--- title: USA Pulls Out of UNESCO: Long History Behind the Decision description: The Trump Administration leaving UNESCO is reminiscent of the Reagan administration's decision to do the same in the 1980s. canonical: https://time.com/4980034/unesco-trump-us-leaving-history/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-12T21:55:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2024-01-24T11:45:30.000Z article:section: History og:title: USA Pulls Out of UNESCO: Long History Behind the Decision og:description: The Trump Administration leaving UNESCO is reminiscent of the Reagan administration's decision to do the same in the 1980s. og:url: https://time.com/4980034/unesco-trump-us-leaving-history/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaff0e4c1899b8878/6988e1ccab6d77f95b6b0328/unesco-united-states-withdrew-flags.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2405 og:image:height: 1353 og:image:alt: unesco-united-states-withdrew-flags og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: USA Pulls Out of UNESCO: Long History Behind the Decision twitter:description: The Trump Administration leaving UNESCO is reminiscent of the Reagan administration's decision to do the same in the 1980s. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaff0e4c1899b8878/6988e1ccab6d77f95b6b0328/unesco-united-states-withdrew-flags.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The U.S. Has Left UNESCO Before. 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Its journalism is reported and edited by a professional newsroom led by Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs, with named correspondents on politics, climate, health, technology and culture. It reaches 1 million US print subscribers and 1.15 million globally, plus more than 1.1 million newsletter readers. #### How do I subscribe to TIME magazine? Subscriptions are at time.com/subscribe-agent. Choose digital only at $20 a year, or print and digital from $29 a year or $49 for two years. TIME also publishes seven free email newsletters at time.com/newsletters, which do not require a subscription. #### Can I cancel a TIME subscription? Yes. TIME states that subscriptions can be cancelled at any time. #### Does TIME have free newsletters? Yes. TIME publishes seven free email newsletters reaching more than 1.1 million readers, covering daily news, Washington politics, health, AI, climate and energy, culture, and the newsroom itself. They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription.  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Updated: Jan 24, 2024 11:45 AM UTCPublished: Oct 12, 2017 9:55 PM UTC  The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization Headquarters in Paris, Nov. 9, 2015 during the 38th Session of the Unesco General Conference. The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization Headquarters in Paris, Nov. 9, 2015 during the 38th Session of the Unesco General Conference. Christophe Petit Tesson—EPA/REX/Shutterstock  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Updated: Jan 24, 2024 11:45 AM UTCPublished: Oct 12, 2017 9:55 PM UTC When the U.S. Department of State [announced ](https://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2017/10/274748.htm)Thursday that the U.S. would [leave](http://time.com/4979481/unesco-us-leaving/) the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), scholars of the U.N. may have felt a certain _déjà vu._ The Trump administration’s statement [cited](https://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2017/10/274748.htm) “mounting arrears at UNESCO, the need for fundamental reform in the organization, and continuing anti-Israel bias at UNESCO” as reasons for the decision. Those rationales echo arguments made by the administration of president Ronald Reagan in December 1983, when the U.S. previously announced a decision to pull out of UNESCO: “UNESCO has extraneously politicized virtually every subject it deals with. It has exhibited hostility toward a free society, especially a free market and a free press, and it has demonstrated unrestrained budgetary expansion.” But there may be another reason why the U.S. doesn’t see UNESCO — from which it also [cut funding](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-cuts-unesco-funding-after-palestinian-vote/) in 2011 — as crucial to its foreign policy. Experts in the history of the organization say that the U.S. simply doesn’t have as much power there, or as much need for the group’s work, as it did when UNESCO first started. When 37 nations created UNESCO as a human rights organization promoting education, science and cultural causes in November 1945, “it was essentially a western entity, dominated by western funding,” says political scientist Jerry Pubantz, co-author of _To Create a New World? American Presidents and the United Nations_ and co-editor of _T_ _he Encyclopedia of the United Nations._ School systems in Europe were undergoing “denazification” and, as part of that process, the U.S. wanted to be sure that they taught World War II accurately. UNESCO was a way to influence those curricula. Likewise, during the Cold War, American officials imagined UNESCO as an advocate for free speech in an era of communist propaganda. But, as more members joined the group — [about 160 members by July 1983](http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0005/000545/054550eo.pdf) — U.S. policy makers grew worried their voices would be drowned out. The newest members were “largely the decolonized new independent states of Africa and Asia” who “tended to be less supportive of American policies, and more supportive of the Soviet bloc’s position,” says Pubantz_._ In addition, some U.S. officials soured on the group because, despite the new members, they felt the U.S. was left footing a disproportionate amount of the bill for UNESCO’s work. Or Jeane Kirkpatrick, who represented the U.S. at the U.N. put it, “The countries which have the votes don’t pay the bill, and those who pay the bill don’t have the votes,” as [TIME reported](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,952288,00.html) in a Jan. 9, 1984, article. That [feature](http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,952288,00.html), “Waving Goodbye to UNESCO,” summed up specific events that contributed to the decision to pull out of UNESCO: --- > “” --- The voters who elected Reagan may have influenced the decision, too. Russell L. Riley, a presidential historian at the University of Virginia, adds that the rationale behind leaving UNESCO jibed with the Reagan administration’s overall economic agenda: “It was an easy way to save a little money and could prove to Americans that we \[U.S. government officials\] were being fiscally responsible.” Yet even after Reagan left office, rejoining UNESCO did not seem to be the top priority. For one thing, the U.S. had won the Cold War, as Riley points out, so many of the original reasons the U.S. had been eager to be a part of the group had faded. And it would have been a hard sell in Congress in the 1990s, especially with [Reagan stalwart Jesse Helms](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/05/us/politics/00helms.html) chairing the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. The U.S. did not rejoin until the country’s foreign-relations calculus changed once again. The [announcement](http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/14/news/bush-gains-praise-over-us-return-to-unesco.html) came around the one-year anniversary of 9/11, and scholars see it as part of the American effort to rally the international community around a global war on terrorism. “By the time George W. Bush came in, I think there was a sense that \[UNESCO’s\] anti-U.S. bias had eroded,” explains Stewart M. Patrick, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of the upcoming book _The Sovereignty Wars: Reconciling America with the World_. “It took a George W. Bush to go back into UNESCO because no one would be of the opinion that he’d be soft and coddling U.N. globalists.” And during the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, UNESCO, which designates World Heritage sites, has played a role in [restoring cultural centers](https://www.icrc.org/en/international-review/article/unescos-mandate-and-recent-activities-rehabilitation-afghanistans) that have been [destroyed](http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/1247/). What hasn’t appeared to change between the post-World War II era and today, Patrick notes, is the global concern about whether truthful information is being shared freely worldwide. In 2017, with fake news and information censorship a concern for many people around the globe, it remains to be seen how the U.S. decision to pull out of UNESCO will affect that conversation. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4980034/unesco-trump-us-leaving-history/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4980034/unesco-trump-us-leaving-history/"},"headline":"The U.S. Has Left UNESCO Before. 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