United States Information Agency

The United States Information Agency was created by Reorganization Plan No. 8 of 1953, which President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent to Congress on June 1, 1953, and which took effect on August 1, 1953. Section 1(a) reads: "There is hereby established a new agency which shall be known as the United States Information Agency, hereinafter referred to as the Agency." The Director was to be "appointed by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate" at 17,500 dollars a year, and "The Secretary of State shall advise with the President concerning the appointment and tenure of the Director." Section 1(c) created a Deputy Director at 16,000 dollars.¹

Functions

Section 2 of the plan transferred to the Director "the functions vested in the Secretary of State by Title V of the United States Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948, as amended," with related functions on the interchange of books and periodicals, aid to libraries, and the information programs in Germany and Austria previously run by the Mutual Security Agency. Section 2(c)(1) kept content with the State Department: "The Secretary of State shall direct the policy and control the content of a program, for use abroad, on official United States positions."¹

The agency was "known overseas as the U.S. Information Service" and was "responsible for the U.S. Government's overseas information and cultural programs, including the Voice of America."²

National Security Action Memorandum 124 of January 18, 1962, established the Special Group (Counterinsurgency), on which representatives of the agency sat with officials of the Agency for International Development and Robert Kennedy.³

Names

Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1977 (91 Stat. 1636) abolished the agency and established in its place the International Communication Agency, effective April 1, 1978. Public Law 97-241 of August 24, 1982 (96 Stat. 291), restored the earlier name.²

Directors

Directors and their dates of service were:²

• Theodore C. Streibert, August 4, 1953, to November 15, 1956
• Arthur Larson, November 14, 1956, to October 27, 1957
• George V. Allen, November 15, 1957, to December 1, 1960
• Edward R. Murrow, March 15, 1961, to January 20, 1964
• Carl T. Rowan, February 27, 1964, to July 10, 1965
• Leonard H. Marks, appointed July 22, 1965, entered on duty September 1, 1965, to December 6, 1968
• Frank J. Shakespeare Jr., February 7, 1969, to February 7, 1973
• James Keogh, February 8, 1973, to November 30, 1976
• John E. Reinhardt, from March 23, 1977; retitled Director of the International Communication Agency on March 27, 1978; to August 29, 1980
• Charles Z. Wick, June 9, 1981, to January 20, 1989
• Bruce S. Gelb, April 14, 1989, to March 20, 1991
• Henry E. Catto, May 9, 1991, to January 1993
• Joseph D. Duffey, appointed May 25, 1993, entered on duty June 3, 1993

Mark W. Everson began his service in the Reagan administration at the agency in 1982, during Wick's directorship.⁴