Otto Reich - Office of Public Diplomacy

Office of Public Diplomacy

From 1983 to 1986, Reich established and managed the inter-agency Office of Public Diplomacy for Latin America and the Caribbean. The OPD declassified Central Intelligence Agency information and disseminated it to influence public opinion and spur Congress to continue to fund the Reagan administration's campaign against Nicaragua's Soviet-backed Sandinista government. The OPD was set up to combat Sandinista propaganda and lobbying efforts in the U.S., about which Sandinista leader Tomas Borge said, “The battle for Nicaragua is not being waged in Nicaragua. It is being fought in the United States.”

The OPD has been strongly criticized. A report by the House Foreign Affairs Committee characterized it as a domestic political and propaganda operation. The 1987 bipartisan "Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran/Contra Affair" found it guilty of "′white propaganda′: pro-Contra newspaper articles by paid consultants who did not disclose their connection to the Administration." In 1987, an investigation by the Comptroller General determined that the OPD engaged in "prohibited, covert propaganda activities, beyond the range of acceptable agency public information activities". The OPD also violated “a restriction on the State Department’s annual appropriations prohibiting the use of federal funds for publicity or propaganda purposes not authorized by Congress.”