Overseas, U.S. prestige appeared to be a thing of the past. Policymakers and diplomats, hoping to “fix” this problem, used several ways to do so, including turning to public diplomacy (PD), a little-known, among the American public, foreign policy instrument, implemented by the United States Information Agency, established by President Eisenhower (in 1953), at the height of the Cold War, in order to counteract Soviet propaganda.

Ben Barber's recent Salon article, "WikiLeaks and the sham of 'public diplomacy': Our diplomats spout jingoistic nonsense about American supremacy -- instead of engaging with the rest of the world," shows his heart in the right place but his history way out in left field.

All of a sudden, I felt back in Central Europe during the Cold War. But this was Washington, D.C., on October 30, 2010. At the Rally to Restore Sanity in the imperial capital yesterday, the mood reminded me of my postings as a U.S. Foreign Service public diplomacy officer in Prague (1983-1985) and Krakow (1986-1990).

This slim volume by a Voice of America director during the early years of the Reagan administration (March 1982 - August 1982) says some reasonable things, but from a rather naïve point of view. It's about U.S. public diplomacy, the subject of dozens of reports since 9/11.