Joint United States Public Affairs Office

The Joint United States Public Affairs Office (JUSPAO) was a multi-agency organization that provided integrated Information Operations support in South Vietnam from 1965 to 1972. Involving military, US Information Agency and State Department efforts, JUSPAO provided direction for a range of public affairs, public diplomacy and psychological operations.

The United States Information Agency (USIA) had several integral components, one of the most important being the United States Information Service (USIS) during the Vietnam War. The USIS, the overseas component of the USIA, sought to foster a sympathetic understanding of American culture abroad and to build public support for U.S. foreign policy in other nations around the world.

During a visit to South Vietnam in March 1965, Carl Rowan and General Harold K. Johnson, the Director of the United States Information Agency and the Army Chief of Staff respectively, observed the many difficulties and inefficiencies of the uncoordinated psychological operations, also known as "PSYOPs". The officials reached out to President Lyndon B. Johnson and recommended that he integrate all foreign information and PSYOP activities into a single office. The president would soon approve this recommendation, combining the United States Information Service (USIS), Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The Joint United States Public Affairs Office was officially created on 14 May 1965 in United States Embassy Instruction 186. The USIS Director in Vietnam, Barry Zorthian, was designated as the initial Director of JUSPAO. Zorthian had experience working with the USIA in the Asian mainland as he previously served as the Deputy Director of the USIS in New Delhi, India and worked as a scriptwriter and program manager for the Voice of America (VOA).

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