The Genesis of American Public Diplomacy: Creel vs. Lippmann -- a Facebook entry

Saturday, January 31, 2015
The Genesis of American Public Diplomacy: Creel vs. Lippmann -- a Facebook entry

John Brown: As a Wilson Center Kennan Institute "grad" in the late 70s while a researcher there, and given the interest in Wilson, FYI have completed the final draft of an article (to be published by the Public Council Council), "Janus-Faced American Public Diplomacy: Creel vs .Lippmann during the Great War," which deals in part with how Creel -- an "unintellectual" Southern journalist who headed Wilson's Committee on Public Information (1917-1919) -- and Lippmann, a NY-born "intellectual" who wrote for the New Republic, founded in 1914 -- each tried, in their own way (excuse the simplification), to be Tommy's (as you know, Wilson's first name before he decided for the more serious-sounding Woodrow). They also represented -- again, to simplify -- two approaches to American public diplomacy at its genesis (in a modern form): telling a story (Creel) or telling the truth (Lippmann). Creel and Lippmann couldn't stand each other, although they were more alike than they would have liked to admit, given their infatuation with how to "manage" public opinion.