality in all nonessential matters, so that we may make the greatest possible contribution to the defense of our way of life. All lesser considerations must wait; we cannot tolerate politics as usual any more than we can tolerate business as usual. We must get tough - tough with ourselves.
Success in such national crises always requires some temporary and partial surrender of individual freedom. But the surrender must be our specific decision, and it must be only partial and only temporary! And it must be insured that when the crisis has passed, each of us will then possess every right, every privilege, every responsibility and every authority that now resides in an American citizen. It would do no good to defend our liberties against Communistic aggression and lose them to our own greed, blindness or shiftless reliance on bureaucracy and the federal Treasury.
In the dangers and trials ahead, our ultimate security lies in the dynamic purpose, the simple courage and unshakable unity of the United States and the free world, a unity that depends upon common understanding of and common veneration of freedom. But these can live only where there is access to the truth. Thus truth becomes our most formidable weapon, a weapon that each of us can help forge through the Crusade for Freedom.
And let us never forget that for those who have lost freedom there is no price or cost or sacrifice that can even faintly reflect its value. But it is still the core of America’s boundless heritage. It will remain so for as long as we, plain American citizens, are ever ready to guard it with vigilance and defend it with fortitude and faith!
Thank you very much. Image from
