CIA Clandestine Radio Broadcasting over Radio Nacional de Espańa to Latvia in the Early Cold War ©

Radio Nacional de España began broadcasting to Latvia on February 1, 1955, as the "Voice of Free Latvians" (Brīvā Latviešu Balss) with 20-minute programs, three times a week. On March 1, 1955, the time was reduced to ten minutes, six days a week.

On April 7, 1955, CIA’s Chief SR/2 submitted a memorandum in which he wrote:  “Project AEFLAG is being formulated and will be submitted for approval upon its completion. This project as presently envisaged will provide for all phases of conducting agency-controlled broadcasts from Madrid.”  

CIA’s operational plan dated July 18, 1955, for Project AEFLAG had this purpose: “Activation of a Latvian language short-wave program directed at the Latvia SSR under cover of a Latvian émigré organization.” The daily scripts and tape recordings were prepared at CIA headquarters by “covert associates” and pouched to Madrid.  The objectives of the RNE radio programs were listed as:  

1.     To preserve the national identity of the Latvian people. 


2.     To promote an attitude of irreconcilability among the Latvian people toward Communism. 

3.     To foster pro-Western orientation of the Latvian people. 

The fundamental themes of the broadcasts included: 

·      Condemn and discredit the Soviet regime, leaders, personalities, and policies inimical to the Latvian people and the free world. 

·      Discredit Soviet foreign and domestic propaganda inimical to US interests.

·      Inform listeners that the peoples of the western world are aware of, and hold deep sympathies for the suffering of the Latvian people as the result of cruelties and atrocities, oppression, and exploitation visited upon them by the Soviet regime. 

·      Nourish the listeners' hope for ultimate liberation from the Soviet yoke without arousing undue expectations of early action.

Operational control of the radio programs was ensured by the fact CIA financially supported the scriptwriters in Madrid: “All financial transactions and expenditures in connection with these broadcasts will be under Agency supervision. The content of individual programs and the policy line will be examined and evaluated periodically.”  

The format of the initial ten-minute daily broadcasts was: 

·      Introduction (1 minute) – opening of the program, Musical signal: several bars from the Latvian Anthem "Dievs, Sveti Latvlju" and the frequency and time of day.

·      News and Comments (3 minutes) 
-- Factual coverage of principal news events within the Soviet orbit and the free world, ignored by the Soviet press and radio. These news items are to be supplemented by comments to make them better understandable to listeners behind the Iron Curtain.

·      Guiding Thoughts of the Day (4-5 minutes) – Commentary based on ideological or instructive themes.


·      Entertainment (music, anecdotes, etc. (1-2 minutes).

In December 1959, an appeal to listeners was broadcast requesting those individuals in the Latvian SSR, who listened to the broadcasts, to inform the station by writing a letter to one of two addresses in the West. Ten replies were received in response to this request. All of the replies commented favorably on the broadcasts."

CIA clandestine broadcasts to Latvia over Radio Nacional de España ceased on October 31, 1963.

For more information: