Americans All

Good Neighbor Cultural Diplomacy in World War II

Darlene J. Sadlier

• Publisher: University of Texas Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9780292739307
• eBook ISBN: 9780292749801
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Latin American & Caribbean History
• Index: History

Cultural diplomacy—"winning hearts and minds" through positive portrayals of the American way of life—is a key element in U.S. foreign policy, although it often takes a backseat to displays of military might. Americans All provides an in-depth, fine-grained study of a particularly successful instance of cultural diplomacy—the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (CIAA), a government agency established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940 and headed by Nelson A. Rockefeller that worked to promote hemispheric solidarity and combat Axis infiltration and domination by bolstering inter-American cultural ties.

Darlene J. Sadlier explores how the CIAA used film, radio, the press, and various educational and high-art activities to convince people in the United States of the importance of good neighbor relations with Latin America, while also persuading Latin Americans that the United States recognized and appreciated the importance of our southern neighbors. She examines the CIAA's working relationship with Hollywood's Motion Picture Society of the Americas; its network and radio productions in North and South America; its sponsoring of Walt Disney, Orson Welles, John Ford, Gregg Toland, and many others who traveled between the United States and Latin America; and its close ties to the newly created Museum of Modern Art, which organized traveling art and photographic exhibits and produced hundreds of 16mm educational films for inter-American audiences; and its influence on the work of scores of artists, libraries, book publishers, and newspapers, as well as public schools, universities, and private organizations.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Abbreviations
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1. The Culture Industry Goes to War
• Chapter 2. On Screen: The Motion Picture Division
• Chapter 3. On the Air: The Radio Division
• Chapter 4. In Print: The Press and Publication Division
• Chapter 5. In Museums, in Libraries, and on the Home Front: The Divisions of Cultural Relations and Inter-American Affairs in the United States
• Aftermath
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index