McHale calls the Marshall Plan "the greatest example in our nation's history of Public Diplomacy done right." Food was what got the Marshall Plan started, in the form of an interim aid program in 1947-1948, and this is where public diplomacy came in.

The global challenges we face today require a strategic, multidimensional approach to public diplomacy. Our Government must develop new ways to communicate and engage with foreign publics at all levels of society. In doing so, we must do a better job of listening; learn how people in other countries and cultures listen to us; understand their desires and aspirations; and provide them with information and services of value to them.