North Atlantic Council

wiiiJUIU «-*«-» b r~%. i bnii • • Vf w •-» v»» NORTH ATLANTIC COUNCIL EXEMPLAIRE — N" COPY ORIGINAL; ENGLISH KATO CONFIDENTIAL SSnTffctö^vT'mi DOCUMENT 1—^tj" AC/5 2 -D/ 267 COMMITTEE ON INFORMATION AND CULTURAL RELATIONS NATO INFORMATION ACTIVITIES IN 1958 Note "by tho Director of Information Following tho general principles agreed by the Commit- tee on Information and Cultural Relations at their meeting on September 27th, 1957 (document AC/52-R/81, Item VII), the Director of Information herewith submits a progranme indicating the different activities he proposes to undertake during 1959 in each of the various information fields. 2 The Comnittee is requested to examine these proposals from a"policy viewpoint. In particular, their advice is sought as to (a) whether the programme as a whole is in com- pliance with the Recommendations made by tho Committee of Three (the relevant paragraphs of this Report are attached in Annex AAL.- (b) whether specific activities should be either expanded or reduced so as to ensure a sound balance between the various items inside the programme itself. 3 In order to provide the Caanittee with a basis tor ^ comparison the proposals for 1953 are aeoaqpanlod by a summary of the information activities during the curront year {19-jf). 4 Although the matter of the establishment of th® i 0 Information Service is not dealt with in this paper ^fJ JJ JJJ of Information wishes to point out that tue pres.ant .^hia Service is insufficient to carry out ^¾^¾^^^¾8^ programme and to make the optimum use of the international runo* to be voted for this purpose. DECLASSIFIED - PUBLIC DISCLOSURE / DÉCLASSIFIÉ - MISE EN LECTURE PUBLIQUE LECTURE EN - MISE / DÉCLASSIFIÉ DISCLOSURE - PUBLIC DECLASSIFIED 5. The overall cost of the proposed programme may bo estimated at approximately 121mnii)n francs calculâted on pro August 1957 prices and exchange rates (132 million iranc- as oi today)* (Signed) J.3. PHILLIPS Palais de ChaiIlot, Paris, XVIe. •'•Not annexed to this paper. • NATO CONFIDENTIAL NATO CONFIDENTIAL -2- Ezs=Eis ARTICLE 711 - PUBLIC REMTIONS 711 (a) NATO Sponsored Tours. Visits and Exchange of Persons 1957 Activities: Six tours (including a special television tour to the United States and Canada) were organized in 1957. The following countries were visited: France (13 participants from 13 countries); Canada (16 participants from 12 countries); Greece and Turkey (13 participants from 9 countries):. US (13 participants from 10 countries; Federal Republic (16 participants from 12 countries). The participants to these tours, except the television tour, were all newspapermen. Their general standard with a few exceptions, was "by and large better than in the two previous years; the articles written as a result of these tours show that most participants took their assignment seriously. The programme also included tours for certain individuals who could he expected to be of particular value in spreading know- ledge about NATO. Apart from this, 111 groups (totalling 3692 persons) were received at NATO Headquarters for briefings up to 30th September. These 111 groups can be divided into the following categories: educationalists, students, youth (29); military (27); civic (10); industrialists (8); journalists (8); arliamentarians and government officials (4); trade unionists 1); lecturers and other persons disseminating information on NATO (16). 1958 Proposals» ( i ) NATO Sponsored Tours and Exchpngo of Persons Pursuing the suggestion by the Committee that more opportunity should be given to persons other than journalists to take part in NATO sponsored tours, it is proposed to limit the number of journalist tours of the conventional type to not more than three (providing member countries would actively co- operate in planning the tours well in advance). 1. A tour of Canada. Providing that the host country DECLASSIFIED - PUBLIC DISCLOSURE / DÉCLASSIFIÉ - MISE EN LECTURE PUBLIQUE LECTURE EN - MISE / DÉCLASSIFIÉ DISCLOSURE - PUBLIC DECLASSIFIED and sending countries consult on the selection of journalists, it is felt that good correspondents could be found to participate. 2. A tour of Greece and Turkey. The succcss of the Tour to these countries"In 1957, and the fact that conqparatively few correspondents have the opportunity of visiting those countrios, appears to justify this proposal. 3. A tour of the Federal Republic of Germany. The Federal Republic is the newest member of tho Alliance and it s political and economic develop- ment remain of considerable interest. It is suggested to restrict participation to this tour 'WAL to journalists from North America and those European countries where journalists have lees • opportunity to Visit the Federal Republic than those of neighbouring countries. Furthermore, it is proposed to organize four more tours which, although being in the Journalistic field, will be different from those mentioned-above, both as regards thoir purpose and the way they are arranged. 