A Complicated Mission. The United States and Spanish Students during the Johnson Administration

Abstract

[EN] This paper examines how the Johnson administration implemented new public diplomacy programmes aimed at projecting a positive image of the USA among Spanish university students as part of the cultural Cold War. In other words, the following pages are an analysis of the exchange diplomacy and the ideological action which the superpower deployed in Spain in order to gain influence over young people. However, the American ideal spread by these programmes did not manage to improve the image of US policies which students considered illegitimate and lacking in moral authority since the country was seen to be a mainstay of the Franco regime'. Between 1963 and 1969, the art of public diplomacy did not succeed in counteracting the damage done to American credibility caused by collaborating with an ally which was too politically compromising. This deligitimisation was an example of the gradual weakening of bipolar restraint strategies as a guarantee of stability faced with the future succession of Franco.