Harry S. Truman photo

Statement by the President Upon Signing Order Concerning Government Information Programs.

August 31, 1945

I HAVE today signed an Executive Order abolishing the Office of War Information.

This agency and its able personnel, under the leadership of Elmer Davis, have made an outstanding contribution to victory. Our military commanders have acclaimed its psychological warfare work as a powerful weapon against the enemy. Its other overseas activities have aided our whole effort in the foreign field.

In its domestic activities, OWI has performed an invaluable service in coordinating the Government's wartime information and in utilizing the generous contribution of private press, radio, motion pictures, advertising and other facilities to inform the American people about their Government's wartime programs.

Although it is possible to curtail wartime governmental information activities, some of our foreign information operations will continue to be necessary.

Along with the international information functions of the OWI, this order also transfers to the Department of State the foreign information functions of the Office of Inter-American Affairs. The nature of present day foreign relations makes it essential for the United States to maintain informational activities abroad as an integral part of the conduct of our foreign affairs.

I have asked the Secretary of State to study our foreign informational needs, and to formulate during the remainder of this calendar year, the program which he considers should be conducted on a continuing basis.

The Office of Inter-American Affairs has played a major role in strengthening the relationships between the United States and the other American republics. As distinct from the informational activities, the work which the OIAA has been carrying on cooperatively with the governments of Latin American countries in public health, agriculture, and other fields will be continued by that agency.

To the fullest possible extent, American private organizations and individuals in such fields as news, motion pictures and communications will, as in the past, be the primary means of informing foreign peoples about this country. The government's international information program will not compete with them.

Instead it will be designed to assist American private enterprises engaged in the dissemination of information abroad, and to supplement them in those specialized informational activities in which commercial or other limitations make it difficult for private concerns to carry on all necessary information work.

This Government will not attempt to outstrip the extensive and growing information programs of other nations. Rather, it will endeavor to see to it that other peoples receive a full and fair picture of American life and of the aims and policies of the United States government.

The domestic work of OWI, such as cooperation with the press, radio, motion pictures, and other informational media in explaining governmental programs is no longer as necessary as it was. This order discontinues these activities and provides for the liquidation of OWI itself.

Hereafter each government agency will deal directly with the various private informational facilities. Certain prewar information activities, placed in the OWI as a wartime measure, such as the publication of the United States Government Manual and answering inquiries from the public, are transferred by this order to the Bureau of the Budget.

Harry S Truman, Statement by the President Upon Signing Order Concerning Government Information Programs. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/231163

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