Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T11:39:10.595Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

American Teenagers, Educational Exchange, and Cold War Politics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 November 2017

Campbell F. Scribner
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The following article documents the expansion of high school exchange programs during the Cold War. It also examines the potential conflicts underlying that expansion, which relied on preexisting networks of government agencies and private philanthropies and sometimes conflated the rhetoric of world peace with a narrower pursuit of American interests. Ultimately, the article contends, experiences abroad prompted teenagers to criticize American foreign policy and to reform their sponsoring organizations along increasingly multilateral, anti-colonial, and socially conscious lines.

Type
Articles
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 57 , Issue 4 , November 2017 , pp. 542 - 569
Copyright
Copyright © History of Education Society 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Joseph S. Nye specifically referred to student exchanges when coining the term: Nye, Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics (New York: Public Affairs, 2004), 44–46 Google Scholar.

2 Irwin, Julia, Making the World Safe: The American Red Cross and a Nation's Humanitarian Awakening (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), 9 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 210.

3 Hartman, Andrew, Education and the Cold War: The Battle for the American School (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Evans, Ronald W., The Hope for American School Reform: The Cold War Pursuit of Inquiry Learning in Social Studies (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Dow, Peter B., Schoolhouse Politics: Lessons from the Sputnik Era (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Rudolph, John L., Scientists in the Classroom: The Cold War Reconstruction of American Science Education (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Terzian, Sevan G., Science Education and Citizenship: Fairs, Clubs, and Talent Searches for American Youth, 1918–1958 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 May, Elaine Tyler, Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era (New York: Basic Books, 2008)Google Scholar; Whitfield, Stephen J., The Culture of the Cold War (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991)Google Scholar; Gilbert, James, A Cycle of Outrage: America's Reaction to the Juvenile Delinquent in the 1950s (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986)Google Scholar; Henriksen, Margot A., Dr. Strangelove's America: Society and Culture in the Atomic Age (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997)Google Scholar; Medovoi, Leerom, Rebels: Youth and the Cold War Origins of Identity (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2005)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Schneider, Gregory L., Cadres for Conservatism: Young Americans for Freedom and the Rise of the Contemporary Right (New York: New York University Press, 1999)Google Scholar; and Isserman, Maurice, Which Side Were You On? The American Communist Party During World War II (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1982)Google Scholar.

5 Jobs, Richard Ivan, “Youth Movements: Travel, Protest, and Europe in 1968,” American Historical Review 114, no. 2 (April 2009), 378 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 Suri, Jeremi, Power and Protest: Global Revolution and the Rise of Détente (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003), 88–94 Google Scholar.

7 In addition to Jobs, see Bu, Liping, Making the World Like Us: Education, Cultural Expansion, and the American Century (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003)Google Scholar; Richmond, Yale, Cultural Exchange and the Cold War: Raising the Iron Curtain (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2003)Google Scholar; and Davis, Belinda, et al. , eds., Changing the World, Changing Oneself: Political Protest and Collective Identities in West Germany and the U.S. in the 1960s and 1970s (New York: Berghahn Books, 2010)Google Scholar.

8 Fass, Paula S., “Intersecting Agendas: Children in History and Diplomacy,” Diplomatic History 38, no. 2 (March 2014), 297 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Peacock, Margaret E., Innocent Weapons: The Soviet and American Politics of Childhood in the Cold War (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2014)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 Primary source material comes from the Archives of the American Field Service and AFS Intercultural Program (AFS Archives) in New York City, http://afs.org/archives/; the Southern Folklife Collection, Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina; the Wisconsin Historical Society; the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, KS, https://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/research/online_documents.html; and Records of the Peace Corps, National Archives, Washington, DC, https://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/490.html.

10 Bu, Making the World Like Us, 186–87.

11 For examples of these efforts, see Osborne, Kenneth, “Creating the ‘International Mind’: The League of Nations Attempts to Reform History Teaching: 1920–1939,” History of Education Quarterly 56, no. 2 (May 2016), 213–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kinkead, Katharine T., Walk Together, Talk Together: The American Field Service Student Exchange Program (New York: W. W. Norton, 1962)Google Scholar; Mishler, Paul C., Raising Reds: The Young Pioneers, Radical Summer Camps, and Communist Political Culture in the United States (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), 42–46 Google Scholar, 57–61; and Watt, Donald B., Intelligence Is Not Enough: The Story of My First Forty Years and of the Early Years of the Experiment in International Living (Putney, VT: Experiment Press, 1967)Google ScholarPubMed, Chapter 31.

