Slashing State Department's foreign exchange programs will harm U.S. Slashing State Department's foreign exchange programs will harm U.S.

The headline number in the budget proposed by the Trump administration is a nearly 30 percent cut in funding for the State Department. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson cryptically suggested more resources would not be required because the United States would be involved in fewer conflicts abroad.

If post-World War II history has taught us anything, it is that when the United States does not lead, those who do not wish America well will fill that void.

While less than one percent of the federal budget supports foreign aid, the Trump administration proposes to eliminate much of it. Already, Republican leaders have signaled that such cuts will not pass. Let us hope so. Funding for Bretton Woods institutions, such as the World Bank to the United Nations, and bilateral aid have been supported by Republicans and Democrats for decades for good, sound geopolitical reasons.

Beyond the slogan "America First," President Donald Trump has not articulated a geopolitical strategy that would justify a retrenchment. Secretary of Defense Mattis was clear: "If you cut the State Department budget, I have to buy more ammunition."

However, one set of proposed cuts particularly caught my attention. According to The Washington Post, the Trump administration considered totally eliminating the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, including the Fulbright Program, but, in the end, decided to keep Fulbright - America's signature program for the exchange of students and scholars - and has proposed to cut just about everything else.

These are essentially the various exchange programs run by the department to bring selected individuals to the United States and send Americans abroad to explain America and discuss common problems. But these programs do so much more.

In the nearly 30 years that I managed these programs in seven countries from poor counties like Bangladesh to majority Muslim countries such as Tunisia and to wealthy countries such as the United Kingdom, these were the most valuable programs we had to get across U.S. attitudes and, to quote the motto of the United States Information Agency, "tell America's story."

Yes, we live in an age of information, but "alternative facts" don't exist only in America. The image of America abroad is often distorted either by media with a particular political ax to grind or by government propagandists opposed to the United States

Programs such as the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) sends key individuals to the United States for short study visits when they are relatively young and up and coming and allows them to see the United States for themselves and form their own opinions. Thousands of key leaders around the world had their first visit to the United States in their 30s under the auspices of the State Department.

These visits promote cooperation, commerce and understanding, and we can never have too much understanding in our turbulent world. Just about every ambassador will tell you about a first meeting with a host country's cabinet minister, and the first thing that minister will bring up was his excellent experience on an IVLP program. Never underestimate the importance of building personal relationships.

Increasingly, the State Department is also sending large numbers of young people to the United States for summer programs and other study programs. At the moment, I am studying a particular program - The Cyprus American Scholarship Program or CASP - that the Congress instituted in 1981 but then ended after 30 years.

In 1981, the rationale was to try counter the scholarship programs being funded by the then-Soviet Union and its satellites. The CASP provided a couple of dozen undergraduate and graduate scholarships each year, but leveraged a great deal more.

When the program started, about 400 Cypriots were studying in the United States A few years after the CASP started, that number had risen to 2,200, most paying their own way because of the way CASP acted as a catalyst. Foreign students from around the globe pump about $30 billion annually into the United States economy and about two-thirds of those students pay all their own expenses. Today, with CASP ended, the number of Cypriots studying in the United States is back down to the 400 level.

These programs were never "giveaways" but investments in stronger relations and cooperation.

When you are in the "hearts and minds" business, it is often hard to show quantitative results but an America that is seen as more generous, more welcoming and more open will be more successful in working with other nations to solve global challenges. It is my hope that enough members of Congress, in evaluating the president's budget request, will agree.

Keith Peterson served 29 years as a press and cultural officer for the United States Information Agency and Department of State and was chief editorial writer of the Daily Herald 1984-86.