United States Cultural Exchange Programs

United States cultural exchange programs, particularly those programs with ties to the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) of the United States Department of State, seek to develop cultural understanding between United States citizens and citizens of other countries. Exchange programs do not necessarily exchange one individual for another individual of another country; rather, "exchange" refers to the exchange of cultural understanding created when an individual goes to another country. These programs can be regarded as a form of cultural diplomacy within the spectrum of public diplomacy.

Exchange programs played a vital role in official and unofficial relations between the Soviet Union and the United States during the Cold War. Examples of cultural exchange programs include student exchanges, sports exchanges, and scholarly or professional exchanges, among many others. While many exchange programs are funded by the government, many others are private-sector organizations, either non-profit or for-profit.

One of the earliest cultural exchanges to be considered part of U.S. Public Diplomacy occurred when Nelson Rockefeller, named coordinator of Commercial and Cultural Affairs for the American Republics, encouraged journalists from Latin America to visit the United States in 1940 as part of the exchange of programs program with Latin America. Leading musicians from the region were subsequently invited during the decade to CBS's broadcasting studios in New York City in order to perform on the Viva America radio program for the State Department's Office for Coordination of Commercial and Cultural Relations (OCCCRBAR). Following World War II, Senator J. William Fulbright introduced legislation for what would become the Fulbright Program in 1946. One of the most significant moments in the formalization of exchange programs as tools of American Foreign Policy came under U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower. In 1955, Eisenhower met with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in Geneva. Soon after this meeting, Eisenhower said, "The subject that took most of my attention was the possibility of increased visits overseas by the citizens of one country into the territory of the other nation. In this subject there was the fullest possible agreement between the West and the Soviet Union".

...
Wikipedia