"Trippers" to the Curtain. ©

“Trippers” to the Curtain

 

Starting in October 1954, and for the next seven years, prominent Americans were flown to Europe to visit Radio Free Europe (RFE) locations in Germany and Portugal, the Czech-German border, and the cities of Berlin and Paris. This was in conjunction with the domestic fund raising activities of the Crusade for Freedom in support of RFE. Those who participated in these “study tours” were given the nickname “Trippers” and were expected to brief their respective state and local Crusade chapters and national organizations on “Radio Free Europe’ role in the fight against Communist propaganda.” Below we briefly will look at some of these trips.

 

The First Trip

 

The first trip was October 20 – 29, 1954, when seventy-two “Trippers,” made a whirlwind trip to Europe. The group included Crusade for Freedom state chairmen and national organizations representatives, including the National Council for Catholic Women, Disabled American Veterans, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Campfire Girls and the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). 

 

The American Heritage Foundation, with Henry Ford II as Chairman, was the sponsor of the 1954-1955 Crusade for Freedom.  Thomas D’A. Brophy, president of the American Heritage Foundation sent a letter, to each “Tripper”, in which he wrote, 

 

            We are confident that Radio Free Europe will inspire you, as it did us,

            and that you will feel impelled, as we did, to communicate your enthusiasm

            with others.

 

            When you return, I think you will agree that supporting this vital undertaking

            will help better the chances for peace, prosperity and well being for all America

            and the Free World.

 

Prior to their departure, they were hosted at a buffet dinner in the Keystone Room of the Hotel Statler in New York City, with Thomas D’A. Brophy as the keynote speaker. 

            

The flight time from New York to Munich was 19 hours on a chartered Pan American DC 6B airplane—The Yankee Clipper. The first night in Munich included a two-hour buffet reception at the American Consulate.  The next morning the Trippers went on a two-hour tour of Radio Free Europe’s headquarters building.  In the afternoon, they were individually photographed sitting in front of a microphone marked RFE and making a short statement for broadcasting to RFE’s target countries (Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Bulgaria and Romania).  

            

On Saturday afternoon, they visited the Radio Free Europe transmitting site outside Munich at Holzkirchen and later that day the large RFE monitoring station at Schleissheim, north of Munich.  Sunday was an all-day tour by car to the German-Czechoslovak border for a personal look at the Iron Curtain, followed by a visit to the one of Free Europe Press balloon launching sites, where they lofted helium-filled balloons containing propaganda leaflets.  

            

On Monday they finished the tape recording of broadcast messages, signed Freedom Scrolls and flew to Berlin, where they met the Mayor of Berlin, Ernst Reuter, and saw the Freedom Bell in Schoenberg City Hall. On Tuesday, they were briefed by the Commanding General at the headquarters of the U.S. High Commissioner as well as a staff member of the Eastern Section of Radio in the American Sector (RIAS).  In the afternoon, they went on a bus tour of the Soviet Sector of Berlin. 

            

The “Trippers” flew to Paris, where General Alfred Gruenther and other officers at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers in Europe (SHAPE) briefed them.  After a sightseeing trip of Paris, they flew back to New York to begin the domestic phase of their support for Radio Free Europe by making public appearances and giving media interviews about their experience in Europe. A 14-½ minute film about trip was made for television distribution “How Your Truth Dollars Fight for Freedom” and was distributed to over 200 television stations in the Untied States.

 

A striking example of post-Study trip activity is that of Edwin (Ed) L. Haislet, who was Minnesota co-state chairman of the Crusade for Freedom and executive secretary of the University of Minnesota Alumni Association.  The February 1955 issue of Minnesota Alumni Voice on “Freedom and Democracy” was dedicated to the Crusade for Freedom.  The feature article was “I pierced the Iron Curtain” by Ed Haislet, in which he detailed his experiences in Europe. The article including a photograph of him, standing under the Freedom Bell in Berlin, at the Czech-German border as well as his sending of a balloon over the Iron Curtain.  Haislet wrote: "The people of the United States, by supporting Radio Free Europe, are fulfilling their own obligation to decency, proving to their own belief in the essential dignity of the individual human being, the fundamental equality of all men and their inalienable  rights to freedom justice and a fair opportunity."

 

General Lucius D. Clay’s Call to Action to American Women ©

 

General Lucius D. Clay’s Call to Action to American Women

 

Radio Appeal September 8, 1951

 

General Lucius D. Clay gave a radio address that was broadcast by radio station WNBC at 10:15 p.m., September 8, 1951. The New York Times, for example, headlined the speech on September 9, 1951: “CLAY OPENS APPEAL TO AID RED 'SLAVES.” In part, Clay said:

 

The free people were unwilling to believe in 1945 that aggression was again on the march; that Stalin had replaced Hitler. When they learned this lesson, they rallied.  For two years they have resisted the Soviet attempt to enslave more people, while concurrently slowly but surely rebuilding their own strength and their abilities t maintain freedom in areas where it is threatened. The day approaches when they will aid in the restoration of freedom where it has been lost.

