History

For more than 50 years the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) has sought to cultivate mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries to promote friendly, and peaceful relations, as mandated by the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961.

ECA exchange program alumni encompass over 1 million people around the world, including more than 50 Nobel Laureates and over 350 current and former heads of state and government.

A brief history of the bureau and the events that led to its establishment are chronicled in this timeline:

1940 Coordinator of Commercial and Cultural Affairs for the American Republics, Nelson Rockefeller, initiates the exchange of persons program with Latin America; inviting 130 Latin American journalists to the United States

1942 Office of War Information (OWI) established to consolidate scattered agencies of domestic and foreign information

1946 President Truman terminates OWI; one section is placed within the Department of State as the Office of International Information and Cultural Affairs (OIC). OIC has a network of 76 branches worldwide; 67 information centers and libraries stock books, display exhibits and show films.

1946 Fulbright Program is established

1947 OIC is renamed the Office of International Information and Educational Exchange

1948 Rep. Karl Mundt and Sen. H. Alexander Smith introduce the Smith-Mundt Act, establishing a statutory information agency to "promote a better understanding of the United States in other countries, and to increase mutual understanding" between Americans and foreigners

1948 International Visitor Program formally established to engage professionals, intellectuals and opinion leaders in the political and social infrastructure

1953 President Eisenhower establishes the United States Information Agency (USIA) to consolidate information functions administered by the State Department and other agencies. Educational and cultural exchanges remain within the State Department

1959 The exchange function is separated from the State Department’s Bureau of Public Affairs and is assigned to a newly created Bureau of Educational and Cultural Relations (CU).

1961 Congress passes the Fulbright-Hays Act to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. By the end of the year, a Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs is established in the Department of State

1978 President Carter approves a major reorganization of USIA, combining it with the department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs to become the United States International Communication Agency (USICA)

1978 President Carter initiates the Hubert Humphrey Fellowship Program

1982 President Reagan changes USICA’s name back to USIA

1983 The Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange Program begins

1984 Congress creates the Cultural Property Advisory Committee to help stem illicit trafficking in cultural property. The CPAC secretariat is housed in ECA

1992 Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) Program is established

1999 USIA moves into the State Department where exchange programs and other USIA components comprise the department’s new Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), which maintains its authority under the Fulbright-Hays Act

2000 Congress creates the Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation

2001 ECA establishes the Office of Alumni Affairs and the Alumni.State.Gov network

2006 The Bush administration launches the National Security Language Initiative, including ECA’s NSLI-Y initiative focused on American youth

2008 ExchangesConnect debuts as the first social network of the U.S. government

2010 The International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) celebrates its 70th Anniversary