1. Public Diplomacy in Combat Boots
PSC783, Propaganda and Public Diplomacy, Part IV
Olga Zatepilina
“Public diplomacy wears combat boots” Matt Armstrong, MountainRunner.com,

2. Vietnam Uncensored war JUSPAO’s “Five o’clock follies”
Press disloyalty?
Debate over VOA’s independence in reporting
Dizard (2004) on USIA and VOA during the Vietnam War
1964 Carl Rowan, the first African American to direct USIA, succeeds Murrow
1965 Joint US Public Affairs Office (JUSPAO) 200 staff, unprecedented $10M budget; produced propaganda in the name of the Vietnamese Information Service
1965 new USIA director Marks
1973 A watchgroup at USIA to check VOA scripts and newsfiles stories for balance and accuracy
Andersen (2008) 5 o’clock follies in Saigon by JUSPAO
“Well, I’m happy to say that the Army’s casualties finally caught up with the Marines last week” (from a deep backgrounder, in Andersen, 2006)
Richard West of New Statesman: Reporters felt overwhelmed by the help and hospitality they received from the American propaganda machine (in Andersen, 2006)
A debate re VOA during the Vietnam War (Richmond, 2008). He was the Director of VOA’s Vietnamese Service min. broadcasts in Vietnamese daily.

3. War in the Living Room Cognitive dissonance, crisis of credibility
Eddie Adam’s pictures of Tet execution
Hersh’s coverage of My Lai
Tet and My Lai -- psychological defeat (Dizard, 2004)
Careful edited view on an orderly, controlled war (Epstein, 1975)
Cognitive dissonance: from clean, winnable to brutal, messy war (Andersen, 2006)
1968, Eddie Adams’s Pulitzer Prize winning film about a North Vietnamese soldier execution
1969, Seymour Hersh’s Pulitzer Prize winning story on My Lai massacre; Lieutenant “Rusty” Calley; the murder of 109 people during the search and destroy operation in My Lai in 1968

4. Iraq: Desert Shield, Desert Storm
Censored war, made-for-TV war, Nintendo war
“Media Support Program”
Gray area between public diplomacy and PSYOP
Hill and Knowlton and VNRs
Rendon Group and PSYOPs
Lord (2006)
Andersen (2008)
Censored war: Information control, media pools
1990 Media access to the Saudi border in 1990, escorts by PAOs
Rendon: Pentagon psy ops contracts; “why are we here cards”
1991 Pentagon’s Media Support Program invites 450 reporters, photo-ops, “hometowners,” CNN/Arnette syndrome
1991 NYC-based public law firms, the Center for Constitutional Rights, files a lawsuit against Pentagon/First Amendment; neither NYT nor WP sign on to the suit
“The end of Vietnam syndrome”
SourceWatch: In dollar terms, Rendon's Pentagon contract resembles the $100,000 monthly retainer that it received in the early 1990s from the Kuwaiti government as part of a multi-million-dollar PR campaign denouncing Iraq's 1990 invasion and mobilizing public support for Operation Desert Storm.
The Rendon Group's website states that during the Gulf War, it "established a full-scale communications operation for the Government of Kuwait, including the establishment of a production studio in London producing programming material for the exiled Kuwaiti Television." Rendon also provided media support for exiled government leaders and helped Kuwaiti officials after the war by "providing press and site advance to incoming congressional delegations and other visiting US government officials." Several of Rendon's non-governmental clients also have headquarters in Kuwait: Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, Kuwait University, American Housing Consortium, American Business Council of Kuwait, and KPMG/Peat Marwick.
The Rendon Group's work in Kuwait continued after the war itself had ended. "If any of you either participated in the liberation of Kuwait City ... or if you watched it on television, you would have seen hundreds of Kuwaitis waving small American flags," John Rendon said in his speech to the NSC. "Did you ever stop to wonder how the people of Kuwait City, after being held hostage for seven long and painful months, were able to get hand-held American flags? And for that matter, the flags of other coalition countries? Well, you now know the answer. That was one of my jobs."
Rendon was also a major player in the CIA's effort to encourage the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. In May 1991, then-President George Bush, Sr. signed a presidential finding directing the CIA to create the conditions for Hussein's removal. The hope was that members of the Iraqi military would turn on Hussein and stage a military coup. The CIA did not have the mechanisms in place to make that happen, so they hired the Rendon Group to run a covert anti-Saddam propaganda campaign. Rendon's postwar work involved producing videos and radio skits ridiculing Saddam Hussein, a traveling photo exhibit of Iraqi atrocities, and radio scripts calling on Iraqi army officers to defect.
A February 1998 report by Peter Jennings cited records obtained by ABC News which showed that the Rendon Group spent more than $23 million dollars in the first year of its contract with the CIA. It worked closely with the Iraqi National Congress, an opposition coalition of 19 Iraqi and Kurdish organizations whose main tasks were to "gather information, distribute propaganda and recruit dissidents." According to ABC, Rendon came up with the name for the Iraqi National Congress and channeled $12 million of covert CIA funding to it between 1992 and 1996.
ClandestineRadio.com, a website which monitors underground and anti-government radio stations in countries throughout the world, credits the Rendon Group with "designing and supervising" the Iraqi Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) and Radio Hurriah, which began broadcasting Iraqi opposition propaganda in January 1992 from a US government transmitter in Kuwait. According to a September 1996 article in Time magazine, six CIA case officers supervised the IBC's 11 hours of daily programming and Iraqi National Congress activities in the Iraqi Kurdistan city of Arbil. These activities came to an abrupt end on August 31, 1996, when the Iraqi army invaded Arbil and executed all but 12 out of 100 IBC staff workers along with about 100 members of the Iraqi National Congress.

