The Office of Policy Coordination, a hybrid organization of CIA and State Department responsible for psychological warfare operations, proposed a project, presumably in 1951, that included the following points in the best (or worst if you will) Cold War rhetoric:
Undoubtedly some of the broadcasts of the Free Europe program
s and some of the Voice of America broadcasts are listened to by quite a flew Rumanians in the hope that they may grasp some information as to early liberation of their country. We believe and recommend that intensive propaganda by means of a "black" radio be instituted as soon as this plan is approved with a radio station in the vicinity of our proposed forwarding base in Greece.
From Greece the free Romanians assigned to this radio work, will be in a position to listen daily to the Bucharest Communist radio broadcasts and pick up any points which will he useful
in countering the false propaganda spread by the official Communist station.
This powerful “Black" radio directed to Romania from Greece, whether on a long or medium wave, will no doubt be subjected to jamming
in certain areas of the country, but according to past experienced, they will be unable to extend this all over Romania. Consideration should also be given to the dropping of throw-away redios.to the local population. It
is very gratifying that quite a good many free Romanians now in the United States have had opportunity to receive proper training and indoctrination as to the making up of programs directed to Romania under the auspices of the National Committee for a Free Europe. These people will no doubt above very helpful in setting up and running the black radio program with the assistance of U. S. technicians. Attempts should also be made to shadow broadcasts or inject adverse ghost talk into the Communist broad- casts emitted from Bucharest.
In addition to the black radio, consideration should be given to the dropping in of leaflets and posters in various parts of Romania. One of the primary objectives of the black radio should be to uncover the Communist "bullies" and threaten any further Communist crimes with measures
of retaliation.
Once bases in Romania have been established, it will be easier to carry out threats made by radio and, in fact, carry out acts
of reprisals against Communist leaders and those threatened. Information shall be collected from all possible sources emanating from Romania and from those recently out of the country, in order to piece together the pattern and set up of as many Communist organizations and towns as possible.
In this way we will have correct information as to the Communist leaders
in various towns and follow up their doings. Should a Communist official or Militia chief embark on a terror campaign against the local population in some areas, then both by radio and by leaflets we could uncover him, threaten him and actually abduct him and leave his body exposed in the “Red Square" of the village or town.
The project was approved on August 7, 1951, and given the cryptonym QKBROIL. The timetable for 1951-1952 included
The current objectives of Project QKBROIL for the support and eventual liberation of a Free Rumania are:
1. To establish and implement successful psychological warfare propaganda aimed at that country.
a. To accomplish the fist objective, the Chief Propaganda Officer is being dispatched at the earliest possible date to Europe to recruit the remainder of the Propaganda Broadcast Staff. It Is expected that his staff will have been completed and his station manned by the end of February 1952 and operating by the end of March 1952.
However, it was not until 1954 that broadcasting actually began from a secret CIA transmitter site near Athens, Greece.
Next: Part Two, more details of CIA’s clandestine radio broadcasts to Romania.
