Rowan Hits Too Simple World Views

Carl T. Rowan, director of the United States Information Agency, last night sharply criticised Americans who think they live "in a dream world where there are readily identifiable enemies against whom we are either tough or soft."

"Their notion that we are rich, powerful, and single-minded enough to unilaterally decree the course of history," he told the Law School Forum, is incompatible with American ideals of personal liberty and national autonomy.

Stressing the complexity of the world situation, he wryly noted that "the good guys can be more of a headache than the bad gays." He singled out France, in addition to the Soviet Union, as a country in which the Warren Commission report--"the most widely distributed document in the history of the United States"--has met with wide-spread disbelief.

While disagreement between the U.S. and neutral or allied countries cannot always be dispelled, Rowan continued, "no foreign policy can succeed today that makes no allowance for what is in the hearts and minds of the people of other countries."

Rights Act 'Vital'

Rowan also laid strong emphasis on the propaganda effect of passing the Civil Rights Act. Widespread compliance, he declared, is of "vital importance" to the United States in "the world struggle" against Communism.

"This country's racial trouble is the USIA's biggest headache in our effort to spread the idea of the moral leadership of America," he said.

Rowan quoted a Chinese charge that the Civil Rights bill is a "legislative fraud designed to stifle the Negro civil rights movement." Noting that anti-American charges fall on sympathetic ears throughout Asia and Africa, Rowan outlined USIA programs to counteract the effects of Chinese propaganda.

A member of the audience asked Rowan how the USIA is portraying the Presidential campaign, in light of hostility abroad towards Sen. Goldwater. "The goal is to make both candidates look as good as the facts and their own statements will permit," answered Rowan. He was appointed by President Johnson in January.