Cold War Broadcasting: Impact on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe

Chapter 3: The Voice of America: A Brief Cold War History

25 CHaPter 3 the Voice of america: a Brief Cold War History alan l. heil Jr. “What did these [Western international broadcasters] mean to us until the events of last December? [1989] The metaphor of the reeds comes to mind. It was as if we were living underwater and we needed reed pipes for air to breathe. The reeds were the radios of the West. Without them, the entire people surely would have suffocated.” —nicolae manolescu, interview by Voa romanian service, 1990 “It may very well be that the forty-year activity of the Voice of America in Russian will be considered by future historians of the Soviet Union as a kind of informational Lend Lease of incalculable value.” —Vasily aksyonov, novelist the Voice of america, the nation’s only government-funded global broadcaster, has been on the air more than six decades. it has served listeners during World War ii, the Cold War, the immediate post-Cold War period of unprecedented geopolitical and technological change, and in the era of new challenges after september 11, 2001. this paper summarizes highlights of Voa broadcasts in the soviet and east european region during the longest of these periods, the Cold War—that is, from 1947 until the formal demise of the soviet union on december 31, 1991.1 throughout, Voa broadcasters were dedicated to the fundamental principle enunciated in Voa’s first broadcast on february 25, 1942: “the news may be good. the news may be bad. But we shall tell you the truth.”2 1 for an account of Voa Cold War broadcasting in China, Vietnam, Cambodia and other countries outside the Warsaw Pact area, see the author’s Voice of America: A History (new York: Columbia university Press, 2003). 2 “Voice of america: a Brief History” (Washington dC: Voice of america office of external affairs, 1997), 1. i4 J&P.indb 25 2010.07.05. 7:54 26 Voa’s role has been not only to reflect america to the world but to provide in-depth news and information about one region to others, which is called “cross reporting.” it also has sought to offer in-country reportage of interest to the specific audiences it reaches, particularly in times of crisis. the preamble to the Voa Charter (Public laws 94–350 and 103– 415) says: “to be effective, the Voice of america must win the attention and respect of listeners.” in order to achieve this, a “full service” Voa, then, must be a credible, comprehensive and honest source of information to listeners, viewers and internet surfers who daily depend on it for facts about the us, the world, and their own homelands. in the 1950s under the eisenhower administration, executives of Voa, radio free europe, and radio liberation (later radio liberty) met periodically to coordinate policy. When rfe and rl were founded, it was clearly understood they would concentrate on coverage of their listeners’ homelands, while Voa’s role was primarily to reflect america, along with news of the us and the world. over the years, the missions converged. rfe and rl unhesitatingly reported major us foreign policy initiatives of interest to their target audiences. Voa, for its part, increasingly concentrated on events within target countries. this occurred for good reasons: Voa was less jammed than rfe/rl and seldom jammed at all in english. ferment for change within the soviet union and former Warsaw Pact countries was a matter of interest not only within eastern europe and the soviet union but to Voa’s worldwide audience. and, in the 1970s and 1980s, Voa’s ability to cover events globally—both in the central news and language services—expanded greatly. Content analyses over the years always showed rfe and rl devoting more airtime than Voa to the domestic affairs of the target country, but the distinctions were less clear in the 1980s than in the 1960s. nonetheless, each tended to reinforce the other’s mission. as the Cold War ended, all three networks were respected as accurate, objective and credible sources of news and information. two examples of Voa’s commitment to candid, complete informational broadcasting are in order. during the years treated here, Voa interviewed principal opposition leaders, artists, or intellectuals in exile. among these were Vasily aksyonov, milovan Đilas, Václav Havel, eugene ionescu, Yuri lyubimov, mihajlo mihajlov, Czesław miłosz, mstislav rostropovich, andrei sakharov, alexander solzhenitsyn, and lech Wałęsa, among many others. the station also reported details of events in the united states largely unavailable from...