Origins of early Cold War CIA clandestine or “black” radio broadcasts over Radio Nacional de España in Madrid, Spain, in Belarusian, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, and Russian ©

The first psychological warfare project of CIA's Special Procedures Group (SPG) was UMPIRE, which provided for the production and dissemination of covert propaganda against the Soviet Union and East European countries behind the Iron Curtain using radio broadcasts and printed material. The Special Procedures Group became the Office of Policy Coordination (OPC) in August 1948, taking over the SPG projects, including UMPIRE. The project designation was later changed on December 1, 1948, to EDUCATOR and then QKDEMON. 

In 1949, officers of the  Office of Policy Coordination (OPC) began discussing the use of Radio Nacional de España (RNE) as a tool in the psychological warfare campaign against the USSR. An “official dispatch” OPC message dated May 30, 1949, on the subject Radio Nacional Propaganda Broadcasts contained the outline of how to use RNE:

[W]e have studied the matter not only in regard to the immediate problem of applying background material but also relative to the larger, long range possibility of utilizing Radio Nacional as a channel for operational broadcasts, to which EDUCATOR creative personnel in Germany might contribute both program material as well as programs themselves, including possibly special recordings. 

Information here indicates that Madrid is heard reasonably well in satellite areas. If the Spanish Government, through proper covert arrangements, is willing to place the facilities and broadcast time of the station as the disposal of (redacted), this would clearly open up the possibility of using Madrid as an operational outlet for broadcasts, whether sponsored by or accordingly produced by the U.S. Government. 

Assuming the broadcasts can be heard satisfactorily in the target areas and time and facilities could be made available to (redacted), it would seem there are four problems to be met: 

a.     Cover for the operation. 


b.     Policy control. 


c.     Type of broadcasts in relation to audience reaction. 


d.     A competent production organization. 

In regard to (a) above, through negotiations with the proper Spanish Government levels, I should think a suitable operational cover could be arranged--as, for example, the Spanish Government, in its desire to oppose religious persecutions in satellite countries, has accorded broadcasting time to refugee Catholic groups in Spain in order to permit them to talk to their fellow countrymen. 

In regard to (b) above, periodic policy guidance from the home office, together with a close monitoring watch over the broadcasts, should provide adequate policy control, especially if the cover and security of the operation are well maintained and the U.S. Government is not linked in any way with the broadcasts.

CIA eventually supported and financed RNE broadcasts in Belarusian, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, and Russian. More information and full details of CIA clandestine broadcasting over Radio Nacional de España can be found here: