The Capitol Dome

The Capitol Dome 56.1

Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1180196

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 17 of 51

16 THE CAPITOL DOME I n 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Offi ce of Facts and Figures (OFF), a government public information offi ce. He asked Archibald MacLeish, librarian of Congress, Pulitzer Prize winner, and presi- dential speechwriter, to manage OFF from the Library of Congress. It was in this Capitol Hill offi ce in the Library of Congress Adams Building that Alan MacGregor Crans- ton began his public service career. The librarian hired Cranston as chief of the OFF's Foreign Language Division to set up the division and direct its policies and programs. At its peak, Cranston led a staff of 18 plus 60 translators on contract to communicate with America's foreign-speaking groups on public policy issues. A year later, OFF was combined with other agencies and merged with the Offi ce of War Information (OWI). 1 In the years before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, there was no consensus on whether the United States should be involved in another foreign war. When the U.S. entered WWII, OWI explained to various ethnic communities the reasons America was fi ghting the war. In 1944, Cranston enlisted in the Army but was not deployed. Instead he was assigned to be a writer for Army Talk, where his experience and skills would do the most good. Cranston's vantage point from the Library of Con- gress to the Capitol complex gave him a clear view of the Statute of Freedom atop the Capitol Dome and proximity to the House and Senate offi ce buildings. These symbols Fig. 1. Alan Cranston early in his service as a senator, c. 1969 HITLER EXPOSED: 80 Years Ago, a Future Senator and Presidential Candidate Pursued the Full Truth about Hitler's Mein Kampf by Lorraine Tong "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." –Edmund Burke

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of The Capitol Dome - The Capitol Dome 56.1