The American Librery Zagreb and the cultural Cold War in socialist Yugoslavia: an interview with its long-time director Nada Apsen

Abstract

1948. bila je prijelomna godina za jugoslavensko-američke odnose i američku vanjsku politiku prema Jugoslaviji. Nakon razlaza sa Staljinom, američka administracija formulirala je „strategiju klina“ u svrhu održavanja Tita „na površini“ te, osim ekonomske i vojne pomoći, pokrenula niz kulturnih programa namijenjenih približavanju Jugoslavije Sjedinjenim Američkim Državama. Članak analizira aktivnosti kao i kulturnu i intelektualnu atraktivnost Američke čitaonice u Zagrebu u jeku Hladnog rata kao dio američke javne i kulturne diplomacije. Nastao je na temelju usmenog intervjua te je popraćen međunarodnim arhivskim istraživanjem (National Archives at College Park i University of Arkansas Library, SAD; Arhiv Jugoslavije, Arhiv Josipa Broza Tita i Historijski arhiv grada Beograda, Beograd; Hrvatski državni arhiv, Zagreb; te Roosevelt Institute for American Studies Microfilm Collection). Autorica tvrdi da je kroz djelatnosti čitaonice, programe kulturnih razmjena, radio Glas Amerike, američkih paviljona na Zagrebačkom i Beogradskom velesajmu, kao i preko kulturnih gostovanja, američka vlada uspješno vezala jugoslavenski kulturni prostor za zapadne, američke trendove i tendencije. Kroz perspektivu osobnog svjedoka, direktorice United States Information Servicea (USIS) Zagreb, autorica izlaže uspjehe, granice i prostore pregovaranja američke javne diplomacije (public diplomacy) kao validnog instrumenta američke vanjske politike prema Titovoj Jugoslaviji.1948 was a breakthrough year for the Yugoslav-American bilateral relations and the US foreign policy towards Yugoslavia. After the Tito-Stalin split, the US administration conceived a “wedge strategy” to “keep Tito afloat” and, besides economic and military aid, launched a series of cultural programs aimed at bringing Yugoslavia closer to the United States. The article analyzes the activities as well as the cultural and intellectual attractiveness of the American Library Zagreb at the height of the Cold War as part of the US public diplomacy strategy in socialist Yugoslavia. Based on an oral interview, the article relies on international archival research at the National Archives at College Park and the University of Arkansas Library, USA, the Yugoslav Archives, Josip Broz Tito’s Archives, Belgrade’s Historical Archives, Belgrade, the Croatian State Archives, and the Roosevelt Institute for American Studies Microfilm Collection. The author argues that through the library activities, the cultural exchange programs, the Voice of America, and the American pavilions at the Zagreb and Belgrade Fair, as well as through cultural visits, the US government successfully linked the Yugoslav cultural space to Western, American trends and tendencies. Through the perspective of a witness, the United States Information Service (USIS) director in Zagreb, the author presents the successes, boundaries and negotiating spaces of the US public diplomacy as a valid instrument of US foreign policy towards Tito’s Yugoslavia