The Original Radio Free Asia, 1951-1953, Part Two

 

In preparing the American public for the second Annual Crusade for Freedom, in August 1951, the Advertising Council used the services of actor, and future U.S. President, Ronald Reagan in a Hearst Corporation movie newsreel and a televised public service appeal for contributions. Reagan was also the star and narrator of the short film The Big Truth, written by Otis Carney and directed by Seymour Friedman. Carney would receive a Freedom Foundation award in 1952 for his screenplay. Excerpts of the film, including Lucius Clay speaking in Berlin on October 24, 1950, were then used for a television film appeal for the 1951 Crusade campaign:

 

My name is Ronald Reagan. Last year the contributions of 16 million Americans to the Crusade For Freedom made possible the World Freedom Bell -- a symbol of hope and freedom to the communist-dominated peoples of Eastern Europe. And built this powerful 135,000 Watt Radio Free Europe transmitter in Western Germany. 

 

This station daily pierces the iron curtain with the truth, answering the lies of the Kremlin and bringing a message of hope to millions trapped behind the iron curtain. Grateful letters from listeners smuggled past the secret police express thanks to Radio Free Europe for identifying Communist Quislings and informers by name.

 

General Lucius D. Clay now asks you to join him in a second great Crusade for Freedom to build two more powerful Freedom Stations that will send more messages of truth and hope through the Iron Curtain. And to establish Radio Free Asia to stop the spread of Communism in the Far East. 

 

Crusade for Freedom Motorcade 

The Ford Motor Company donated 1951 model trucks for the Crusade campaign in the 48 states and the District of Columbia. The Chevrolet Division of General Motors donated the same number of 1951 model station wagon cars. The trucks and cars were identical in every state, and each truck was clearly marked Crusade for Freedom and numbered as part of the fleet around the nation. The station wagon had a sign, Crusade for Freedom, in the shape of a flag and two loudspeakers on the roof. Advance publicity, times, and locations where the vehicles would be parked were shared in each state. 

 

The Ford truck carried a replica of the Freedom Bell in Berlin, a Radio Free Europe transmitter tower, with the words Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia. An arrow of Truth pierced the symbolic Iron Curtain. Transcripts of RFE programs were also available to those interested in reading them, and spectators could hear recordings of the programs coming from the Chevrolet's sound system. Helium-filled Replicas of the Winds of Freedom balloon were often launched from the side of the Ford Truck parked in strategic locations. The Freedom Motorcade is an excellent backdrop for publicity photos for the Crusade campaign.

 

November 1951 Extraordinary Meeting

 

There was an extraordinary meeting of the CIA and the U.S. State Department leadership on November 21, 1951, in the home of State Department official Edward W. Barrett, Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and an early member of the National Committee for Free Europe. Representing the CIA were Allen Dulles, Frank Wisner, Lloyd, Deputy Chief, Psychological Staff Division, and Tom Braden, Chief, International Branch, Psychological Division, OPC.

 

One of the items which the attendees agreed that "Radio Free Asia would undergo no further expansion until the future course of the Committee for Free Asia had been settled in a manner satisfactory to both CIA and State."  The CIA's Tom Braden said, "RFA is staying right there where it is until they are given further orders." Barrett said, "In regard to the radio audience in China, it was his understanding that there is a small and decreasing audience as the result of Communist repressive measures. He felt that it was better for OPC to put its RFA money into local, non-U.S.-labeled operations in the Far East. He said that we did not need another American voice in the area." CIA Director Dulles suggested “RFA be kept going on its present basis along with CFA for next few weeks until the new head of the organization is selected. He should then be brought in for a discussion of this whole operation.” 

 

Alan Valentine became president of the Committee for Free Asia in December 1951. He previously had been the president of the University of Rochester, ECA Chief in the Netherlands from 1948-1949 and Director of the Economic Stabilization Agency from 1950-1951. He participated in the May 10-11, 1952 state-private strategy meeting on political or psychological warfare at Princeton University. C.D. Jackson chaired the meeting with CIA Director Allen Dulles, Charles Chip Bohlen of the State Department, leading officials from Radio Free Europe, the National Security Council, etc. At one point, Valentine is quoted as saying,

 

            I think we have to bring to Asians more of a sense of moral conviction on

            our part – and I underline moral – if we are to convince them that we mean

            more than just support for our program. Following that, we must be very

            careful to get maximum participation by the Asians maximum control of

            individual activities on a partnership basis with the Asian, and emphasize

            as little as possible our part in the activities.

 

            Our radio program, though important will bulk less large in our over-seas

            operations than RFE because of its limited effectiveness due to a more

            limited number of receiving sets, and because there are other devices                    which may be used more effectively for our area than the spoken word.

 

            We charge ourselves with the mission of bringing back and maintaining 

            freedom and peace from the Kuriles to Korea to about two billion Asians,

            with a.staff most of whom like myself, are amateurs. 

 

The Original Radio Free Asia, 1951-1953, Part One

The original Radio Free Asia (RFA) was a short-lived and unsuccessful CIA “covert action project,” Its fate was directly connected to Radio Free Europe and the Crusade for Freedom. A 1990 secret CIA Report gave some insight into RFA’s establishment as a “private body”:

 

The Committee for a Free Asia” in 1951, sanctioned by the National Security Council and with the knowledge of Congressional Oversight Committees, supported by covert indirect CIA funding, the Committee had been created to help find ways to contain and expand private U.S. contact and communication with people of Asia following the establishment of Communist regimes in China and North Korea. The emphasis was on a private instrumentality that would be privately governed and would have the freedom and flexibility to do things the government would like to see done but which it chose not to do or could not do directly as well.

