Did Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Contribute To The Democratization Of The Eastern Block?

How did the radio stations Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty contribute to the democratization of the Eastern Block?

In October 2017 it will be 24 years since Radio Free Europe stopped broadcasting to Hungary. The generations – our fathers and grandfathers, the millions of people regardless their social status, whether they were peasants, working or middle class, even members of the Communist / Socialist leadership - they all listened to Radio Free Europe. People had two sets of radios. One was a Soviet-made one that one could listen to shortwave broadcasts. Once the listener found a wavelength of Radio Free Europe, he/she would not move the dial from there. The other set was where they would have the dial on the state’s radio stations. Even

The Crusade contributed a small amount to the upkeep of Radio. The rest of the money came from the CIA. This was only discovered by the public in 1972 after this the Radio was brought under open public funding. After the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, public campaigns were abandoned, but corporate fund raising continued.

Because of the involvement of the CIA in the Radio, Radio Free Europe was also called the spy radio. But how much did the CIA influence programs and the Radio? There is some evidence that the CIA was involved in some RFE projects, at least in the 1950s, Bob Lang RFE’s director in the 1950s does not make any reference in his memos that the CIA was involved in broadcasting policy. The most where the CIA was involved was the RFE’s budget.

Radio Liberty was founded later in 1951 at that time it was called Radio Liberation by the American Committee for the Liberation of Peoples of Russia (Amcomlib) it started to broadcast march on1. 1953. It targeted the Soviet Union. In comparison with Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty’s influence in the Soviet Union was

The senators were William Fulbright, Clifford Case, and later Claiborne Pell. In 1971 when it came out that the CIA was founding the Radios, Moscow was hoping for storm in the Congress which would jeopardise the future of the Radios. The employees of the Radio who were sleeper agents of Polish and communist countries were called up onto the international stage to uncover Radio Free Europe. Among other cases one of the most spectacular one was when Polish secret service commando unit broke into the home of Jan Novak and stole two of his letters which then were tampered with, the letters could have been used to compromise Novak and the Polish service of Radio Free Europe. Communist governments also used open diplomacy for e.g. in 1971 Walter Scheel the West German foreign minister and Nixon received a note from the Polish communist leadership, that Radio Free Europe shall be closed to end tensions between America and Poland. Oleg Kalugin a former KGB generals job was to attack Radio Liberty at the source, for this purpose he placed agents on the Radios staff. Through this they could spread rumours and disinformation. Oleg Tumanov one of Oleg Kalugins agents was who wrote anti-Semitic letters which caused rift among staff members and also brought the radio into a bad light. From these two opposing sides of the Radio it was the American left-liberal political class who had