The Establishment Of The Voice Of America And Its Early Activities (1940s-1950s)

In the modern society with highly developed productive forces, the internationalcompetition is not only a race of “hard power” in politics, economy, military might,but also a contest of “soft power” represented by technology and culture. Nowadays,peace and development have been the mainstream of the global society. The corebenefit of a country and the realization of the foreign policy depend much on theapplication of various measures, rather than on the competition between military andpolitical strength in the past. For American, a super-power country, Voice of Americais the best and most useful way to accomplish its foreign policies.Since the foundation of Voice of America during World War II, it has played asignificant role in American foreign policy. From the channel of propaganda for thewar to right-hand man of American foreign policy, Voice of America successfullyrealized transformation of roles. In a sense, the history of Voice of America is anepitome of the realization process of American foreign policy. The core problem ofthis essay is to explore the essence of Voice of America and the purpose of thefoundation of this organization through the study of background, aim, process of itsfoundation and early mobilization(1940s--1950s).This paper is mainly divided into four parts. For the first part, background andsignificance for selecting this topic are introduced, and the condition of study in thisfield at home and abroad is commented. The second part is an introduction ofhistorical background of foundation of VOA and the leaders at earlier stage, the OWI(Office of War Information). And the major role John Housman, the father of VOA,played in the foundation stage is presented in this part. The third part is illustration ofprocess of function transformation and development of VOA after World War II. Thelast part is the analysis of the great role VOA played in American foreign policysetting and implementation procedure, and an exploration on the significance of VOAin the implementation process of American diplomatic strategy is also explained inthis section.