893 



students, not their dollar costs in the United States, which had to be raised from 

 private sources. And eventually its reserves of foreign currencies would be ex- 

 hausted.^5 



Second, maii}'^ Members of Congress, responding to tlie growing 

 intensity of the Cold War, wanted either to abolish the program or 

 link it more closely to foreign propaganda and promotional activities: 



Many Congressmen had gone overseas in 1946 and 1947, and most came home 

 shocked and angered by the calculated misrepresentations of the United States 

 they had encountered and [were] deeplj- concerned by the evident lack of under- 

 standing of American society and motives, even among good friends.'^ 



THE SMITH-MUNDT ACT OF 1948 



After a long and heated debate on the relationship of educational 

 exchange to foreign policy, the Congress amended the existing legis- 

 lation bv passing the United States Information and Education 

 (Smith-Mundt) Act of 1948, P.L. 80-402. The provisions of this 

 Act reflected a desire to maintain a relative independence of educa- 

 tional and cultural affairs from foreign policy. The foreign policy 

 purpose was served by establishing an information service separate 

 from educational activities. The Fulbright program was strengthened 



by- 



(1) authorizing some educational exchange in countries other 

 than those whose governments had signed educational exchange 

 agreements ; 



(2) enabling Fulbright scholars to receive some supplementary 

 dollar support ; 



(3) requiring the State Department to use private organiza- 

 tions wherever possible in carr^^ing out the operations and objec- 

 tives of the program; 



(4) authorizing the inclusion of technical assistance activities 

 imder the concept of educational interchange of persons, knowl- 

 edge, and skills authorized by the program; and 



(5) further expanding the concept of educational exchange by 

 authorizing the Secretary of State to support the exchange of 

 educational materials, and to extend grants to American-sponsored 

 schools, libraries, private universities, and other organizations to 

 further the aims of the educational and cultural exchange 

 programs. 



The act also created the presidentially-appointed U.S. Advisory 

 Commission on Educational Exchange to appraise the effectiveness of 

 the educational exchange program semiannually and recommend 

 legislative improvement.^' 



As noted, the Congress had authorized the Fulbright program to 

 utilize foreign currencies derived from the sale of surplus war materials. 

 By 1954 this source of funding began to dry up and Senator Fulbright, 

 foreseeing the need for a new source of revenue, proposed an amend- 

 ment to the Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 

 1954. The Congress passed this amendment (P.L. 83-480) thereby 

 authorizing U.S.-owned foreign currencies derived from any source, 

 including the sale of U.S. agricultural commodities abroad, to be used 

 for educational exchange. 



" Idem., p. 30. 



»6 Ibid., p. 31. 



8' Created by section 603 of P.L. 80-402, (62 Stat. 6). 



