EN
The article discusses the most important initiatives from the range of 'cultural diplomacy' during at the Presidency of Harry Truman and D. Dwight Eisenhower, and their role in the ideological-cultural clash between the USA and the USSR. The authoress focused her attention on a characteristic of the cultural and scientific exchange programmes - their legal foundations and importance, stressing other domains of 'cultural diplomacy' such as information and propaganda. The long-range cultural and scientific exchange programmes intended to create bonds and facilitate contacts, and remained a prominent component of 'cultural diplomacy' since they resulted in better understanding between representatives of assorted nations. The group of their addressees, which initially included the West, gradually widened and became part first of the logic of containment and subsequently - during the 1950s - of the doctrine of liberation. During the initial stage of the Cold War improved mutual understanding, and thus a better comprehension of the so-called communist world and its diversity, proved to be of crucial importance in the struggle waged for the 'hearts and minds' by the USA and the USSR.