ALVIN SNYDER

My Selected Works

Content Samples from Book
The Mary Poppins department of government. The Washington Post
A first-person account on how the world was told about the downing of this flight. The Washington Post.
Before TV satellites, Nixon surrogates were sent packing to Peoria, Bozeman, and Duluth, to spread the word. The Christian Science Monitor
Cuban Americans Are Best Equipped To Duke It Out With Castro. The Miami Herald.
Books
An insider's perspective during the crucial years of the Cold War, from the front lines of pitched battles with the Soviets to win hearts and minds.
Magazine Article
The Final Minutes TV GUIDE
Newpaper Articles
The U.S. plays "Hugger-Mugger" during the Cold War. The Washington Post.
Newspaper Article
The terms "au pair" and "nanny" are not interchangeable. The Washington Post.
It was an ugly two weeks for TV News The Washington Post
With each new administratiion, the White House Office of Communications grows ever larger and seemingly less effective Scripps-Howard News Service
Knight-Ridder News Service
Newpaper Article
The U.S. itself is not an equal opportunity employer The Christian Science Monitor
Worldnet International TV Studio, Washington, DC, site of U.S. government broadcasts during the Cold War

President Reagan communicated regularly with international audiences via simulcasts on the Worldnet TV network and the Voice of America, during his 8 years in office.

Our video about the Soviet downing of a passenger jet, Korean Airlines flight 007, was played at a special session of the UN Security Council, forcing the Soviets to admit what it had done.


Here I am with Prime Minister Eugenia Charles of Dominica, chairman of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, October 1983. We were discussing how to best communicate the story of the U.S. invasion of Grenada to the rest of the world.

Welcome





The web site focuses on my book, "Warriors of Disinformation: American Propaganda, Soviet Lies, and the Winning of the Cold War."

For almost 8-years during Ronald Reagan's presidency, I was the Director of the United States Information Agency's worldwide Television and Film Service. Our mission was to reach international TV viewers, especially those behind the Iron Curtain in Communist Eastern Europe, to promote US government policy objectives. It was an extraordinary adventure, and I wrote this book and newspaper articles about Cold War broadcast public diplomacy while a Senior Fellow at the Annenberg Washington Program in Communications Policy Studies, headed by the broadcast policy icon Newton N. Minow.

Commenting on the book, Time magazine's Hugh Sidey characterized those of us at the USIA's worldwide TV operation as "a band of propaganda irregulars who deserve a bit of the credit for helping to push the Soviet Empire over the edge...The war of words and ideas was fierce and it sometimes got a little zany; the guys on our side understood it and played the game with their own quirks and imagination - and had some good laughs along the way."

The USIA's Director, Charles Z. Wick, to whom I reported, was President Reagan's close friend and former neighbor from California. My TV and film operation, therefore, had the attention from the White House, right at the top. The President took personal interest in what we were doing, and pitched in himself to help make our product better.

This web site provides highlights from "Warriors," plus some of my newspaper and magazine articles about international broadcasting as we faced the Soviet "Evil Empire" eyeball-to-eyeball.

Among many reviews, Asia Week said the book was "Surprisingly entertaining but in the end leaves the reader wondering if he is not being manipulated once again." I can assure that I call it as I saw it.






Quick Links

U.S. Foreign Affairs in the New Information Age
By Alvin A. Snyder, Senior Fellow, Annenberg Washington Program in Communications Policy Studies at Northwestern Universirty
University of Southern California Center on Public Diplomacy
By Alvin A. Snyder, Senior Fellow