 

On March 12, 1951, the articles of incorporation of the Committee for a Free Asia Inc. (CFA) were filed with the California Office of the Secretary of State. Brayton Wilbur, an import-export executive, was the first chairman of the Committee for a Free Asia.  In announcing the creation of the Committee for a Free Asia, Wilbur said, “The people of Asia must have more of the facts about the suffering that follows Communist aggression. They must also be shown an alternative to communism.”

            

In the forward to CFA’s “Prospectus” issued in May 1951, Brayton Wilbur wrote, “The purpose of this Committee is to establish channels of direct communication between the people of Asia and the people of the free world everywhere. Through those channels an exchange of thoughts, the hopes and the inspirations of the people of Asia with the people of America and Europe can weld a union of free men which will roll back the dark forces of Soviet imperialism.”  The Statement of Purposes in the “Prospectus” included the following:

 

To promote, aid, and assist the cause of individual and national freedom in Asia, as opposed to Communist and other totalitarian doctrines. 

 

To initiate, assist and conduct, directly or indirectly, investigations and studies relating to such cause; and to obtain, collect, analyze, publish, broadcast, disseminate and distribute information relating thereto through any and all media of communication. 

 

To assist non-Communist and nontotalitarian elements in the countries of Asia in realizing and maintaining the ideals of individual and national freedom. 

 

To assist non-Communist and nontotalitarian travelers, refugees, and exiles from the countries of Asia in maintaining contact with their fellow citizens for the purpose of keeping alive and promoting the ideals of individual and national freedom; and to make available facilities whereby these travelers, refugees, and exiles can contribute to the cause of the maintenance of freedom under law. 

 

Similar to the original incorporation articles of the National Committee for a Free Europe, the Committee for a Free Asia would not “engage in carrying or propaganda or otherwise attempting to influence legislation.” Committee for a Free Asia offices were set up in San Francisco and New York. 

 

1951 Crusade Campaign

 

Radio Free Asia (RFA) was included with Radio Free Europe in the fund solicitation activities of the 1951 Crusade for Freedom campaign. The Advertising Council put out a Crusade for Freedom fact sheet for the American media, in which Radio Free Asia was mentioned in some detail: “Although it is patterned generally after the National Committee for a Free Europe, there are substantial differences because of the more complex pattern of national viewpoints across the Pacific, and because of the different pattern of Red Aggression in Asia. For one thing, CFA is not only engaged in fighting Communism where it has already seized control, but is also waging a preventive battle to keep Kremlin doctrine from spreading to other Eastern nations.” 

 

On May 2, 1951, General Lucius D. Clay, National Chairman of the Crusade for Freedom, announced two goals for the second annual Crusade campaign: enrollment of 25 million Americans and public contributions of $3,500,00 to build two more “freedom” stations in Europe and begin the construction of Radio Free Asia.

            

A goal of 1,000,000 signatures of Californians in support of Radio Free Asia, to be enshrined in a future RFA transmitter site, was announced by California Southern Chapter chairman C.B. Tibbets: “Like the scrolls set in place last year with the opening of Radio Free Europe, the 1951 freedom pledges —signed, sealed and delivered – will serve as propaganda springboards from which American truths will hurdle the Communist curtain.” 

 

Radio Free Asia Begins Broadcasting

            

On September 4, 1951, at 6:30 a.m. local time, Radio Free Asia began live broadcasting on a test basis from a rented studio in the commercial radio station KNBC, downtown San Francisco (it was 10:30 p.m. in China). After the sound of a bronze gong being struck three times and music from Mahler’s “Song of the Earth,” the first broadcast began with these words in Mandarin Chinese, “This is Radio Free Asia...the voice of free men speaking to the people of Asia.” 

            

The initial programs of news and commentary were at first 90 minutes long and divided into three segments in Mandarin, Cantonese and English languages. The programs were broadcast via a leased wire RCA short-wave transmitter to Manila, Philippines, and from there to China via a directional short wave antenna. 

 

John W. Elwood, the first director of Radio Free Asia, told the press, “Asians in those areas dominated by Communists had had no access to the truth even about occurrences in their own homelands, let alone truthful reports of world news events.” Elwood was quoted by Time magazine on September 17, 1951, as saying, “Because we have no government ties, we can say anything we damn please.” Time told its readers, “Like its sister organization, Radio Free Europe, R.F.A. was founded by a group of private U.S. citizens who feel that the Voice of America, though effective in its way, is sometimes hampered because of "good & sufficient reasons of national policy."

 

Committee for a Free Asia chairman, Brayton Wilbur, told the press, “The fundamental purpose of the broadcasting efforts of Radio Free Asia will be to pierce the Iron Curtain of Communism in Asia with factual, accurate and truthful news.” He added, 

 

    Eventually, Radio Free Asia will beam towards the various parts of Asia programs             on agriculture, health and other topics designed to assist the people of Asia and to maintain their courage and will to resist Communism. 

 

The symbol chosen for Radio Free Asia was a replica of a wooden Asian bell with the slogan “Let Freedom Ring.” Radio Free Asia broadcasts were expanded to three hours in December 1951, and a third Chinese dialect, Hakka, was added to the broadcast languages.