America’s First Public Diplomacy Agency?

Abstract

The fourth case looks at the formation of the Foreign Section of the Committee on Public Information and its operations during World War I (WWI). In addition to looking at the practices used by the Committee to engage publics abroad, the case will highlight how the Committee relied on private organizations, such as American businesses, the American Red Cross, and the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), to assist with their foreign public engagement activities. The case will also expose the origins of America’s repulsion toward propaganda and the tendency to differentiate the Committee’s activities as educational or informational activities. The story of the Committee on Public Information’s (CPI) activities overseas is essential to understanding the pathologies of present-day public diplomacy as well as the established practices of public diplomacy.

“Remember that the coming year is to see more ‘people’s diplomacy’ and more propaganda of all kinds than any year so far in the war.”

Ernest Poole to George Creel, 27 December, 1917 ¹