Hearts, Minds, Voices: US Cold War Public Diplomacy and the Formation of the Third World, (Hardcover)

Hearts, Minds, Voices, an enlightening and thought-provoking history of the gap between objectives and outcomes that bedeviled US public diplomacy in the Third World, is a sobering reminder of the uncertainties surrounding the use of soft power. It is also an impressive contribution to the literature on the troubled US encounter with decolonization."-Frank Ninkovich, author of The Global Republic: America's Inadvertent Rise to World Power"With insight, skill, and terrific use of archival sources, Jason Parker documents the attempt of the postwar United States to influence the nations of the Global South through the extensive use of what is now known as public diplomacy, but which some at the time called more bluntly propaganda. Parker perceptively suggests that the unintended consequence of this campaign was to shape not only external perceptions of what became known as the Third World butalso internal perceptions. A major contribution."-Nicholas John Cull, author of The Decline and Fall of the United States Information Agency: American Public Diplomacy, 1989-2001"Jason Parker illuminates the ways in which the United States sought to win the 'hearts and minds' of those in the Third World in the early Cold War. His work reshapes our conception of the Cold War, demonstrating the central role that public diplomacy played in American strategy. Hearts, Minds, Voices highlights the transnational reach of public diplomacy and reframes significant turning points in American foreign policy." -Sarah B. Snyder, authorof Human Rights Activism and the End of the Cold War"In this imaginatively conceived, deeply informed, and meticulously researched study, Jason Parker masterfully shows how the 'Third World' created itself amid a global contest of ideas. Rejecting the binary logic of the early Cold War, and often appropriating media techniques pioneered in the West, the nations of the Global South discovered one another and joined together in an increasingly self-aware community of international actors. Parker's novel approachis to focus on US public diplomacy and to argue that Washington's groping efforts to engage non-European societies unwittingly helped to catalyze the Third World's self-creation. In so doing, the authordeeply enriches our understanding of postwar global history."-Salim Yaqub, author of Imperfect Strangers: Americans, Arabs, and U.S.-Middle East Relations in the 1970s