Harold C. Pachios To Discuss U.S. Role in Influencing Foreign Public Opinion

Harold C. Pachios (class of 1959), chairman of the United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, will present a public lecture titled, "Influencing Foreign Public Opinion-America's Rle," on Wednesday, April 24, at 4:30 p.m. in Bowl 1, Robertson Hall, on the Princeton campus.

The U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, created by Congress in 1948, is responsible for assessing public diplomacy policies and programs of the U.S. State Department, American missions abroad, and other agencies. Advisory Commission responsibilities extend to international exchanges, U.S. government international information programs, and publicly-funded non-governmental organizations. Pachios was nominated and confirmed as a member of the commission in 1993, and designated chairman by President Clinton in 1999.

Pachios' prior government service includes three years as deputy congressional liaison for the Peace Corps during the agency's early years. President Johnson appointed him Associate White House Press Secretary in 1965, where he served as principal aide to Press Secretary Bill Moyers. Pachios then served as director of scheduling and advance in the Vice Presidential Campaign Staff of U.S. Senator Edward S. Muskie. In November 1968 he began practicing law in the Portland, Maine law firm of Preti, Flaherty, Beliveau, Pachios & Haley, where he still practices.

He is the Northeast regional co-chairman and a member of the executive committee of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and is chairman of the Board of Visitors of the University of Maine School of Law. Pachios served as chairman of the Maine Democratic Party for four years, and was the Democratic nominee for Congress in Maine's First Congressional District in 1980. In addition, he served as chairman of the committee appointed by U.S. Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell to develop proposals for reform of federal campaign finance laws.

The lecture is sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. It is free and open to the public.