Americans All: Good Neighbor Cultural Diplomacy in World War II

Acknowledgments

x I Acknowledgments Productive archival research depends greatly upon the knowledge and helpfulness of library specialists, who not only train us in the art of using collections but also frequently point us to little-known treasure troves of information. Research for this book took me to more than a dozen archives beginning several years ago with a visit to the Margaret Herrick Library in Los Angeles and ending with a second visit to the National Archives II in College Park, Maryland. Stops between those places included collections at the University of Louisiana; the University of Texas at Austin; the University of Chicago; the University of California Los Angeles; the Library of Congress; the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park, New York; the Museum of Modern Art; the New York Public Library; the Rockefeller Archive Center in Tarrytown, New York; and the Fundação Getúlio Vargas in Rio de Janeiro. I also greatly benefited from holdings at Indiana University’s Lilly Library and Presidential Archive of Herman B. Wells. Special thanks go to Latin American specialist Becky Cape at the Lilly Library, Katherine D. McCann and Jan Grenci at the Library of Congress, Jean Kiesel at the University of Louisiana, Martha Harsanyi at Indiana University, Carol Radovich at the Rockefeller Archive Center, and Barbara Hall at the Margaret Herrick Library. I was fortunate to receive a number of grants to support my research, including fellowships from Indiana University’s College of Arts and Humanities Institute , Office of the Vice Provost for Research–New Frontiers in Arts and Humanities , Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and Office of the Vice President for International Affairs. A Rockefeller Archive Center Fellowship supported my research there. Along with grants, I want to single out the support and friendship of Gisela Cramer and Ursula Prutsch, whose work on the National Archive II files on the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (CIAA) was invaluable. x I I A M E R I C A N S A L L Anthony N. Doob at the University of Toronto was extremely generous in providing me with the personal papers of his father, Leonard W. Doob, who was Nelson Rockefeller’s public opinion adviser in the first years of the CIAA. Sam Bryan was always graciously attentive to my queries about his father, Julien Bryan, who made close to two dozen 16 mm educational films for the CIAA. I was also pleased to correspond with Ted Thomas, whose father, Frank Thomas, was one of Walt Disney’s most talented artists. Ted’s documentary Walt and El Grupo (2009) provides important additional evidence of the CIAA’s promotion of the “Good Neighbor.” Brazilianist and World War II historian Frank D. McCann provided me with generous detailed feedback on early chapters of the book. I also benefited greatly from suggestions by Nicholas J. Cull, whose writings on U.S. public diplomacy were inspirational. Julie Maguire of the Brett Weston Archives and Barbara Rominski of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art allowed me to include Weston’s 1940 photograph of Grace McCann Morley, who worked closely with the CIAA on traveling art exhibits. Lauren Post, great-granddaughter of U.S. cartoonist Rollin Kirby, gave me permission to include his “Good Neighbor” cartoon. At the University of Texas Press, I am especially grateful to Theresa May, who initially encouraged this project, and to Jim Burr, who has been a wonderful editor. Although the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration is not part of my personal history, the 1930s and especially the 1940s hold a special interest for me. This period was one of the few times in U.S. history when culture’s importance in domestic and world affairs was recognized and discussed alongside issues of finance and commerce. Having a loving and highly knowledgeable companion who has written extensively about the 1940s and who contributed to the chapters in this volume made the book all the more exciting and enjoyable to write. The book is dedicated to him and to the memory of my father, who was a U.S. infantry soldier in North Africa and Europe during World War II. ...