Америчка „јавна дипломатија“ у социјалистичкој Југославији 50-их и 60-их година XX века
American “Public Diplomacy” in Socialist Yugoslaviа in the 1950s and 1960s of the 20th Century

Summary/Abstract: During the Cold War propaganda played an important role in the battle for the “hearts and souls” of ordinary people. American propaganda was practiced on several levels, the important one being the so called “public diplomacy” that was spread through official institutions. This form of propaganda was spread in Yugoslavia by the USA Information Service, American Reading Room, the propaganda magazine Pregled and the Voice of America – all presenting the desired picture of American society to the people of Yugoslavia. Although it did not directly attack the Yugoslav system or communism, it did underscore the values of American society with the aim that those exposed to this form of propaganda could conclude that the American dream is a reality for American citizens and that it could also become accessible to others. It is interesting to note that except in the period before the conflict with the Soviet Union, there was no serious opposition to this kind of American propaganda, which was certainly a consequence of the general Yugoslav foreign policy. Certainly this kind of propaganda could not turn Yugoslavia into a country that looked like America nor change its citizens into Americans but it could indicate that a different life existed and instigate a desire for it. The furniture in the flats on the newly built housing estates did not look the same as the modernly equipped American apartments in high rises, the houses in the Yugoslav villages did not look like the ones on American farms, the small Fiat cars (called fiće) produced in Yugoslavia driven on the old roads full of holes were not the same as the Buicks on the Amеrican highways … However, even if the plowing fields in communism did not look like the ones on American farms, the Yugoslav workers did not have the modernly equipped houses with large cars in front of them, Yugoslav surgeons did not have the facilities that Michael DeBakey had, the image of America as apromised land stayed forever inscribed in the minds of the people of socialist Yugoslavia largely due to the influence of American propaganda.

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