5. Charlotte Beers October 2001-March 2003
J. Walter Thompson; Oglivy & Mather
“Can Charlotte Beers Sell Uncle Sam?”
Shared Values Campaign
Spokespeople on Al Jezeera
“Bush’s Muslim Propaganda Chief Resigns” defend U.S policy and interests
Fullerton & Kendrick (2006) Advertising war on terrorism: The story of the U.S. State Department’s ‘Shared Value Campaign.’
First female product manager for Uncle Ben’s Rice in Houston, Texas, and would eventually become the first female senior vice president of J. Walter Thompson. Moreover, Beers still holds the distinction of being the only advertising executive to chair two of the top-10 worldwide advertising agencies, J. Walter Thompson and Oglivy & Mather.
SourceWatch: A separate advertising campaign is headed by Charlotte Beers, a former Madison Avenue advertising executive who was recently named the State Department's Undersecretary of State for "public diplomacy" (the official government euphemism for "public relations"). The New York Times reported that Beers is "planning a television and advertising campaign to try to influence Islamic opinion; one segment could feature American celebrities, including sports stars, and a more emotional message."
In an October interview with Advertising Age, Beers said public diplomacy "is a vital new arm in what will combat terrorism over time. All of a sudden, we are in this position of redefining who America is, not only for ourselves under this kind of attack, but also for the outside world." The corporate-funded Advertising Council is reportedly working with Beers on developing the campaign. According to Advertising Age, the Ad Council "has boiled its message down to one strategic idea: freedom."
Hollywood executives have also joined the White House brain trust, conferring with administration officials on ways to help spread the U.S. message at home and abroad. "It's possible the entertainment industry could help the government formulate its message to the rest of the world about who Americans are, and what they believe," said Bryce Zabel, chairman of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Voice of America has dramatically increased its radio broadcasts in Arabic, Dari, Pashto, Farsi, and Urdu, but has had difficult reaching crucial elements of the Arab population in the Middle East. "We have almost no youthful audience under the age of 25 in the Arab world and we are concerned that ... this important segment of the population has enormous distrust of the United States," said Marc Nathanson, a spokesman for the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the entity that oversees international public broadcasting operations for the United States.

