Word: usia
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Both Sides. Shakespeare is attempting to correct what he says has been for too long a liberal tilt to the agency's efforts. "I am determined," he says, "that our USIA overseas libraries will be ideologically balanced on the liberal and conservative sides. I will say something that may sound dangerous-the majority of books written tend to be written by people on the liberal side because they are more articulate. People like Schlesinger and Galbraith. But our libraries must express-clearly and openly-both sides." Finding writers on the other side, however, is not always easy. Recently Shakespeare...
Shakespeare has spent much time visiting USIA branches, where staffers have been impressed by his enthusiasm and energy. But in some areas, his tunnel-vision partisanship has caused friction, especially since many of the 10,000 members of USIA are liberal Democrats left over from former Administrations. The widely respected information officer in one Communist country was replaced for being too much the scholarly diplomat and not enough the activist type. The editor of an intellectual journal was warned to abandon his "terrific liberal bias." Grumbled one veteran from the Democratic years: "Shakespeare wants gung-ho Kiwanis boosters in Communist...
Shakespeare, a former television executive who has little tolerance for negative thinking, was distressed by the apparent defeatism of his seasoned staffers and he is trying to do something about it. He has set out to remold USIA as a hard-sell exponent of U.S. policies in the 104 lands where it operates. In the process, Shakespeare has involved the agency in more controversy than it has seen in years, and has given it its most partisan tone since cold-war days...
...means is all of the criticism aimed at Shakespeare deserved. There has been a drop in USIA morale steeper than that accompanying most bureaucratic changes of command. But that is due mainly to the impending cut of 375 staff positions for reasons of economy, not ideology. Two weeks ago, USIA rushed out a propaganda film called The Silent Majority. Those who had not seen it automatically assumed from the title that it was a partisan rebuttal to the antiwar march on Washington, and there were cries of foul. In fact, the film gives generally fair treatment to both sides...
Similar complaints have been raised about Shakespeare's efforts to purify the books distributed to USIA libraries. Authors John Updike, John Kenneth Galbraith and Philip Roth, among others, have been blacklisted for not presenting the most admirable views of American character. But blacklisting was not Shakespeare's idea; it was started 15 years ago, and has been continued fitfully since. Norman Mailer's Armies of the Night was first banned during the Johnson years...