Yale Richmond, 1924-2020

I'm a huge fan of Yale Richmond's work and his scholarship!  His book "Cultural Exchange and the Cold War: Raising the Iron Curtain" (2003) is what led to my interest in and scholarship on public diplomacy!

His obituary highlights his life's work in the State Department and his leadership and commitment to international educational and cultural exchanges which you can read at https://legcy.co/3bFffaP.

Eduard Shevardnadze (ედუარდ შევარდნაძე), 25 January 1928 – 7 July 2014

Eduard Shevardnadze (ედუარდ შევარდნაძე)

25 January 1928 – 7 July 2014

Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991 and President of Georgia from 1992 to 2003 understood the value of international educational and cultural exchanges.

It's fascinating to read about how "General Agreement on Contacts, Exchanges, and Cooperation in Scientific, Technical, Educational, Cultural, and Other Fields" between the United States and the Soviet Union [one of smaller outcomes of the Geneva Summit in November 1985] came about:

"Pact on Exchanges: 200-Hour Wrangle" via The New York Times, November 27, 1985

"General Agreement on Contacts, Exchanges, and Cooperation in Scientific, Technical, Educational, Cultural, and Other Fields" between the United States and the Soviet Union

Research Notes on the National Defense Education Act of 1958

The following are some brief notes I typed up during my research activities for some class earlier in my doctoral program. Since I’m not using these notes in any of my current research/writing activities I thought I would post them to IHEC Blog as they are interesting:

In 1957, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) launched the tiny Sputnik I satellite, thus beating the Untied States in innovation and exploration of the new frontier of outer space. As a result, the United States Congress passed the National Defense Education Act of 1958.1 The National Defense Education Act highlighted the critical importance of education to national defense and was signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on September 2, 1958. By passing this legislation, the United States Congress understood that the defense and security of the United States were bound with education.2  The National Defense and Education Act provided federal funding to colleges and universities in order to develop graduate programs focusing on mathematics, the sciences, foreign languages and area studies. In addition, The National Defense Education Act created the Graduate Fellowship Program and the National Defense Student Loan Program, the precursor to the Perkins Loan Program, which was the first federal student aid program for low-income students.

The National Defense Education Act authorized one billion dollars of federal aid for twelve separate programs outlined in its ten Titles. The National Defense Education Act had a substantial impact on graduate education and research during its time, however, as with all federal funding programs; The National Defense Education Act also had its share of critics. Despite the controversies and concerns, The National Defense Education Act of 1958 was landmark legislation that brought significant federal attention to higher education and how it was funded, both at the institutional level as well as at the individual student level.

If you are interested in reading more about the National Defense Education Act of 1958 you can do so here and here.

1 Often referred to as NDEA.
2 Richard D. Scarfo. “The History of Title VI and Fulbright-Hays,” in International Education in the New Global Era: Proceedings of a National Policy Conference on the Higher Education Act, Title VI, and Fulbright-Hays Programs, ed. John N. Hawkins, Carlos Manuel Haro, Miriam A. Kazanjian, Gilbert W. Merkx and David Wiley. (Los Angeles: International Studies and Overseas Programs, University of California Los Angeles, 1998): 23.

Visa Donkey Chipmunk...

...apparently had to do with Soviets applying for exchange visas to the United States. Who knew! Anyone know why cables for the educational exchange officers in Moscow had “Visa Donkey Chipmunk” in the subject line? Is this still the same in Moscow?

I picked up this interesting international educational exchange factoid from the December 28, 2009 U.S. State Department “On-the-Record Briefing” when Ian Kelly, Department Spokesman, was answering questions about Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab (individual who attempted to bring down a Delta Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on December 25^th) and the VISA VIPER cable issued by The United States Embassy in Abuja (Nigeria). You can read the entire press conference here but I have copied and pasted the relevant part of the Q&A that mentions “Visas Donkey Chipmunk” cables below:

QUESTION: What does VISAS VIPER mean? Is that some slick acronym?

MR. KELLY: Yeah. Well, it’s not an acronym, no. It’s – I remember when I was in Moscow, they – it’s just a – it’s a tradition in the State Department. I was in Moscow and I was the educational exchanges officer, and I would get cables that were – the subject line was “Visas Donkey Chipmunk,” and it had to do with Soviets applying for exchange visas.

U.S. Educational/Cultural Exchanges with Russia/Soviet Union

Over the weekend I received a Google Alert for “international education” that I not only found to be quite interesting but also very timely in my research efforts. The short news piece that I’m referring to entitled “United States-Russian Exchanges Boost Mutual Understanding” was published by ISRIA (a consulting an information publishing service founded in Paris in 2004). The news piece is of interest to me as it relates to international education and, in particular, the public diplomacy aspect of international educational exchanges. The reason that this news piece is so timely for my research is that I just checked out several related books from the Regenstein Library at the University of Chicago last Friday (the day before the ISRIA piece). The books I checked out are as follows:

U.S.-Soviet Cultural Exchanges, 1958-1986: Who Wins? by Yale Richmond (1987)

Cultural Exchange & the Cold War: Raising the Iron Curtain by Yale Richmond (2003)

Practicing Public Diplomacy: A Cold War Odyssey by Yale Richmond (2008)

Private Diplomacy with the Soviet Union edited by David D. Newsome (1987)

Cultural Relations and U.S. Foreign Policy by Charles A. Thomson & Walter H.C. Laves (1963)

Cultural Affairs and Foreign Relations edited by Robert Blum (1963)

I checked out all of these books as they focus entirely or in part on the use of educational/cultural exchange by the United States during the Cold War period and in particular with the Soviet Union. Hopefully these books will help me focus my dissertation topic/proposal…

The ISRIA piece offers a brief overview of the current state of U.S.-Russian educational/cultural exchanges which I admittedly have not been following in depth.

EDIT ~ Apparently the ISRIA link isn't working (most likely because you need to be a subscriber despite me being able to access it earlier this week). I believe that I found the same article on America.gov which you can access here.