Upon the end of World War II, the Yalta Conference essentially aided in the division of Europe into an Eastern and Western Block. Countries which were invaded by Nazi Germany were to have their original governments reinstalled and allowed free elections. However, the United States and the United Kingdom remained influential in the west while the Soviet Union maintained control in the east. Due to influences, Western Europe remained a free and democratic area while the east, under Soviet pressure, installed communist regimes. This lead to tensions between the East and West and more specifically between the United States and the Soviet Union.
The 1950’s marked the beginning of the Cold War, with the build-up of arms and nuclear capabilities in the United States and the Soviet Union, putting a strain on the United States’ policies in Europe and towards the Soviet Union itself. The United States National Security Council (NSC) stated America’s policy was “to recognize the right of all people to independence and to
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Through various methods, this proved to be quite successful, yet not in the way the United States may have wished. The main goal behind psychological warfare was to undermine the Soviet Union’s control through propaganda such as balloon drops, Radio Free Europe, Voice of America, and other covert operations lead by the newly installed Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) (Borhi 1999, 79). The official announcements of debates and diplomatic ambitions were broadcast through the Voice of America (VOA) which was under the United States Information Agency (USIA) and formerly under the State Department (Webb 2013, 224). On the other hand, Radio Free Europe (RFE) was largely funded and regulated by the CIA yet was under the control of the independent Free Europe Committee (Webb 2013, 224). Both programs ultimately carried out the United States’ agenda for spreading anti-communist