The Inauguration of Organized Political Warfare: Cold War Organizations Sponsored by the National Committee for a Free Europe/ Free Europe Committee

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TheInauguration TheInauguration of Organized of Organized Political Warfare Political Warfare sponsored by the sponsored by the National Committee National Committee for a Free Europe / for a Free Europe / Free Europe Committee Free Europe Committee Edited by Katalin Kádár Lynn Cold War Organizations This book is an important addition to scholarship on American policy toward Eastern Europe during the Cold War. Many books and articles have examined Radio Free Europe and its companion printed-word program (leaflets and books for Eastern Europe ). Both were projects of the Free Europe Committee (initially called the National Committee for a Free Europe),a public-private partnership of influential private citizens, CIA, and the State Department . Less known and little studied to date are FEC’s many exile-support projects that were initiated in 1949 and continued through the 1960s. This book helps fill that gap. It contains original research by American and European and scholars on FEC organization , FEC-supported national councils and exile sports organizations , the Assembly of Captive European Nations, and the Free European University in Exile. This book is essential reading for everyone interested in the history of the Cold War. A. Ross Johnson, Senior Scholar,The Wilson Center, author of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty; The CIA Years and Beyond. Each of the essays in this volume focuses on an organization or activity funded through the National Committee for a Free Europe, Inc. (NCFE), known as the Free Europe Committee, Inc. (FEC) after 1954. This US government-funded entity existed between 1949 and 1971 as the sponsor of Central and East European organizations established to support exiles from homelands taken over by Soviet dominated Communist governments. Although the two most well known organizations funded by the NCFE, Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, have produced a large volume of interest and scholarship, the numerous other NCFE-funded organizations, representing all aspects of exile life and activities, present a research opportunity that has not been thoroughly mined. The NCFE’s original charge, was outlined in an April 30, 1948, paper, “The Inauguration of Organized Political Warfare” by George F. Kennan, director of the Department of State’s Policy Planning staff. The charge was to wage ideological warfare and advocate the establishment of “liberation committees, underground activities behind the Iron Curtain and support of indigenous anti-Communist elements in threatened countries of the Free World.” In large part, this effort utilized US-based émigré groups from the Central and East Europe nations that had become Soviet satellites after World War II. Ostensibly a private, not for profit corporation supported by public donations to the anti-Communist crusade, the NCFE organization was developed and guided by the Central Intelligence Agency’s Office of Policy Coordination and was covertly funded through American intelligence channels throughout its twenty-two years existence. The NCFE and its Cold War campaign of organized political warfare remain one of the last aspects of US Cold War policy that has not been thoroughly researched by contemporary historians, and scholarship will not be complete until this history is made available. The chapters in this volume, many written by emerging scholars in the field of twentieth century history, represent an important first step in that direction , but there is still much to be uncovered. Katalin Kádár Lynn Editor N o t e The fragments of text utilized in the graphic design of the dust jacket cover are taken from a brochure produced by the NCFE titled “To Halt Communism And Save Our Freedom”. It is reproduced in full inside this volume. Reproduced by permission of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library Archive, Hyde Park, New York. TheInauguration of Organized Political Warfare Cold War Organizations sponsored by the National Committee for a Free Europe / Free Europe Committee Edited by Katalin Kádár Lynn isbn: 978-0-9859433-0-1   ...