12 Interview with Arthur Howe Jr. (videorecording), Oral History Collection, Legacy Project: Subseries 2A, 1999–2000, American Field Service Archives (hereafter AFS) http://brandcenter.afs.org/CMS/sharedbin/afs-history-and-archives/oral-history-platform/4_002_2B_Howe.mp4; Eiseman, M. E., Everyone Has a Story to Tell: Forty Years of AFS (Milwaukee: M Press, 1987), 1 Google Scholar; and Broch, Georg Andreas, The AFS Story: Journeys of a Lifetime, 1914, 1947, 1997 (Lausanne, Switzerland: JPM Publications, 1997), 36 Google Scholar.

13 Kinkead, Walk Together, Talk Together, 17; The AFS Story, 15.

14 International Educational Exchange Service, People to People Diplomacy: An Approach to a Peaceful World on a Person-to-Person Basis (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1958), 1 Google Scholar; and McKinney, W. Arthur, Youth and the World: A People-to-People Program Resource Book (New York: Youth Activities Committee of the People-to-People Program, 1960), 21 Google Scholar.

15 Juergensmeyer, John E., The President, the Foundations, and the People-to-People Program, Inter-University Case Program 84 (New York: Published for the ICP by Bobbs-Merrill, 1965), 56 Google Scholar.

16 Andresen, Rachel, “Michigan's Own Exchange Program: Youth for Understanding,” Phi Delta Kappan 44, no. 9 (June 1963), 403–406 Google Scholar.

17 Allen, Edward D., “Why Not Student Exchanges at the High School Level?” French Review 31, no. 2 (Dec. 1957), 136–40Google Scholar.

18 David Lawrence, “People to People,” US News and World Report, Jan. 17, 1958, 120; and Juergensmeyer, The President, 23.

19 Richmond, Cultural Exchange and the Cold War, 16–19.

20 L. A. Minnich, “Memorandum of Conference with the President,” March 5, 1957, DDE's Papers as President, DDE Diary Series, box 22, March 1957, Diary-Staff Memos (2), Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library (hereafter Eisenhower Library).

21 Eisenhower suffered a heart attack in the fall of 1955 and an attack of ileitis in 1956. After the program's halting rollout, a minor stroke would leave Eisenhower unable to prevent the dissolution of its central committee in 1958. Juergensmeyer, The President, 4, 19–20, 49.

22 Glenn Wesley Leppert, “Dwight D. Eisenhower and People-to-People as an Experiment in Personal Diplomacy: A Missing Element of Understanding” (PhD diss., Kansas State University, 2003), 120–23.

23 “Confidential Inter-Office Memorandum: How We Got This Way,” March 18, 1958, People-to-People Program Records, DDE's Records as President, Official File, box 932, 325 (9), Eisenhower Library.

24 Juergensmeyer, The President, 31–35; Dwight D. Eisenhower, “Note for Files,” Oct. 11, 1957, DDE's Papers as President, Administration Series, box 29, P-t-P Inc., Eisenhower Library; A. J. Goodpaster, “Memorandum of Conference with the President,” Oct. 10, 1957, DDE's Papers as President, DDE Diary Series, box 27, Oct. 1957 Staff Notes (2), Eisenhower Library.

25 Osgood, Kenneth Alan, Total Cold War: Eisenhower's Secret Propaganda Battle at Home and Abroad (Lawrence: Kansas University Press, 2008), 236–37Google Scholar.

26 John W. Hayes Jr. to the Rocky Mountain Institute of International Education Advisory Board, June 29, 1956, John Foster Dulles Papers, Special Assistant Series, Chronological Subseries, box 10, Macomber-Hanes Chronological June 1956 (1), Eisenhower Library.

27 Some conservatives doubted the Soviet Union's good faith, complaining that “under the pretext of ‘cultural exchange,’ People-to-People, Inc., assumes and exercises power and authority to specify … those persons with whom American students visiting abroad must live, and to whom indoctrination or supervision they are thus required to submit.” “Report of the Committee on Education of ‘We, the People,’” Sept. 22–23, 1962, American Council of Christian Laymen Records, box 7, folder 42; and Janet Esser to Verne Kaub, March 24, 1961, American Council of Christian Laymen Records, box 2, folder 16, Wisconsin Historical Society Archives.

28 People-to-People News 1, no. 2 (Oct. 1956), DDE's Records as President, PPF, box 851, 47 People-to-People Foundation, Eisenhower Library.

29 Charles E. Wilson to Dwight D. Eisenhower, Oct. 21, 1957, DDE's Records as President, Official File, box 931, 325 (8), Eisenhower Library.

