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8 - Selling the World to America

Nation Branding, the Vietnam Lobby, and the Congressional Backlash

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 July 2025

Andrew Johnstone
Affiliation:
University of Leicester
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Summary

Chapter 8 examines how, after 1945, a growing number of American PR firms took on foreign governments as clients. As the international PR business expanded through the 1950s, pretty much any country outside of the communist orbit was up for grabs. While there were numerous examples, the most notable was a government desperate to remain outside of the communist orbit: South Vietnam. Its leader, Ngo Dinh Diem, sought PR to strengthen his own image as well as that of his new nation. From the mid-1950s, Harold Oram’s firm provided PR counsel to South Vietnam in the United States as part of a wider “Vietnam Lobby.” For the most part, the PR firms in question believed they worked in the interests of the United States as much as the countries they represented. Yet it became increasingly clear that their own business interests were their priority. The fact that American PR firms worked for foreign governments at all caused controversy when news of the practice came to public attention in the 1960s. Through media reports and subsequent Congressional investigations, the role of PR firms in promoting foreign clients within the United States once again came under question.

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Chapter
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Spinning the World
The Public Relations Industry and American Foreign Relations
, pp. 174 - 208
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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