Civil War heritage as American diplomacy, 1957–1965

Abstract

This paper explores the role of Civil War heritage in U.S. public diplomacy during the Cold War era. Especially during the celebration of the Civil War’s centennial, between 1961 and 1965, the Americans endeavoured to harness the conflict’s heritage to promote U.S. interests in Europe. How they intended to do this is demonstrated primarily through an examination of Colonel Sidney Morgan’s mission to Europe to find how the commemoration of the Civil War could be used for public diplomacy. Additionally, by exploring how Civil War heritage was spread and used in the British public sphere, the paper examines and underlines the key role saved to unofficial cultural agents, such as Civil War re-enactment clubs and private people, in heritage diplomacy. The focus on unofficial agents and networks enable this study to show how heritage diplomacy works at the un-institutionalised level and to explore the interaction between the official and unofficial level in heritage diplomacy. The historical perspective and methodology cast new light on the use of history, historical memory and heritage for diplomatic ends and introduces both historians and heritage scholars with new avenues to explore, such as the role of memory and historical consciousness in shaping international relations.

Keywords:

• American Civil War centennial
• public diplomacy
• USIA
• heritage
• memory

Notes

1. Jay Sexton’s study of the uses in 1959 of the image of Abraham Lincoln for purposes of public diplomacy is the only work on the subject, and the present paper builds on many of its insights and findings. Here, however, the uses of Lincoln’s image are incorporated into a bigger story of the uses of the Civil War and its heritage as a whole during a period of nearly a decade. Jay Sexton (2011). See also Cook (2013).

2. For example, Daniel Rodgers is a classical work that shows how ideas travelled between Britain and the United States in both directions. See Rodgers (1998)

3. Reynolds (1986). See also: Danchev (2006).

4. The Merseyside Trail Map is available here: http://www.acwrt.org.uk/uk-heritage_A-Civil-War-Tour-of-Liverpool.asp. The map was produced by Len Ellison, the Chairman of the Wirral History & Heritage Association, a Civil War enthusiast, and a member of the Civil War Round Table, UK, who organises such tours.