30 Sargent Shriver, founder of the Peace Corps, was an early member of the Experiment in International Living, which offered logistical support during the early years of the Peace Corps. Eiseman, Everyone Has a Story to Tell, 2; Leppert, “Eisenhower and People-to-People,” 69–72, 124; and Scanlon, David G., ed., International Education: A Documentary History (New York: Teachers College Press, 1960), 147–58Google Scholar.

31 Honeck, Mischa and Rosenberg, Gabriel, “Transnational Generations: Organizing Youth in the Cold War,” Diplomatic History 38, no. 2 (March 2014), 236 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

32 Lloyd Wright and Doug Kelly, “Final Report,” June 6, 1963, Community Relations: Public Relations Subject Files, 1962–1970, Entry P 24, box 2, Records of the Peace Corps, Record Group 490—250/06/13/00, National Archives & Records Administration.

33 High School Students and the Peace Corps (Washington, DC: Peace Corps Office of Public Affairs, c. 1967)Google Scholar.

34 Our Little World, The American Field Service Magazine 64 (Summer 1965), 16–19 Google Scholar, AFS Archives.

35 Interview with Carole Rotstein (videorecording, 2004), Oral History Collection, Legacy Project: Subseries 2B, 2002–2012, AFS Archives; Our Little World 27 (March/April 1955), 4, AFS Archives.

36 Our Little World 20 (Dec. 1953), 9, AFS Archives.

37 Since tapes were less expensive in America, the organization suggested that Americans initiate contact with foreign nationals.

38 Marjorie Rubin, “Old Activity, New Twist,” New York Times, April 22, 1962, 14.

39 “World Tape Pals,” folder 1353, World Tape Pals, scan 106, series 2, Related Discographical Information, 1938–2005, subseries 2.5, Record and Tape Clubs, 1957–1977, Southern Folklife Collection, Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina (hereafter Southern Folklife Collection).

40 Leslie L. Howard, “Membership Roster,” Tape Topics 6, no. 1, Feb. 1958, 3, folder 1353, World Tape Pals, series 2, Related Discographical Information, 1938–2005, subseries 2.5, Record and Tape Clubs, 1957–1977, Southern Folklife Collection.

41 Robert J. Carter, “Membership Roster,” Tape Topics 6, no. 1, Feb. 1958, 5, folder 1353, World Tape Pals, series 2, Related Discographical Information, 1938–2005, subseries 2.5, Record and Tape Clubs, 1957–1977, Southern Folklife Collection.

42 “California Girl Seeks Pals,” Tape Topics 6, no. 1, Feb. 1958, 6, folder 1353, World Tape Pals, series 2, Related Discographical Information, 1938–2005, subseries 2.5, Record and Tape Clubs, 1957–1977, Southern Folklife Collection.

43 Dave A. Rogosky, “Membership Roster,” Tape Topics 6, no. 1, Feb. 1958, 35, folder 1353, World Tape Pals, series 2, Related Discographical Information, 1938–2005, subseries 2.5, Record and Tape Clubs, 1957–1977, Southern Folklife Collection.

44 Steven R. Veenker, “Membership Roster,” Tape Topics 6, no. 1, Feb. 1958, 37, folder 1353, World Tape Pals, series 2, Related Discographical Information, 1938–2005, subseries 2.5, Record and Tape Clubs, 1957–1977, Southern Folklife Collection.

45 Howie Schwartz, “Membership Roster,” Tape Topics 6, no. 1, Feb. 1958, 27, folder 1353, World Tape Pals, series 2, Related Discographical Information, 1938–2005, subseries 2.5, Record and Tape Clubs, 1957–1977, Southern Folklife Collection.

46 Stephen D. Leddy, “Membership Roster,” Tape Topics 6, no. 1, Feb. 1958, 38, folder 1353, World Tape Pals, series 2, Related Discographical Information, 1938–2005, subseries 2.5, Record and Tape Clubs, 1957–1977, Southern Folklife Collection.

47 The AFS Story, 79. For connections between AFS and the State Department, see Our Little World, no. 73 (Summer 1967), 5, AFS Archives.

48 Howe Interview, AFS Archives.

49 High School Students and the Peace Corps (Washington, DC: Peace Corps Office of Public Affairs, c. 1967).

50 The AFS Story, 86–87.

51 Interview with James Cooney (videorecording), Oral History Collection, Legacy Project: Subseries 2B, 2002–2012, AFS Archives.

