“You Can’t Win a Cold War with Hot Weapons”: Frank C. Laubach’s Educational Project, Adult Literacy Campaigns, and US Foreign Policy (1945–1961)

During the early Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union used adult literacy education to wield influence in “Third World” countries. Frank C. Laubach, the “Apostle of Literacy,” wrote prolifically about adult literacy and conducted and advised literacy campaigns in more than 100 countries, yet his work is understudied in comparative and international education. Drawing on archival analysis of Laubach’s speeches and writings (1945– 61), this article analyzes how Laubach’s educational project of literacy shaped—and was shaped by—the Cold War context and how it aligned with US foreign policy. Laubach positioned literacy as an instrument for defeating communism and promulgating US values of capitalist economic development, Christianity, and democracy. He championed Truman’s Point Four Program of international technical assistance but disagreed with other aspects of US foreign policy. His educational project helped lay the groundwork for the now-dominant perspective that education and literacy are mechanisms for development.