How can a theatrical performance of Arthur Miller in Athens promote the goals of US foreign policy? And conversely, how are these goals harmed by an impressive display of industrial products at the Soviet pavilion of the Thessaloniki International Fair? These are some of the questions that this book attempts to answer, through the presentation of the strategies and means adopted by the cultural diplomacy of the United States in Greece during the period 1953-1973, in the light of the formation of post-war American hegemony. The main axis of the study is the effort of the US to build networks of influence, seeking and familiarizing potential leaders of Greek politics, economy, and intellectual life with the idea of Americanism.

The publication is based on the processing of extensive primary material, which includes the archives of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the US Department of State, the United States Information Agency, as well as the presidential archives of Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson, which shed light on the shaping of propaganda actions and the educational and cultural programs of the American government.

The author examines the goals, successes, and failures of American cultural diplomacy in the context of the Cold War, in relation to developments in the Greek political scene. A separate position in this problematic is the approach to the evolution of public opinion research as a tool of American cultural diplomacy, with particular reference to research conducted in Greece under American supervision. Overall, the book illustrates an era in which the battle between the two major opponents, the US and the USSR, gave political content to the sphere of cultural action.