Project Kingfish, 1951-1967:
The U.S. Information Agency’s
Clandestine Distribution of
American Propaganda Newsreels
to Foreign Movie Theaters
From 1951 to 1967, the United States Information Agency (USIA), in col
laboration with various studios in the Hollywood film industry, conducted a clan
destine operation dubbed Project Kingfish. It produced and distributed overseas
weekly newsreels that served as propagandist^ tools designed to reflect and sup
port U.S. policy objectives. The early 1950s found the U.S. government in the role
of persuading a reluctant movie industry to resume collaboration on overseas dis
tribution of unattributed U.S. newsreels—a project that flourished during World
War II, but was abandoned when the war ended. This reluctance hinged, to a large
degree, on U.S. antitrust regulations and a faltering free-enterprise system over
seas that had become bogged down by restrictions. The American film industry
agreed to participate in the project in 1951 when President Truman and the attor
ney general waived antitrust regulations for peacetime collaboration in a govern
ment-sponsored project (USIA, 1966a, 4-5).
Thus, Project Kingfish was launched under the nom de guerre o f 4Associated
Newsreels,” which was to produce and distribute overseas a weekly newsreel in
multilingual versions. The newsreel, incorporat