Ufuk : how the US information agency molded Turkish elite opinion, 1960-1980

Abstract

This study argues that the United States Information Agency carried out an intense public diplomacy program in Turkey between 1960 and 1980 in order to ameliorate the U.S. image among the Turkish urban elite, especially among the members of the Republican People’s Party and thus to prevent Turkey from having closer relations with the USSR. For this purpose, the study contains a close reading of the USIA propaganda material targeting this small but influential group, namely Ufuk Magazine and uncovers the image that the USIA aimed to create in order “to win hearts and minds” of the RPP members, members of Turkish Foreign Ministry of the time, academics and journalists in a period of Cold War where the peripheries rather than Europe became the target of the U.S. public diplomacy efforts.