6. Iraq: Iraqi Freedom Reality War Media management: Embeds, militainment
Hill & Knowlton’s connection
in “Saving Private Lynch”?
“Pulling the plug” on al Jazeera
Abu Ghraib
Haditha
Andersen, 2006: Reality war
Wesley Clark promises “lack of blanket censorship”
Al Jazeera airs the bloodied dead bodies of US soldiers and Donald Ramsfeld orders to “pull the plug” on what CBS calls “Saddam’s propaganda channel”
“The hybrid created from the merger of combat footage and reality-style profduction practices can best be described as militainment” (Andersen, 2006)
BBC calls “the most stunning pieces of news management ever” referring to May Private Lynch’s footage provided by the military, no embeds
Bell Pottinger PA, Lord Bell, CPA to promote democracy
Rendon Group’s Pentagon and CIA contracts to provide comms support; John Rendon “information warrior and perception manager”, names and packages The Iraqi National Congress and Chalabi,
Lincoln group

7. Strategic Communications
USSOCOM: Psychological Operations Group and Joint Strategic PSYOP Element
Lincoln Group and PSPYOPs
Rendon Group and psychological-political warfare
Bell Pottinger Public Affairs and CPA
Lord (2006) about PSYOP, psychological-political warfare. PSYOP (leaflets, loudspeakers, radio, TV) since WWII. The Fourth Psychological Operations Group (POG), a subordinate element of the US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM)
SourceWatch: In September 2008, the Lincoln Group was one of four firms that won an up to three-year, $300 million contract for "information operations" in Iraq and possibly Afghanistan. The other firms were Leonie Industries, a woman-owned company that promises "access to seemingly impenetrable markets" around the world; SOS International, which in 2006 won a contract to monitor foreign media for coverage of the so-called Global War on Terrorism; and MPRI, a unit of L-3 Communications that won a contract in 2003 to involve former Iraqi soldiers in public works projects. The new PR push was described by the U.S. military as "a means toward 'reconciliation' of the country and a way to foster support for Iraqi Security Forces from Iraqi civilians.“
On July 18, 2006, the Washington Post reported[12] that the US military Special Operations Command decided not to continue two contracts of the Lincoln Group and SAIC. The contracts were part of a $300 million dollar 5 year contract to make TV spots for Iraq and "other nations where the United States is combating terrorism," according to the Post.
In November 2005, the Los Angeles Times reported[18] that the Lincoln Group was helping the Pentagon covertly place pro-United States stories in Iraqi news outlets. "Dozens" of pieces written by U.S. military "information operations" troops were placed during 2005, according to the LA Times. "The operation is designed to mask any connection with the U.S. military," the LA Times reported. The Lincoln Group "helps translate and place the stories. The Lincoln Group's Iraqi staff, or its subcontractors, sometimes pose as freelance reporters or advertising executives when they deliver the stories to Baghdad media outlets."
The New York Times reported[31] January 2, 2006, that the Lincoln Group "has been compensating Sunni religious scholars in Iraq in return for assistance with its propaganda works ... [T]he company's ties to religious leaders and dozens of other prominent Iraqis is aimed also at enabling it to exercise influence in Iraqi communities on behalf of clients, including the military. ... Lincoln has also turned to American scholars and political consultants for advice on the content of the propaganda campaign in Iraq, records indicate. Michael Rubin, a Middle East scholar at the American Enterprise Institute ... said he had reviewed materials produced by the company." Rubin was political adviser for the Coalition Provisional Authority (Baghdad), , following two years ( ) as staff assistant on Iran and Iraq in the Office of Special Plans in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
On June 11, 2005, the Washington Post reported[32] that the Pentagon had just awarded three contracts, potentially worth up to $300 million over five years, to three companies it hopes will inject more creativity into its psychological operations efforts to improve foreign public opinion about the United States, particularly the military. Lincoln Group won one of the three contracts, Science Applications International Corporation and SYColeman, Inc., a subsidiary of L-3 Communications, the other two. All three companies declined to comment for the article.
On February 15, 2006, the New York Times reported[33] that the Lincoln Group won U.S. military contracts "after claiming to have partnerships with major media and advertising companies, former government officials with extensive Middle East experience, and ex-military officers with background in intelligence and psychological warfare."
Lincoln had short-lived partnerships with The Rendon Group and the New York ad firm Della Femina Rothschild Jeary and Partners. Lincoln also told U.S. Special Operations Command that it worked with the ad conglomerate Omnicom Group, but an Omnicom spokesperson said, 'We're not aware of any relationship with Lincoln Group.'" Lincoln continues to bid for U.S. government contracts.
On its 'Examples of our work' page also listed are examples but, with one excepotion, without disclosing who its clients were.
Foreign Media Planning
"Faced with a dizzying array of hundreds of print, broadcast and online news sources, our client needed assistance both with message development and placement. We were engaged to develop a media planning approach and 18-month strategy to tell their story across a diverse group consisting of dozens of different nationalities, ethnicities and religious affiliations."
Video - National Security Forces
"Our client faced tremendous identity and public confidence issues as they built up their internal capacity to defend and protect their citizens. Lincoln worked alongside the client to develop the film, graphics and narrative required to develop a truthful and compelling visual story of the emerging security forces."
Cartoons Against Crime
