US Public Diplomacy and Democracy Promotion in Authoritarian Spain: Approaches, Themes, and Messages

Abstract

From the early 1950s to the mid-1960s, the main periodical publication of the US Information Service (USIS) in Spain contained a permanent section of letters to the editor.2 Many of the letters showed the interest, respect, and even admiration with which many Spaniards perceived the United States. Many others did not. Criticism and even contempt toward specific dimensions of the American reality and US foreign policy were frequently displayed. Aspects most commonly derided ranged from the supposed weakness of American anticom-munism to Washington’s hidden motives in its relations with Third World and Latin American countries.3 The unbalanced nature of Cold War Spanish-American relations was often criticized too.4 Likewise, some letters openly questioned both the sincerity of America’s democratic ideals and the viability of its polítical and economic institutions. Nonetheless, the USIS chose to publish and answer some of them—like the example reproduced above. Such a transparent attitude was intended as a message in itself5 and demonstrated one of the key values the United States stood for: constructive dialogue and openness. Both were fundamental elements for the sort of “ideal” liberal democracy represented by the United States. And both were, together with the presentation of the American economic model and democratic form of government, ever present in the informational output and cultural deployment of US Public Diplomacy in the Spain of Dictator General Francisco Franco.6