Materials listed here cover both U.S. and UK broadcasting efforts.
The Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) Web site is located at http://www.rferl.org. This is an excellent reference for current information on Russia, Central Asia, and East Europe.
Ahrens,
Frank. "Radio Free Iraq's Strong Signal: U.S. News Service Heats Up
for First Time Since Cold War." Washington Post, 18 Dec. 1998,
D2. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
Radio Free Iraq began broadcasting taped newscasts into Iraq via shortwave radio on 30 October 1998. The service operates from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty headquarters, overlooking historic Wenceslaus Square, in Prague. David Newton is director of the service whose budget is $5 million.
See also Donald Harvey, "U.S. Anti-Saddam Measures," Periscope 21, no. 4 (December 1998), 5.
Barnes, Trevor. "Democratic
Deception: American Covert Operations in Post-War Europe." In Deception
Operations: Studies in the East-West Context, eds. David A. Charters
and Maurice A.J. Tugwell, 297-323. Washington, DC: Brassey's, 1990.
This chapter covers "political deception in Italy between 1948 and 1958, the work of the 'Anti-Cominform,' and the establishment of American broadcasting stations designed to reach audiences beyond the 'Iron Curtain.'" (p. 300)
Browne,
Donald R. International Radio Broadcasting: The Limits of the Limitless
Medium. New York: Praeger, 1982. [Cummings]
Browne, Donald R. "R.I.A.S.
Berlin: A Case Study of a Cold War Broadcasting Operation." Journal
of Broadcasting 10 (1966): 119-135. [Petersen]
Critchlow, James. Radio
Hole-in-the-Head/Radio Liberty. Lanham, MD: University Press of America,
1995.
Clark comment: Critchlow was one of founders of Radio Liberty (RL). He has produced a book that is simultaneously temperate and revealing about RL's role in the Cold War. This is certainly not the last word on the use of radio broadcasting as a Cold War weapon, but the author has told his story well and with great honesty. Those who want to carp will disagree with his presentation of CIA editorial control of RL as virtually nonexistent. There is no argument that the CIA provided the money that kept RL and its counterpart Radio Free Europe (RFE) alive. That the CIA did not direct the day-to-day content of the broadcasts probably will not be believed by some, despite the fact that such was the actual situation for both practical and operational reasons.
According to Surveillant 4.4/5, the author "shows us the surprising acrimony and open warfare which existed for 20 years between RL and RFE.... CIA's role is shown here to have been far less important than one would have expected."
Rawnsley, I&NS 11.4, calls Critchlow's book an "intimate, compelling, and frequently moving account of life on the front of Cold War Europe." The author handles the difficult subject of RL's contribution to the end of the Cold War "with maturity and an awareness of propaganda's limitations."
Cummings, Richard H.
1. "Balloons Over East Europe: The Cold War Leaflet Campaign of Radio Free Europe." Falling Leaf: The Quarterly Journal of the PsyWar Society, Autumn 1999. [http://www.psywarsoc.org/FallingLeaf/balloons.php]
"From October 1951 to November 1956, the skies of Central Europe were filled with more than 350,000 balloons carrying over 300,000,000 leaflets, posters, books, and other printed matter that were sent from West Germany over the Iron Curtain to Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary. This paper ... trace[s] the reasons for this balloon saturation."
Clark comment: This paper includes an excellent, brief outline of the beginning of the Free Europe Committee and Radio Free Europe.
2. "Balloons Over East Europe: America's Covert Radio and Leaflet Operations in the Cold War." Falling Leaf: The Quarterly Journal of the PsyWar Society, Summer, Jul. 2008.
This is an updated version of the above with some new information and a new title.
Cummings, Richard H. "Carlos the Jackal and the Bombing of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Munich." Intelligencer 16, no. 1 (Spring 2008): 41-52.
From author: "The article details how the East European Intelligence Services, especially those of East Germany, Hungary, and Romania, supported and protected the infamous terrorist known as 'Carlos the Jackal' and his group of pan-European terrorists with arms, money and safe havens from 1979 to 1986. Starting in the summer 1980, Carlos cooperated with the Romanian foreign intelligence service, culminating with the February 1981 bombing of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty headquarters building in Munich. The article then examines the negative reactions of the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact countries, especially Hungary, to the bombing, which forced Carlos to leave his base in East Europe. The myth of 'Carlos the Jackal' is further exposed, when the author includes excerpts from previously unpublished correspondence between Carlos and his right-hand man Johannes Weinrich as well as from top-secret documents from the archives of the Romanian and Hungarian intelligence services."
Cummings,
Richard H. "Covert Broadcasting During the Cold War." Intelligencer
10, no. 3 (Dec. 1999): 15-17.
This is an excellent, brief introduction to the origins of RFE and RL.
Cummings, Richard H. "The Ether War: Hostile Intelligence Activities Directed against Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, and the Emigre Community in Munich during the Cold War." Journal of Transatlantic Studies 6, no. 2 (Aug. 2008): 168 - 182
"Abstract: This article traces hostile intelligence service activity, ranging from espionage to murder, from the Warsaw Pact countries directed against exiles working for the American sponsored radio stations Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty in Munich, Germany, 1950-89."
Cummings, Richard H. "The Intelligence Underpinnings of American Covert Radio Broadcasting in Germany During the Cold War." Journal of Intelligence History 1, no. 2 (Winter 2001). [http://www.intelligence-history.org/jih/previous.html]
"This article ... partially lift[s] the veil of 50 years of secrecy surrounding the origins of the American covert psychological war waged in Germany. Radio Free Europe was set up as a private organization with the political support of United States Department of State and leading American foreign policy experts, and with the covert financial support of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.... This article also details one successful American covert psychological operation that took place from October 1951 to November 1956, when the skies of Central Europe were filled with more than 350,000 balloons carrying over 300,000,000 leaflets, posters, books, and other printed matter that were launched in Germany and dropped behind the Iron Curtain."
Cummings, Richard H. "Mirror in the Wilderness: Myths and Facts Surrounding the Role of Radio Free Europe during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution." Intelligencer 15, no. 3 (Summer/Fall 2007): 43-51.
I am always glad to see a contribution on RFE from Richard H. Cummings, as he is one of the few who makes the effort to remind us of the contribution of RFE (and, by extension, RL) to the Cold War. Here, he revisits earlier material on the development of RFE and, then, provides some interesting (and, perhaps, new) insights to the relationship between RFE and the Hungarian Revolution.
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