OPINION:
I read Chris Simmons’ recent column (“Cuban spies continue to exploit ’Sister City’ program,” Nation, Sunday), with curiosity and skepticism.
Sister Cities International is a 53-year-old nonprofit organization launched by President Dwight D. Eisenhower during the Cold War, with a mission of connecting U.S. cities with communities abroad to advance cultural understanding.
The president’s principal goal was to encourage citizen diplomacy — inspiring private citizens to travel abroad and to host citizens from other parts of the world. He wanted Americans to experience other cultures, countries and languages through people-to-people interactions.
Mr. Eisenhower’s idea has grown into a global network of more than 650 U.S. communities with more than 2,000 sister cities in 135 countries on six continents. The work of our Sister Cities programs includes humanitarian assistance, economic and sustainable development, education, technical assistance, arts and culture. Our members have shared the best practices on how to develop city budgets with local elected officials from Iraq and built wells for access to clean water in Timbuktu, Mali.
Sister Cities International established a strong set of relationships in the Soviet Union before the fall of the Berlin Wall, which helped spread awareness and understanding of democracy through educational and cultural exchanges and technical-assistance training.
While Mr. Simmons’ history lesson of Cuban espionage might be appropriate at the International Spy Museum, I hardly think that condemning a network of thousands of mayors, citizens and youth from across the country is fair. People-to-people exchanges are a widely accepted strategy to advance our nation’s public diplomacy and security goals. Ask the military personnel working in Provincial Reconstruction Teams stationed in Afghanistan and Iraq or the State Department’s foreign officers posted across the globe.
PATRICK M. MADDEN
President and chief executive officer
Sister Cities International
Washington
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