On 23 October 1950, CIA Deputy Director (DDCI) William H. Jackson, National Committee for Free Europe (NCFE) President DeWitt C. Poole, and NCFE Chairman Joseph Grew met at Grew’s house in Washington for two hours, where they had a “very constructive session” to discuss the National Committee for Free Europe (NCE) and Radio Free Europe.
The next day, DeWitt Poole reported the results of the meeting to the NCFE Directors, telling them that the NCFE was “[E]ntering a new chapter. Someone corrected me to say that he thought we were entering a new volume. [...] How can consultation and coordination be more closely organized than they have been in the past?”
Assistant Director Policy Coordination (ADPC) Frank Wisner and DDCI William H. Jackson then traveled to New York and met with the RFE Directors at the Union Club in New York, Thursday evening, November 2, 1950. They asked RFE’s Directors to “re-examine its radio activities and prepare a statement of the aims and objectives of Radio Free Europe for study by the Deputy Director of Central Intelligence.”
In response to the request, on November 6, 1950, Frank Altschul, NCFE Treasurer and Chairman of the NCFE Radio Committee, wrote a memorandum entitled: The Present Orientation of Radio Free Europe. Under the section “Programs”, he wrote:
For the time being the programs of Radio Free Europe are designed to keep hope alive among our friends, and to confuse, divide and undermine our enemies with the satellite states.
To keep hope alive, we seen to convey to our audience our firm and continuing belief in their ultimate liberation.
To confuse, divide and undermine our enemies, we attack every aspect of the Communist regime, both directly and by satire and ridicule. When we have evidence that certain native Communists are abusing or betraying their compatriots, we reveal the names and the circumstances in our broadcasts. We play upon the fear of inevitable retribution.
NCFE President DeWitt C. Poole also wrote a document, which in part read:
The ultimate objective of United States policy toward the satellite states of Eastern Europe is to weaken the grip of the Soviet Union upon them with the eventual aim of eliminating preponderant Soviet power there and enabling these nations to exist as free members of the European community. For the immediate future, as the sovietization of the satellites continues apace, we wish to preserve what we can of Western influence there and to maintain our concern for the rights and welfare of these peoples.
The Exile Voices strategy was a “constructive” one, aiming “to comfort and encourage those now in bondage: to reassure them constantly of the West’s steadfast concern for their plight: to keep alive and fortify among them the Western tradition of freedom and democracy: to hold up the prospect of a better future.” Its overall objective was “to keep burning the thought of an alternative to the Bolshevik designs for Eastern Europe.” Exile leaders were expected to convey a “tone of statesmanship.”
The second, “destructive” strategy was that of “Gray-Black Propaganda,” intended “to discredit among the masses the illegitimates who are now over them. . . . [M]aking direct targets of the new rulers, it seeks by all the tricks of psychological warfare to sow in their minds and hearts dismay, doubt and defeatism and to foment among them mutual suspicion and distrust.”
Gray-Black Propaganda could employ “disguised voices or pretended personalities: in an effort “to take up the individual Bolshevik rulers and the quislings and tear them apart, exposing their motivations, laying bare their private lives, pointing out their meannesses, pillor[y]ing their evil deeds…”
The NCFE directors approved the Altschul and Poole memoranda and sent them to CIA as requested.
On November 16, 1959, Frank Altschul wrote another memorandum: Observations on Memorandum by D.C.P. Entitled “Radio Free Europe”, wherein he included:
With much of what Mr. Poole has to say I am in accord. In large measure, particularly in the section dealing with the Gray-Black Propaganda, it reflects to a great extent exactly what Radio Free Europe is now doing…Similarly, we continue “work to discredit among the masses the illegitimates who are now over them, namely (1) the native quislings, and (2) all Russian personnel, military and civil.” At the same time, we seek to “sow in their minds and hearts dismay, doubt and defeatism and to foment among them mutual suspicion and distrust.”…Our methods of doing all this are regularly growing in ingenuity and variety.
After their return to Washington, D.C., and after the receipt of the two documents from NCFE, ADPC Frank Wisner wrote a summary memorandum to DDCI William H. Jackson on November 22, 1950, which in part read:
Essentially an instrument of psychological warfare, Radio Free Europe’s purpose is to prevent, or at least to hinder, the cultural, political and economic integration of the satellite states with the Soviet Union…[a]nd Radio Free Europe can move into the area of gray of even black propaganda should the situation warrant it. To accomplish its purpose of bringing hope to our friends and confusion to our enemies, Radio Free Europe has been developing programs aimed at:
- Keeping alive the hope of liberation in the satellite states and telling the various peoples that they are not forgotten by the free world;
§ Creating doubt and fears among the quislings of the satellites by character assassination and talk of ultimate retribution, and at the same time drawing a distinction between Communist puppets and those who follow the party line to survive, thereby encouraging high level defection among the latter;
§ Developing at atmosphere favorable to the growth of resistance movements, for ultimate exploitation in war, or at a propitious moment, in peace time.
Also, we understand that Radio Leipzig has announced that any West German who works for Radio Free Europe will be hanged after the “liberation” of Germany.
Radio Free Europe broadcasts soon moved away from Gray-Black propaganda operation to become a respected news organization.
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