"Unlike your typical Saturday morning cartoon, this animated series was developed to highlight the personal suffering caused by criminals and terrorists in our client's nation. This series uses dramatic recreations of terrorist attacks and a simple, personal narrative to bring home the threat to society. This series was placed in local and regional media, reaching millions of viewers."
National Governance Awareness - Print Campaign
"Working with local audiences, we developed hundreds-of-thousands of posters and pamphlets in order to educate a national audience on the developing issues of voting, democracy, constitutions, pluralism and other messages. These products were produced for four distinct audiences in eight different languages and required a significant degree of cultural understanding and creative coordination in order to ensure timely production and coordination of a national rollout."
Message in a Bottle
"Faced with a serious threat to the security of a national religious event, our client requested an advertising campaign that would reach thousands of religious pilgrims. Working with the client and target audience, we developed the graphics and messages needed to communicate with a foreign audience. Working with local bottling plants, we developed tens-of-thousands of water bottles with custom labels. We then distributed these products across several cities and communities in the foreign country."
Community Research - Essential Services and Perceptions
"Our client was faced with the daunting task of rebuilding a devastated economic and governance structure encompassing a population of over two-million people, two metropolitan areas and hundreds of rural and farming communities. Our client engaged us to develop a framework to analyze and measure local population perceptions and attitudes regarding the client's work. Working with the client and their constituents, we developed a strategy to retrain local scientists and students and engage them in a twelve-month study that continues to provide insight into local perceptions."
Arab Scholarship Fundraising Support
"A western philanthropic group required the development of specialty marketing products which would be used in a foreign country to promote scholarships among a national group of high-school children. Working with the client we developed the branding and promotional items to support several "game days", fund raising events, and a final marathon for dollars."
Corporate Branding - Al Wathba
"Al Wathba is an import/export firm specializing in petroleum chemicals and industrial products. Working with the principals and employees, we developed the corporate branding needed for Al Wathba to target European and other Western companies."
In a separate case study listing on its site, the Lincoln Group stated: "Working with an Iraqi company whose ownership and employees come from west of Ramadi in the Anbar province, Lincoln Group assisted the company in developing collateral material and a messaging strategy to reach out to the local US Marines operating in their area. Working together, we were able to develop new business for Al-Wathba group, introduce the Marines to friendly neighbors, and promote good will and business between the two sides. The background and preparation for this work was considerable, as Al-Wathba had never organized and presented their capabilities to a Western client, much less the Marines. After reviewing their past projects in Iraq, finances, and business objectives, Lincoln developed a new logo, collateral materials and introductions to promote the interests of Al-Wathba. Everyone succeeded because we took the time to understand both sides interests and worked hand-in-hand with both sides to bring them to the table. After three months of work, Lincoln stepped back from the process and Al-Wathba took the lead in cementing the relationship."
Competitive Internet Strategy
"Our client faced a growing number of competitors who used web sites, BLOGs and other online tools to develop false and inflated stories which harmed the client's reputation. Our analysts and media experts developed recommendations to counter the online threat and continued to monitor the internet for new messages. Our development team developed a professional online resource which effectively conveyed our client's message and countered false rumors and stories posted by the competition."
The New York Times reported in February 2002 that the U.S. Pentagon was using the Rendon Group to assist its new propaganda agency, the Office of Strategic Influence (OSI). However, the OSI was publicly disbanded following a backlash when Pentagon officials said the new office would engage in "black" propaganda (disinformation).[6][7]
"I am not a National Security strategist or a military tactician," says John W. Rendon, Jr., whose DC-based PR firm was recently hired by the Pentagon to win over the hearts and minds of Arabs and Muslims worldwide.
"I am a politician," Rendon said in a 1998 speech to the National Security Conference (NSC), "and a person who uses communication to meet public policy or corporate policy objectives. In fact, I am an information warrior, and a perception manager. This is probably best described in the words of Hunter S. Thompson, when he wrote 'When things turn weird, the weird turn pro.'"
The Rendon Group's contract with the Pentagon was awarded on a no-bid basis, reflecting the government's determination to hire a firm already versed in running overseas propaganda operations. Rendon specializes in "assisting corporations, organizations, and governments achieve their policy objectives." Past clients include the CIA, USAID, the government of Kuwait, Monsanto Chemical Company, and the official trade agencies of countries including Bulgaria, Russia, and Uzbekistan.
"Through its network of international offices and strategic alliances," the Rendon Group website boasts, "the company has provided communications services to clients in more than 78 countries, and maintains contact with government officials, decision-makers, and news media around the globe."
The Pentagon stipulates that the Rendon Group will receive $400,000 for four months of work. Details are confidential, but according to the San Jose Mercury News, Rendon will be monitoring international news media, conducting focus groups, creating a web site about the US campaign against terrorism, and recommending "ways the US military can counter disinformation and improve its own public communications."

