126. National Security Action Memorandum No. 611

MEMORANDUM FOR

  • Secretary of State
  • Director, U.S. Information Agency

SUBJECT

  • An Effective Countertheme to “Peaceful Coexistence”

The President completely endorses the effort to combat the Soviet propaganda trap contained in the phrase “peaceful coexistence” by the use of symbolic language that expresses our view of the nature of the conflict in which we are engaged. The statements by the Secretary [Page 244] of State before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and, more recently, at the Press Club,2 have provided the language we need to do the job. He has expressed the conflict as being between the “world of free choice and free cooperation” and “the world of coercion.”

The President has requested that immediate steps be taken to give this formulation the widespread currency and usage that would make it an effective countertheme to the Soviet formula. It is requested that the facilities available to the Department of State and the U.S. Information Agency be employed in this effort.3 This request is also being passed along to the appropriate members of the White House Staff for action.

McGeorge Bundy4
  1. Source: Washington National Records Center, RG 306, USIA Files: FRC 68 A 1415, Policy and Plans-Nuclear Testing/61. Official Use Only.
  2. Regarding Secretary Rusk’s statement before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, see footnote 4, Document 124. For text of his address to the National Press Club on July 10, see Department of State Bulletin, July 31, 1961, pp. 175–178.
  3. In a July 18 memorandum to Murrow, Sorensen reported on the President’s endorsement of the phrase “World of Free Choice” and indicated that instructions to “all offices in Washington” and the field on the phraseology were carried in “News Policy Note” (No. 114–61, July 13) and “Infoguide” (No. 62–1, July 17). (Washington National Records Center, RG 306, USIA Files: FRC 68 A 1415, Policy and Plans-Nuclear Testing/61)
  4. Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.