ABSTRACT
The history of literature and the fine arts is the study of an extraordinary mobility, rather than the study of specifically national arts. The transitional period from 1949-1953, the year in which USIA was established as an autonomous agency, were years in which the information and cultural program was continuously expanded, and years in which ambiguities became certainties while remaining ambiguous. Public Law 402, the US Information and Education Exchange Act, or Smith-Mundt Act, made possible the inclusion in the exchange program of most of the countries of both East and West that were not under the actual domination of Russia. The maintenance of libraries and the book-translation and subsidy programs account for a good chunk of the USIA budget, but here an opportunity is missed. Under Congressional pressure, no book not published in the US is allowed to be distributed, while the list of books that is distributed is severely vetted in Washington by an infamous committee of Snopeses.
