If a Soviet encyclopedia misrepresents conditions in the USSR and the U.S.A. for propaganda purposes it only does what we have come to expect. But if a renowned American encyclopedia makes itself the vehicle for derogatory comparisons between the Soviet Union and the United States by use of fictitious claims and false figures, it does great damage. The lead article in the Encyclopedia Britannica’s Book of the Year for 1965 compares education in the U.S.A. and USSR. Written by William Benton, former U.S. Senator and Assistant Secretary of State and now U.S. Ambassador to UNESCO as well as publisher of the Encyclopedia Britannica, it is certain to be extensively quoted by the Soviets to contrast, for the enlightenment of the rest of the world, the “low status” of education in the U.S. with that in the Soviet Union.
William Benton, “The Teachers and the Taught in the USSR,” Britannica Book of the Year, 1965. Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., $5.95
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