4. A tour for women editors of womens' magazines. The editors will meet in Paris as usual but will then leave .in three or four groups for different member countries with the object of studying one particular subject, related to the Atlantic Comnunity idea and of interest to women readers. After their journey Of, say, IO days, the groups will gather again in Paris for a 2-day meeting during which they will report to. each 'other on their experiences. In this way, It is hoped that each participant will be able to write articles not only on the particular country she visited but also report on the discussions she had with her colleagues. The large readership of w omens' magazines'and the close attention with which they are usually read prompted this proposal. 5. A tour to SACEURtS Commands for members of the SHAPE Correspondents* Association. Paris corres- jtndents accredited to SHAPE" have organized them- selves in the SHAPE Corresoondonts1 Association. Biey follow SHAPE and NATO very closely and they hare greatly contributed to the accurate reporting an NATO efforts. They never had an opportunity, hovuever., to bo Included in any NATO tour, nor of visiting SACEUR's subordinate commands. Through this tour they would obtain first-hand impression and on-the-spot information on the operation of these international headquarters. This project is strongly supported by PID-SHAPE and it Is.hoped DECLASSIFIED - PUBLIC DISCLOSURE / DÉCLASSIFIÉ - MISE EN LECTURE PUBLIQUE LECTURE EN - MISE / DÉCLASSIFIÉ DISCLOSURE - PUBLIC DECLASSIFIED that SHAPE will bc able to provide transportation Ibr this tour« 6. A television tour to the UK. The UK has indicated thrt it would consider sympathetically the possibilities of a television tour of their country. It is suggested that this tour should be organized on the same lines as that which visited Canada and the US this summer. It would of course be much less costly, because of lower transportation charges. 7. A tour of youth editors. This tour might be organized in a similar way to that of the tour for Vfamen editors (see para. 4 above) i.e. the youth editors, after having assembled in Paris, would leave in small groups for not more than three member countries with the object of studying the attitude of young people to NATO and related subjects of interest to young readers. Besides the above, the following tours for people other than journalists are proposed: 8. A tour for selected personalities recornnended by their national authorities as particularly active supporters of NATO. This tour might be organized so as to allow these persons to visit distant member countries. Transatlantic exchanges are envisaged. After their tours participants should assemble in Paris for an exchange of views. Partici- pants should be asked to produce reports on their respective tours. 9. A tour for trade union leaders might also be con- sidered It is proposed however., to make this project dependent on the opinion trade unionists may express on this matter at the suggested trade unlonists' conference (see 711 (d)). (11) Visits to Headquarters It is proposed to continue and develop the programme of group visits to NATO Headquarters. Those visits have proved to be a very effective means of publicising NATO to selected audiences and the number of unsolicited requests for these visits from influential people is growing steadily, The overall number of visitors during 1957 will reach the 5,000 mark by the end of the year. Although most of the groups received so far paid their own travel expenses, it is felt that in some cases NATO Informa- tion Service should be in a position to assist in the financing DECLASSIFIED - PUBLIC DISCLOSURE / DÉCLASSIFIÉ - MISE EN LECTURE PUBLIQUE LECTURE EN - MISE / DÉCLASSIFIÉ DISCLOSURE - PUBLIC DECLASSIFIED of such visits, apart from the usual hospitality that should be offered by NATO. 711 (b) Troop Information 1957 Activities: Three International troop information courses will be -5- QATO CONFIDELntIAiL AC75"2»î)72b7 he^ before the end of the year. According to plans, they will be ""attended by approximately 120 officers from 12 of the member countries. In addition 7 troop information coursos wore held, by request, for officers and NCOS on a national basis (totalling 266 from three member countries). Furthermore, 20 military groups visited NATO for one- day briefings (totalling 716 from four member countries). lQf.8 Proposals: It is felt that activities in the fiold of Troop Information should be expanded and should not only bc confined to thTor-ffenization of courses and briefings, but extended to include a ^ch greater effort in the 2 national authorities. The soldier has a right to be fully in- formed about the Alliance, the interests of which he is serving. At the same time the troops form the largest and easiest to organize audience to which the NATO message canbe brought In fact»already in 1955, the Council instruct^ the Information Committee to take the necessary action in this field ^sco document C-R(55)9).

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