"Our approach to the neutral countries was simple and direct. Instead of prattling about 'cultural relations,'sending Hollywood stars on good-will missions, pouring out millions in largess, and begging an exchange of singers and dancers, we went straight to the governments with a plain statement of purpose."
--George Creel, Chairman of the Committee on Public Information (1917-1919), the first USG propaganda agency, in his autobiography, Rebel at Large: Recollections of Fifty Crowded Years (1947), pp. 169-170
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"Sending a jazz trio to Budapest is not really what we want to do in 2014. We have to be tougher, we have to be harder, particularly in the information space, and we have to hit back."
--Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Richard Stengel, cited in Media Brian Knowlton, "US Vividly Rebuts Islamic State Propaganda on Arab Social Media," The New York Times/ ndtv.com
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On cultural diplomacy, see John Brown, "Is American Cultural Diplomacy a Hot Potato?" Notes and Essays (2013)