The number of international students studying at U.S. institutions of higher education in the 2003-2004 academic year dropped for the first time in more than three decades. New visa restrictions and international tensions in the wake of September 11, 2001, have been cited as central factors. This article identifies historical precedents from the postwar era (1945 to 1960) as additionally significant causes of this decline. Highlighting competing advocates of altruism, cultural diplomacy, or exclusion, it recounts the conflicting priorities of one public research university in the post-war years—the University of Florida—as an exemplification of the nation’s ambivalent quest for international students at American colleges and universities.

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