Provides an exhaustive account of the United States Information Agency - an essential element of American foreign policy during the Cold War.

Nicholas J. Cull is Professor of Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California. He is the author of Selling War; The British Propaganda Campaign Against American 'Neutrality' in World War II and the co-editor (with David Culbert and David Welch) of Propaganda and Mass Persuasion: A Historical Encyclopedia, 1500 to the Present. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a member of the Public Diplomacy Council, and President of the International Association for Media and History.

Prologue: the foundations of US information overseas; 1. Getting the sheep to speak: the Truman years, 1945-53; 2. Mobilizing 'the P-Factor': Eisenhower and the birth of the USIA, 1953-6; 3. In the shadow of Sputnik: the second Eisenhower administration, 1957-61; 4. Inventing truth: the Kennedy administration, 1961-3; 5. Maintaining confidence: the early Johnson years, 1963-5; 6. 'My radio station': the Johnson administration, 1965-9; 7. Surviving détente: the Nixon years, 1969-74; 8. A new beginning: the Ford administration, 1974-7; 9. From the 'two-way' mandate to the second Cold War: the Carter administration, 1977-81; 10. 'Project Truth': the first Reagan administration, 1981-4; 11. Showdown: the second Reagan administration, 1985-9; Epilogue: victory and the strange death of the USIA, 1989-99; Conclusion: trajectories, maps, and lessons from the past of US public diplomacy.