TRUTH IS OUR WEAPON

A man of much experience in international information and propaganda work, who went to the State Department from his job as Editorial Director of Newsweek, and who as Assistant Secretary of State from 1950 to 1952 was in charge of all international information and educational exchange activities, Mr. Barrett provides the public here with a vital packet of incidents and ideas. He gives details of America's progress in international information, including several successful wartime efforts in psychological warfare; he tells of the postwar transferral from War to State Department of the Voice of America, and the attacks upon it by McCarthy, whose investigations he felt often came at times when the Voice could have been most effective, as at the death of Stalin. He outlines the Kremlin strategies and tactics, considers the effectiveness of the U.S.I.S., and insists that a Campaign of Truth is our most powerful means of attaining unity with friends and fighting Communism. He does not limit his remarks to past accomplishments but presents several ideas for the furtherance of an effective international information organization. Among these suggestions are the setting up of a United States Council on World Opinion, of a permanent Joint Committee on International Information, and of the position of ""persuader-in-chief"" high in government. A candid and positive appraisal which may cause some stir but which steps beyond party lines.