 

Then when stability comes, as the armed potential of the West has been mobilized to match -- to more than match – Soviet might, demands which cannon be resisted will develop in the satellite countries for free elections, in which Communist rule will be overwhelmingly defeated.

 

If we truly want a free world, then each and every one of us must be willing to play a part in bringing it about. It is not our way to leave our problems entirely resolved by government. It is our way as a people to join together in doing those things, which we believe worthwhile. The Crusade for Freedom presents the opportunity to each American to take a personal part in the struggle for freedom. 

 

 

Call to Action to American Women

 

There was also a nation-wide newspaper coverage of Clay’s appeal, in the best Cold-war rhetoric, to the women in the United States to support the Crusade, an urgent Call to Action:

 

Last year we accomplished much. With the money contributed to the CRUSADE FOR FREEDOM in 1950 we built a new radio station – the most powerful in Europe. This station of Radio Free Europe broadcasts daily messages of hope and courage to the captive peoples.

 

Now where do we go from here? The answer is, we go on! We need at least two more Powerful radio transmitters in Europe. We need funds to begin work at once on a Radio Free Asia to halt the spread of Communism in the Far East.

 

The CRUSADE FOR FREEDOM is our means, as private citizens, of insuring that the voice of liberty will be heard. Radio Free Europe is our personal instrument for adding our voice to the voices of truth penetrating the Iron Curtain.

 

This struggle (against Communism) reaches into every American home. It involves you and me. It affects the way of life of our children and our grandchildren. 

 

Therefore I call upon the women of America to join in the CRUSADE FOR FREEDOM. I ask you to take this positive action now.

 

The CRUSADE FOR FREEDOM and Radio Free Europe are one of the
means, one of the powerful weapons that can be brought into play against the forces of tyranny – powerful because through them American citizens can dispel the chill blackness of evil ideas with the clear warmth and light of truth. 

 

By helping to win the battle for men’s minds, we thereby help to keep this cold war from developing into a hot war.

 

This is the primary reason why it is urgent for every woman in this nation to enroll in the CRUSADE FOR FREEDOM.

 

 

 

Operation PROSPERO: Combining Spoken and Written Words ©

 

Operation PROSPERO

 

PROSPERO was the code name for the balloon program in the summer 1953, when over four days, 6,500 balloons with over 12,000,000 Free Europe Press leaflets were launched into Czechoslovakia.  16 The balloon launching started approximately at midnight July 13, 1953, in the Bavarian town of Tirschenreuth. This was the first time balloons were launched in conjunction with specific Radio Free Europe programs. RFE attacked the regime's new currency reforms and dropped a leaflet in the form of a banknote and an aluminum replica of a newly introduced Czechoslovak coin bearing the Freedom Bell and the inscription, "All Czechs and Slovaks for Freedom--all the Free World for Czechs and Slovaks."

 

At the July 14, 1953, NCFE Meeting, Spencer Phenix showed the other directors samples of the leaflets and read translations of the message texts.  Reportedly, the NCFE “expressed great interest in the operation and pleasure at the dynamic content of the printed message.” 

 

There was coverage of the balloon launchings throughout the United States.  For example, on July 22, 1953, the Reno Evening Gazette newspaper published a photo of a balloon launching with this caption:

 

            ON THE WINDS OF FREEDOM—A German student prepares to

            launch a huge balloon filled with messages to residents of Soviet controlled

from a secluded farm close to the Czech border in project sponsored by Radio Free Europe and known as "Winds of Freedom." Man in             foreground is using counting device to tally the balloon, one of 8000, which were released carrying news of the June 17 riots in East Berlin and the ouster   of  Laventy P. Beria.

 

The regime responded to PROSPERO by using military aircraft and anti-aircraft weapons

along the border to shoot down the balloons the day after the first launching. In fact, on July 15,

the FEP staff saw the military aircraft shooting down the balloons as they first crossed the border

into Czechoslovakia. Police cars in Prague and elsewhere used loudspeakers ordering citizens to

turn in all the leaflets. 

 

Both the Czechoslovak and Soviet media attacked this balloon program.

Because of the violent reaction and the media attacks, RFE inadvertently discovered that the

balloon program was more successful than first planned. It paved the ground work for even

greater balloon efforts with specific programming in the following years. For the first time,

PROSPERO proved the value of combining the spoken word of RFE and written word of FEP

for effective propaganda.