Sprague Committee

The Sprague Committee (also sometimes known as the President’s Committee on Information Activities Abroad) was established by President Eisenhower in December 1959 to coordinate information activities abroad. According to James Schwoch's (2009) account, the committee was chaired by former counsel to the Secretary of Defence Mansfield Sprague to take on questions regarding information activities in the global arena. The Committee’s staff included representatives of the White House, Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Defence, Department of State, and the United States Information Agency as well as several consultants. The Committee was formed partly in response to growing concerns about the declining international reputation of the USA in the field of science and technology and perceived loss of influence, especially in developing nations, following the success of the Soviet space programme. The committee was active until 1961 and developed an ambitious plan to link American science policy, global public opinion and psychological warfare.

Schwoch wrote:

The Sprague Committee argued for using all available mass media, global opinion polling, and existing and emerging global electronic communications technologies, such as television, to promote a positive global image of American science and technology as a means to enhance the global image of America through funding a wide range of “feasible” American-directed science projects that have proven popular and world public opinion.

In a session on June 20th, 1960, committee member C.D.Jackson (a major figure in U.S. psywar efforts ) argued that the Sprague Committee needed to directly influence the president on the importance of waging political and psychological warfare, as there was: ‘no hope of nurturing this understanding from the State Department, the CIA, or the USIA’. The “P-factor”, according to Jackson, could not get into the decision making process "by silent osmosis" but needed to be "injected" by spoken commands. ‘Flashing his credentials as a Washington mandarin, Jackson concluded by saying he was fully familiar with the epic struggles that take place in Washington and that decisions “have to be taken even though the blood runs in the corridors.” Spilling blood was not to be feared but was part of "the struggle in Washington" for warriors to crank psychological warfare into action, even if "it has to be done over the broken bodies many people."’

The final report of the Sprague Committee included a lengthy section titled “The Impact of Achievements in Science and Technology upon the Image Abroad of the United States” which discussed the impact factor of a host of projects including, amongst other things, manned space flight, manned lunar and or planetary exploration, cancer research, audiovisual communications, instructional television for mass education, and global science education.

Communications scholar James Schwoch explains how the influential Sprague Committee was part of a drive amongst the highest echelons of American government during the Cold War to improve the image abroad of the United States’ scientific and technological capabilities. This was an important element in the development of a wider psychological war of supremacy against the Soviet Union to shape global public opinion in favour of the United States and its political and economic objectives.

Activities

The Sprague Committee held the first of 18 formal meetings on February 29-March 1, 1960, and met for the last time on December 27, 1960 .

A scope and content note on records held at the Eisenhower Library explain how the Sprague Committee looked at international cultural and educational activities and thus continued the work of the 1953 Jackson Committee:

Consequently the Sprague Committee records cover such topics as English language teaching, foreign educational development and exchange programs and the use of television in informational programs. Another extensively documented topic in these records is international broadcasting including, specifically, the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service, and the Voice of the United Nations Command in the Far East. A few of the many other well-documented subjects in these records include U.S. military personnel abroad, experiences of foreign citizens in the United States, the impact of scientific and technological developments on the United States’ image, and the roles of private business, labour, universities, foundations, the news media, and international sporting competition in overseas information programs. In addition to the Soviet Union, the Committee studied and generated documentation concerning Latin America, Africa, Western Europe, mainland China, the Middle East, and East and South Asia .

History

Documents at the Eisenhower Library in Texas suggest how, throughout his presidency, Dwight D. Eisenhower ‘retained a strong interest in the United States government’s overseas information programs and propaganda activities which were labelled “psychological warfare.”’ Following his inauguration in January 1953 he established the President’s Committee on International Information Activities (Jackson Committee). This committee conducted an extensive study of the United States government’s information and psychological warfare policies and in June 1953 presented its findings to the President. Many of these recommendations were implemented, including the establishment of an Operations Coordinating Board and the United States Information Agency, two key elements of the Administration’s national security machinery .

'The Jackson Committee expressed a basic tenet of the Eisenhower Administration’s cold war philosophy: psychological activities and strategy do not exist apart from official policies; instead, every diplomatic, economic and military action of the United States government has a psychological aspect or implication. President Eisenhower sought advice on psychological aspects of the government’s national security policies from the White House advisers, most notably C.D. Jackson, and to a lesser extent, Nelson Rockefeller, William H. Jackson, Frederick Dearborn, and Karl G. Harr. In spite of President Eisenhower’s demonstrated interest in psychological warfare, he and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles received letters from C.D. Jackson complaining that the U.S. government’s policy makers lacked interest in or failed to understand what Jackson termed “political warfare.” In a lengthy letter of July 10, 1959, to the President, Jackson contrasted the President’s own knowledge of political warfare with the lack of understanding within such agencies as the Department of State. Claiming that the “moment of truth” for political warfare was at hand, Jackson urged the President to hold a meeting on this topic. The President complied by inviting over 15 representatives of the major national security agencies and the White House to a dinner on September 10, 1959. C.D. Jackson’s record of this dinner meeting describes a lively discussion which stimulated interest in psychological or political warfare' .

A few weeks after this meeting, President Eisenhower asked Mansfield Sprague, a former counsel for the Secretary of Defence, to serve as chairman of a new committee, the President’s Committee on Information Activities Abroad. In his letter to Sprague dated December 2, 1959, President Eisenhower stated that the Committee’s purpose was “to review the findings and recommendations of the Committee on International Information Activities in its report dated June 30, 1953, and consider changes in the international situation which affect the validity of the findings and recommendations in that report.”

Affiliations

• Ford Foundation

People

• Chair: Mansfield Sprague
• Research Director: Waldemar Nielson (a Ford Foundation officer)

Members:

• Philip D. Reed (CEO General Electric 1945-1959, Director of the Council on Foreign Relations 1946-1969)
• George V. Allen (Director of United States Information Agency)
• Allen W. Dulles (Director of Central Intelligence Agency)
• Livingston T. Merchant (State Department)
• C.D. Jackson (Time Life)
• Gordon Gray (Defense Department)
• Karl T. Harr, Jr. (Defense Department)
• John N. Irwin II

Consultant: Ithiel de Sola Pool (MIT)

Resources

For further information see:

James Schwoch, (2009) Global TV: New Media and the Cold War, 1946-69. University of Illinois Press.

James Schwoch, (2002) The Cold War, The Space Race, and the Globalization of Public Opinion Polling Paper presentation, International Studies Association Conference, New Orleans, 24-28 March 2002 Available at: http://isanet.ccit.arizona.edu/noarchive/ISA-Schwoch.pdf

U.S. President’s Committee on Information Activities Abroad (Sprague Committee): Records, 1959-61, Dwight D. Eisenhower Library Abilene, Kansas. Summary available at: http://eisenhower.archives.gov/Research/Finding_Aids/PDFs/US_Pres_Committee_on_Information_Activities_Abroad.pdf