Presidential Advisor Elon Musk recently wrote about the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty:
1. Europe is free now (not counting stifling bureaucracy).
2. Nobody listens to them anymore.
3. It’s just radical left crazy people talking to themselves while torching $1B/year of US taxpayer money.
Background
Radio Free Europe (RFE) and Radio Liberty (RL) were described in a secret 1969 Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) report as “the oldest, largest, most costly, and probably most successful covert action projects aimed at the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.“ From 1949 to 1971 (when the CIA sponsorship ended), thousands of persons worked for these radio stations at a cost of over 465 million dollars to the American taxpayers—over 3 billion dollars in 2025.
Radio Free Europe first went on the air on July 4, 1950; Radio Liberty in March 1953.
In the Cold War, there were two attempts to close Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty.
The first took place under President Richard Nixon.
A major turning point in RFE/RL's history occurred in 1967 when Ramparts magazine publicly revealed the RFE-CIA connection. President Lyndon Johnson appointed a Presidential Commission to look into RFE funding among other CIA covert-action programs. When the US Congress decided that CIA funds would no longer finance RFE and RL after 30 June 1971, possible future sources of funding were debated.
During a meeting on the CIA budget on December 17, 1969, President Nixon reviewed the programs of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, which are covertly funded by the CIA. He decided to retain Radio Free Europe and “improve it” but to terminate Radio Liberty. He later changed his mind and in December 1969, he approved the Radio Liberty budget for Fiscal Year 1971.
On 19 August 1972, President Richard Nixon appointed a commission under the direction of Milton Eisenhower to study the future of international radio broadcasting. In 1973, the Eisenhower Commission published its report as 'The Right to Know'. Subsequent Congressional legislation consolidated RFE and RL into one new hybrid organization: a private non-profit corporation but still funded by Congress. Consolidation of the two radio stations took place in 1975-76 as a new corporation: RFE/RL, Inc.
The second attempt to close RFE and RL took place during the first Clinton presidency.
In April 1992, the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy this week concluded: Taxpayers are no longer getting their money's worth from Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty.”
President Clinton initially planned to eliminate funding for RFE and RL as of October 1995. He was supported by Senator Russell Feingold (D-Wisconsin), who introduced legislation to shut down the radios. However, an outcry from foreign policy experts in the U.S (including then Senator Joe Biden) and such European leaders as Polish President Lech Walesa and Czech President Vaclav Havel convinced Clinton to reconsider. The supporters of the radios cited "The fragile nature of democratic reforms in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union as an important reason for maintaining the radios as nonpartisan sources of information and as models for the media in the emerging democracies."
On July 4, 1994, President Clinton announced he had accepted the “generous offer of the Czech government to make the former Parliament building in Prague available for Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty and its associated research activities.”
RFE/RL today
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a private, nonprofit, multimedia broadcasting corporation that serves as a surrogate media source for 23 countries in 27 languages, including Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, and Ukraine.
With over 1,700 staff, RFE/RL is one of the most comprehensive news operations in the world. Headquartered in Prague, RFE/RL operates local bureaus throughout its broadcast region to better serve its audiences and facilitate the production of compelling, locally oriented programming, in a cost-effective manner.
UPDATE_ RFE/RL was notified that its grant to operate was terminated on March 15, 2015. RFE/RL President and CEO Stephen Capus said, “The cancellation of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s grant agreement would be a massive gift to America’s enemies. The Iranian Ayatollahs, Chinese communist leaders, and autocrats in Moscow and Minsk would celebrate the demise of RFE/RL after 75 years. Handing our adversaries a win would make them stronger and America weaker. We’ve benefitted from strong bipartisan support throughout RFE/RL’s storied history. Without us, the nearly 50 million people in closed societies who depend on us for accurate news and information each week won’t have access to the truth about America and the world.”
