Broadcasting freedom: the Cold War triumph of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty

Abstract

Broadcasting Freedom. The Cold War Triumph of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. Arch Puddington. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 2000. 382 pp. $27.50 hbk. The second half of the last century saw a hot war congeal into a cold war of bluster and polemic. President Truman in 1950 declared as vital the effort to add a strong American voice to the campaign against communism. Policy thinkers turned to the powerful reach of radio. The rebuilt Voice of America from World War II served official government policy. Serving a more independent role were Radio Free Europe, powered up on May Day 1951, and Radio Liberty, joining battle about two years later. These stations fought Soviet jamming to broadcast to the entire Communist bloc, RFE to Eastern Europe, and RL to Soviet Russia and its republics. Refugees and dissidents provided the talent to what became a project unlike any in U.S. history or tradition: a far-reaching propaganda campaign during peacetime. It was strategy for a new war, political instead of military, an idea to which the author credits to diplomat George F. Kennan. The author's comprehensive history of RFE-RL relies on official archives as well as some 100 interviews with many of those pivotal to RFE-RL survival over forty years. As a former RFE-RL New York bureau deputy director, Paddington offers particular understanding of the freedom radios' operation. As a historian he relies on extensive primary evidence to offer a final response to a question…