52 Eiseman, Everyone Has a Story to Tell, 34–36.

53 Our Little World 33, no. 5 (1956), 15–16, AFS Archives.

54 Eiseman, Everyone Has a Story to Tell, 22.

55 Eiseman, Everyone Has a Story to Tell, 26.

56 The AFS Story, 39–40.

57 Our Little World 33, no. 5 (1956), 12, AFS Archives.

58 Kinkead, Walk Together, 93–94.

59 Peacock, Innocent Weapons, 516, 528.

60 Rubin, “Old Activity, New Twist,” 14; and Zimmerman, Jonathan, Innocents Abroad: American Teachers in the American Century (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2006), 199–205 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

61 Rotstein Interview, AFS Archives.

62 Francis P. Raffetto, “International Friends Aim of Tape Pals,” Dallas Morning News, May 23, 1954, folder 1353, World Tape Pals, series 2, Related Discographical Information, 1938–2005, subseries 2.5, Record and Tape Clubs, 1957–1977, Southern Folklife Collection.

63 Our Little World 29, no. 1 (1956), 3, AFS Archives.

64 Our Little World 31, no. 3 (1956), 2, AFS Archives.

65 Our Little World 46 (April 1960), 2, AFS Archives.

66 Our Little World 29, no. 1 (1956), 3; Our Little World 31, no. 3 (1956), 2; and Our Little World 45 (Jan. 1960), 2, AFS Archives.

67 Zimmerman, Innocents Abroad, 203–204.

68 Hoffman, Elizabeth Cobbs, All You Need Is Love: The Peace Corps and the Spirit of the 1960s (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998), 7, 29–31 Google Scholar; Immerwahr, Daniel, Thinking Small: The United States and the Lure of Community Development (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

69 Honeck and Rosenberg, “Transnational Generations,” 237.

70 Arthur Rumpf to Ralph Rosenbaum, May 10, 1965; “An Invitation to Teachers and Students of Social Studies,” Dec. 1966, World Affairs Council of Milwaukee Records, Wisconsin Historical Society Archives; box 9, folder 26 of UW-Milwaukee Institute of World Affairs Records, 1952–1994, UWM Archival Collection 76, Wisconsin Historical Society Archives.

71 Rubin, “Old Activity, New Twist,” 14; Mallery, David, High School Students Speak Out: A Study of the Impact of High School Experiences on Students (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1962), 91–92 Google Scholar; Leppert, “Dwight D. Eisenhower and People-to-People,” 76, 151.

72 Institute for International Education Newsletter (1971), 4.

73 Our Little World 28 (May/June 1955), 15; Our Little World 29, no. 1 (1956), 2; Our Little World 43 (June 1959), 11; Our Little World 44 (Oct. 1959), 5, AFS Archives.

74 James Cooney Interview, AFS Archives; Eiseman, Everyone Has a Story to Tell, 15.

75 Our Little World 21, no. 3 (1969), 6–8; Our Little World 21, no. 1 (1969), 5, AFS Archives.

76 Our Little World 22, no. 1 (1970), 8, AFS Archives.

77 Eiseman, Everyone Has a Story to Tell, 13–14.

78 Our Little World 21, no. 3 (1969), 2, AFS Archives.

79 Interview with William G. Meserve (videorecording, 2005), Oral History Collection, Legacy Project: Subseries 2B, 2002–2012, AFS Archives.

80 Eiseman, Everyone Has a Story to Tell, 13–14.

81 Our Little World 21, no. 1 (1969), 6–7, AFS Archives.

82 AFS Story, 39–40, Meserve Interview, AFS Archives.

83 Roger, Vincent, “An Intra-American Exchange Program,” Phi Delta Kappan 43, no. 4 (Jan. 1962), 170 Google Scholar.

84 Interview with Richard Spencer (videorecording, 2005), Oral History Collection, Legacy Project: Subseries 2B, 2002–2012, AFS Archives.

85 Our Little World 19, no. 1 (1968), 12–13, AFS Archives.

86 Our Little World 21, no. 3 (1969), 10, AFS Archives.

87 Our Little World 21, no. 1 (1969), 6–7, AFS Archives.

88 AFS Story, 15, 40, AFS Archives.

89 Bachner, David J. and Zeutschel, Ulrich, Utilizing the Effects of Youth Exchange: A Study of German and American High School Exchange Participants (New York: Council on International Educational Exchange, 1994), 12 Google Scholar.

90 Eiseman, Everyone Has a Story to Tell, 75; Garraty, John A., Adams, Walter, and Taylor, Cyril J. H., The New Guide to Study Abroad: Summer and Full-Year Programs for High-School Students, College and University Students, and Teachers: 1971–1972 (Harper & Row: 1971), 335–36Google Scholar.

91 Eiseman, Everyone Has a Story to Tell, 11, 38; Meserve Interview, AFS Archives.