Broadcasting Freedom: The Cold War Triumph of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty (review)

Broadcasting Freedom: The Cold War Triumph of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty . By Arch Puddington. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 2000; pp. ix + 382. $27.50.

The study of international radio broadcasting, and propaganda studies in general, have been integral components of the history of mass communication as an academic discipline. Radio Free Europe (RFE) and Radio Liberty (RL) constituted America's major efforts in international radio broadcasting during the Cold War. While RFE broadcast its services to countries under the influence of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe, RL broadcast its services directly into the Soviet Union. Broadcasting Freedom, written by Arch Puddington, the deputy director of the New York Bureau of RFE-RL from 1985 to 1993, offers an insider's account of these radios and their relationships to other American organizations involved in the Cold War.

The book has 16 chapters and an appendix that contains some of the policy "directives" (or "guidances") for the operation of the radio services. These chapters cover the history of RFE and RL from the first stage of planning for RFE in 1949 to the end of the Cold War in 1991. The first three chapters cover the activities that led to the creation of RFE, such as the establishment of an entity called the Free Europe Committee (FEC), and the issues RFE faced during its early years of operation. In the aftermath of World War II, the FEC was established by a number of prominent American Cold War strategists who believed that the Cold War was to be fought using propaganda rather than military means. The public was told that FEC was created out of the "humanitarian desire to provide useful work for the prominent Eastern European exiles who had sought refuge in the United States after the Communist takeovers of their countries" (9). Among early indications that the United States was going to undertake such projects was an address by John Foster Dulles, an address known for its alarmist tone about communism: "For the first time since the threat of Islam a thousand years ago, Western civilization is on the defensive" (9). An organization called Crusade for Freedom was ostensibly set up to raise funds for RFE. A massive advertising campaign urged Americans to contribute their "truth dollars" to this organization so that it could support RFE. While Puddington tells us that "revisionist" historians have argued that "the real nature" of RFE-RL "was something different—more sinister perhaps and certainly more provocative—than that of a mere propaganda vehicle" (10), he never tells who they are or what their argument is about.

Chapter 4 is devoted to RFE's "balloon operations," which lasted from 1951 to 1956. During this period millions of leaflets, reflecting RFE's broadcast themes, were dropped into Eastern European countries through the use of balloons. Since some of RFE's leadership had experienced the use of propaganda leaflets during both world wars and the Korean conflict, "a curiosity about the usefulness of airborne messages as a cold war tactic was inevitable" (61). Chapter 5 addresses the reception of RFE by the American "ultra anti-Communists" (81), who found RFE's brand of anticommunism too soft, and by the Sudeteners, those expelled from the Sudetenland area of Czechoslovakia, who thought RFE's Czechoslovakian leadership had been responsible for their expulsion. Chapter 6, "Revolution in Hungary and the Crisis at RFE," covers RFE's role in the 1956 Hungarian revolution. The blow to RFE's credibility for its role in this bloody episode was far more serious than this generous title suggests. The findings by four separate committees cited in this chapter are more condemning of the radios than Puddington's conclusion of a "flawed coverage" (114). While the charge of RFE's inciting of the uprising is still subject to controversy, a UN report concluded that RFE might have created the impression...