Director Streibert speaks on the purposes of the USIA and Soviet influence; scenes from a Soviet anti-American propaganda film
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. Location: United States USA. Date: 1954.