'Welcome Asian Peoples Anti-Communists Delegates to Seoul' written on a building in Seoul, Korea. A large crowd of participants gathered. Children wave and clap. A girl presents flowers to Madam Chiang Kai-Shek. Delegates around a stage. The crowd cheers. A military band plays. Flags of Nationalist China and South Korea are seen in the crowd.
Theodore Cuyler Streibert , Director of the U.S. Information Agency, speaks on the purposes of the Agency (USIS). The Director seated at a table. He states that there is much misunderstanding about the United States, throughout the world, and Communist entities wish to take advantage of this to spread misinformation about the U.S. As the leading world power for peace, he says the U.S. must tell the world the truth about America. This is the mission of the USIA. A map portrays Soviet dominated areas within the so-called "iron curtain,"encompassing 800 million people. Another map illustrates targets of Communist propaganda employed to facilitate North Korea's aggression against South Korea. A graph illustrates propaganda spending by the Soviet Union and Communist China, primarily to spread misinformation about America. Segments of a Soviet propaganda film about the U.S. are shown. It begins with a map of the U.S. and then shows the Statue of Liberty. Camera pans over Manhattan, showing skyscrapers. A narrator disparages American commercialism, materialism and sensationalism. A lion is seen sitting in a convertible car, looking over a young woman's head. Next are scenes of an American beauty contest, and of women performing precision water skiing. Then an airplane is seen crashing on landing and a car is seen burning. View from trolley car moving along Broadway, from Times Square, in Manhattan, New York City, at night. A follies-style Broadway show. Show girls in bathing suits, walking past the camera. Show girls performing on stage. Another nighttime view of Times Square. Dogs being manicured by groomers. Outdoor soup kitchen scene from the Great Depression in the 1930s with unemployed men receiving food. Hobos or homeless men at a railroad siding. Milk and grain being spilled from containers during a labor and pricing dispute. Scenes of slum area tenement houses with wash drying on lines strung between the buildings. Men playing bocce ball in the yard of an apartment house. Camera pans up the Empire State Building from street level view. African American drummer with other band musicians performing in a civilian band, and scenes of African American musicians in a U.S. Army band. Poor African Americans in the South, at home and doing wash outdoors. Mounted police maintaining order in scenes of a fire and public protest or labor strife (circa 1935) interposed with views of the Statue of Liberty. A Soviet propaganda poster about the Korean War, shows an American soldier walking away from a dead Korean woman whose small child clings to her. Fires burn and a burning airplane falls from the sky in the background. A propaganda cartoon shows "warmongers of the west" being counterbalanced by a Soviet fist on a pair of scales.
Segment of U.S. Information Agency film describing its libraries and Cultural Centers that provide public information abroad. View of a USIA library displaying its name in English. Another USIA cultural center and library in Burma. Buddhist monks attend a lecture by the USIA. An Asian boy writing on desk. People assembled for lectures and discussions in such centers in various countries. Patrons surround a USIA traveling library in Burma. Visitors viewing displays in a USIA center. Chart showing USIA information centers closed by Communist Governments in Bulgaria, Romania, Czechoslovakia, USSR, China, Hungary, Poland. Map showing Hakodate, Japan, where 40,000 residents signed a petition to keep a USIA library open.
Film about USIA "Operation Vagabond," employing Coast Guard Cutter (USCGC Courier WAGR-410). View of the "Courier," at sea. It is bristling with antennas, and displaying numerous flags, permitting it to operate in many territorial waters. View from her deck to land on the Island of Rhodes in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. View of sign over a ship's hatch, reading,"Relay Broadcast Receiving Room." Inside, two crew members are seen operating equipment that instantaneously re-transmits Voice of America broadcasts. A sign "On Air," is illuminated in the compartment. Operators seen adjusting various pieces of broadcast equipment. Back on deck, camera focuses on a helium-filled balloon, holding the ship's transmission antenna, aloft. View from another ship, of the "Courier," and the helium balloon, in the distance. Illustrated chart shows fractions of VOA listeners behind the "Iron Curtain," and in mainland China. Cartoon illustrating penalties for VOA listeners. Polish escapee, interpreter, Jan Hajdukiewicz, is seen broadcasting on VOA microphone. He fled the Communist delegation during Korean truce talks at Panmunjom.
United States Information Agency (USIA) radio operators operate radio studio controls and set frequencies for transmission and receiving. USIA staff work on gathering additional facts, with newsroom reporters and editors in a press room typing and working on stories, a woman editing motion pictures, typing, printing at USIA. Exterior view of headquarters building of United States Information Service or USIS. People enter and exit the building of USIS. Members of a Citizens Committee and Director Streibert enter into a room. Map of world in room. Citizens seated on sofa. Director Streibert explains U.S.I.A. mission to a citizens' committee and talks about America's history and involvement in the world. One Citizen Committee member smokes a pipe. The Director shows a chart of how "communist propaganda is spread by a vast worldwide machine." Director Streibert explains (via anti-communist propaganda, or reverse propaganda...during Cold War) its mechanism and control exerted via the presidium of the Soviet communist party. View of Soviet Union leaders watching a military parade in Red Square, Moscow, Russia. Khrushchev is among the leaders. Next scenes show Communist rallies and speakers in Korea and then in China. At the Chinese rally, a scene of unrest unfolds as a group filling a large truck enters a rally, jumps down, and inflames the crowd. Communist leader Khrushchev with other Soviet officials debarks an airplane and meets leaders in India. He waves at a welcoming crowd during a visit. View of piles of Motion picture canisters ,magazines, pamphlets and books distributed as propaganda by Soviet Union. High production quality of paper shown. Industrial equipment and industrial farming equipment is displayed in a large exhibit hall for visiting foreign governments and dignitaries to view and consider investment. The Director states that long term Communist goals are world domination, and short term goals include the encouragement of neutralism, dividing and confusing American allies, and isolation of the United States. Director Streibert explains how the USIS works together with the Department of State to communicate American information. He ends the explanation by giving the USIA campaign pamphlets "Atoms for Peace" and "Atomic Power for Peace" ( The Eisenhower plan) to citizens of committee as example of a communication.
Map of world. Three distinct areas :The Soviet Union, Satellite countries and Red China shown on map to cover the people beyond reach. Radio networks and transmissions sign on map. Wide shot of Coast Guard cutter 'Courier' underway in the Mediterranean. The Courier operates as a radio relay station. Closeup of phonograph record turntables running on cradles that rock with the movement of the ship. Lighted "ON AIR" sign is seen. Technicians set the frequencies and operate the relay station. Broadcasting programs in different languages on radio. Men in the Soviet Union gather next to a radio to listen to a Voice of America on a radio. Picture of Lenin seen on the wall behind them. Camera zooms out to reveal woman listening to broadcast as well. Broadcast programs give message of hope to whole world.