8. Middle East Television Network Inc.
Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG)
Based in the United States
Al-Hurra TV
Radio Sawa
Radio Farda
Funded by the State and Congress like VOA
WP: Congress last year approved $62 million to pay for Alhurra's first year. In November 2003, Congress committed $40 million more to launch a sister station in April aimed solely at Iraq
The moving force behind the birth of Alhurra, which means "the Free One" in Arabic, was Norman Pattiz, the California radio executive who created Westwood One Inc., the nation's largest radio network. Pattiz was appointed in November 2000 by President Bill Clinton to the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees federally funded international media efforts such as the Voice of America and Radio and TV Marti, which is aimed at Cuba. Pattiz quickly focused his attention on the Middle East, and, he said, he soon concluded that newscasts on Middle East stations often offered "incitements of violence, hate-speak and disinformation."
In 2002, the broadcasting board launched Radio Sawa, a radio station that mixes American and Arabic pop music with five hours of daily news programming. Meanwhile, Pattiz, armed with a video of scenes of Arab citizens stomping on American flags and burning an image of President Bush, lobbied Congress to fund a TV station.
Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.), the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wants to expand the effort. He has introduced a bill calling for similar broadcasts in Farsi, Kurdish and Uzbek, among other languages. The expansion would require $222 million in start-up funding, plus a $345 million annual budget on top of Voice of America's budget of $570 million for 2005.
Eighty of Alhurra's 150 journalists moved here from Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries. Fifty remained abroad to work in the network's bureaus in Amman, Baghdad, Beirut and Dubai.
Alhurra is transmitted to the Middle East on two satellites, Nilesat and Arabsat. Viewers in Iraq can also get the network over broadcast television. The network is available to 70 million satellite television viewers in 22 countries. There are few reliable statistics on how many people watch it regularly. One survey conducted for the network by ACNielsen found that 29 percent of Jordanians and 24 percent of Saudi Arabians with satellite-TV receivers tuned in during a seven-day period in July and August. But a Zogby poll of six Middle East countries done in May for the University of Maryland found that Alhurra barely registered as a primary source of news.

9. Iraqi Media Network (IMN)
IMN's $100 million budget for 2003
Al-Iraqiya TV, Al-Sabah newspaper, RI Radio
DOD: SAIC ($108.2 million ) and Harris Communications ($96mln.)
Iraqi Public Service Broadcaster

10. Karen Hughes September 2005 – October 2007
June 2007: National Strategy for Public Diplomacy
Diplomacy of Deeds, Listening Tour
Partnership for Breast Cancer Awareness and Research
No Short-term Fix for US Image Abroad
Listening Tour:
“Saudi Students Rebuff US Communications Guru”
Empowering, Not Muzzling, Our Ambassadors