A study of the extent of the diplomatic and commercial assistance provided by the United States government to the Associated Press (AP) from 1912 to 1948 shows AP's manager, Kent Cooper, to be less a champion of the free press than an efficient captain of industry in expanding AP influence across the globe. Early in the twentieth century, British, French, and German news bureaus held a monopolistic cartel on the distribution of foreign news throughout Europe. With presidential and State Department aid, the AP moved beyond United States borders first to South America, then to the Far East, by means of Navy broadcasts. In 1934, AP declared complete independence and gained the right to send news anywhere. In the years during and following World War II, Cooper launched a successful free press campaign, and was effective in convincing Congress and other governmental officials of the virtue of and necessity for the United States' fighting for the free flow of information worldwide at international meetings. Critics claimed that Cooper's campaign was a smokescreen for expanding AP's commercial interest on the ruins of the European continent. Ultimately, Cooper did in fact spread the AP across the globe, with the help of government assistance, creating a news cartel denounced today by Third World nations in the same way Cooper denounced the European news cartels in the 1930s and 1940s. (HTH)