Office of the Historian

148. Memorandum From the Director of the United States Information Agency (Shakespeare) to all USIA Public Affairs Officers1

Washington, August 20, 1971

A one-hour film entitled VIETNAM! VIETNAM! dealing with aspects of the Vietnamese War during the decade of the 60’s has been completed and is available to the field posts. The film uses a cutoff point of December 31, 1969 on events relating to the war. Since many significant and well-known developments occurred after that date, this production must be considered basically archival. It is not really suited for dealing with the contemporary scene.2

We recently sent a print of the film to several selected PAOs in diverse country situations . . . large, small, sophisticated, underdeveloped . . . and asked for their private assessment on its usefulness in their situation. Most felt that Viet-Nam was no longer a major attitudinal factor and that a production dealing with earlier events in the war was not presently useful. At least one, however, felt the film would be quite helpful.

You will each make your own judgment on the applicability of this film in your situation, as you do in all cases. Should your initial inclination be to use it, I suggest that you may wish to have the Ambassador and Political Officer screen the program and then counsel together with them before final decision.

Frank Shakespeare
  1. Source: National Archives, RG 306, Director’s Subject Files, 1968–1972, Entry A1–42, Box 22, FPD—General 1971. No classification marking.↩
  2. In a June 10 article in the New York Times regarding the film, Szulc wrote: “Agency officials said today that no formal decision had been make to shelve the hour-long film—‘Vietnam, Vietnam!’—but authoritative sources in the agency indicated that it would ‘definitely’ not be offered for television or theater showings to foreign audiences.” He continued: “It was reliably reported that the head of the agency, Frank J. Shakespeare Jr., had concluded that the changing military and political situation in Vietnam, as well as domestic political considerations, now raised doubts on the film’s value as convincing and productive propaganda.” (Tad Szulc, “$250,000 U.S.I.A. Movie on Vietnam, 3 Years in the Making, Being Shelved,” p. 6)↩