Dropping Leaflets on America: Freedom Sky Drop on Freedom Day 1955 ©

 

Thousands of propaganda leaflets were not only lofted behind the Iron Curtain in the Cold War, but also were dropped over American cities and towns in support of Radio Free Europe. Below, we will take a brief look at the Freedom Sky Drop in 1955.

The Civil Air Patrol, American Heritage Foundation, and the American Legion sponsored a nation-wide Freedom Sky Drop project jointly on "Freedom Day," Washington’s Birthday, February 22, 1955, as part of the Crusade for Freedom fund-raising campaign for Radio Free Europe. One thousand small airplanes flew over 200 American cities and towns and dropped the following package:  

• Replicas of the Freedom Bell medallions sent to countries behind the Iron Curtain
• Freedom scrolls for the signatures of 41 persons
• Envelopes in which “Truth Dollar” contributions to the Crusade could be mailed
• Leaflet on Questions and Answers about Radio Free Europe
• Booklet entitled Your Crusade
• Reprints of the January 1955 Reader’s Digest article “Balloons Over the Iron Curtain” 

How this was played out at the local level is exemplified by the proclamation signed by mayor James E. Neleigh of Las Cruces, New Mexico, which in part read,

WHEREAS one of the most effective media now known for accomplishing this vital task and combating the Communist lie technique is Radio Free Europe supported by the American people.

I DO HEREBY PROCLAIM Tuesday, February Twenty Second, nineteen hundred and fifty-five, as FREEDOM DAY and do recommend to each citizen that he sign the Freedom Scroll, which is being distributed and contribute Truth Dollars within his means to the support of Crusade for Freedom and the cause of peace and freedom in the world.

In the state of Nevada, the Crusade for Freedom campaign began with a formal dinner in Reno and the lofting of nine balloons with a personal message from Governor Charles Russell, who attended the launching ceremonies. On Saturday, eight Nevada cities were "bombed“ with leaflets, according to one newspaper account: 

Eight western Nevada communities were "bombed" with leaflets Friday as the Nevada Crusade for Freedom Drive got underway...

The Civil Air Patrol took over the duty of spreading leaflets over Sparks, Carson City, Minden, Virginia City, Fern1ey, Wadsworth, Lovelock, and Winnemucca. About 20,000 pieces of literature describing the Crusade were dropped and CAP pilots said that they had been successful in hitting their targets.

In Massachusetts, the newspaper The North Adams Transcript published a photograph with the caption “Ready for Freedom Sky Drop Mission.” The photograph showed North Adams’ mayor James M. Lilly looking at the leaflet package as Civil Air Patrol Captain, Robert C. Sprague, Jr., and two of his aides in front of the airplane that was used to drop the leaflets over North Adams and Pittsfield, Massachusetts, “to shower communities with literature … to dramatize work of Crusade for Freedom in penetrating Iron Curtain with voice of Truth.”

Not all cities approved of the Freedom Sky Drop. For example, in New Hampshire plans to scatter 150,000 leaflets from airplanes were canceled in Manchester, Concord, Nashua, and Portsmouth, when police chiefs objected that fluttering paper would be a menace to motorists.

The city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, also declined to be involved with the Freedom Sky Drop: "The office of Milwaukee Major Frank Zeidler ruled Milwaukee out of the American Legion sponsored sky drop because of the anti-liter ordinance. Police also expressed concern over possible injury to children chasing the leaflets."

The Freedom Sky Drop became a subject of communications research at the University of Colorado, Message Diffusion Under Uncontrolled Conditions, after the dropping of 9,000 leaflet packages over Boulder, Colorado.

University researchers placed an advertisement in the local newspaper The Boulder Daily Camera with the headline

You can contribute to National Defense ... We are trying to help the Crusade for Freedom by evaluating the effectiveness of this leaflet drop. YOU CAN HELP by filing out this questionnaire and mailing it to us. PLEASE DO THIS IMMEDIATELY.

The Freedom Sky Drop over Boulder, Colorado, was nor much of a success: of 428 persons in Boulder, who were interviewed after the airdrop, only 24 actually had a leaflet in their possession at the time of the interviews. Of that number, 12 found a leaflet on the ground and 12 were given a leaflet from another person. 244 of the 428 respondents stated that they knew of the leaflet-drop through “all the available mass media of communications,” but 184 did not know about the Freedom Sky Drop operation.

The researchers concluded, in part:

Conceptually, the total leaflet message may be restated as follows 

1.   A struggle is going on between the democratic and the communist nations.

2.   In this struggle, Crusade for Freedom is playing a vital role, principally through its Radio Free Europe broadcasting system

3.   The Crusade is supported by voluntary contributions from American citizens.

4.   Their support is justified because the Crusade has been successful.

5.   It is likewise justified because prominent Americans, such as the President, also promote the Crusade program.

The message is, consequently, one both of information and propaganda.

The report Message Diffusion under Uncontrolled Conditions, by Judson B. Pearson, Jiri Nehnevasja, and Rodney D. Elliott, was reviewed by Dr. Anatol Rapoport, Journal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 53, No. 281 (Mar., 1958), pp. 254-256. 

Ferdinand Ďurčanský and Radio Barcelona: The Vice of Free Slovakia ©

Radio Barcelona, The Voice of Free Slovakia

 

Ferdinand Ďurčanský

 

Ferdinand Ďurčanský was born in 1906 near Zilina, Slovakia, then a part of the A.ustro-Hungarian Empire. He graduated from the Law School of Komenskeho University in Bratislava. He also studied law in Paris and returned to Bratislava to conclude his studies for a Doctorate of Laws degree and practiced law in Bratislava. In 1936 he founded the magazine Nastup (The Attack), described as a fascist, anti-Semitic. In February 1938, he participated in the agreement between Slovakia, Hungary, and Sudeten-Germans on a joint action plan against the Czech government in Prague. Czechoslovakia was divided as federal state with autonomous regional governments in Slovakia and Ruthenia. On March 12, 1939, Ďurčanský and Monsignor Josef Tiso traveled to Berlin to meet with Hitler. 2 days later, German troops invaded Bohemia and Slovakia was declared an independent nation. 

Ďurčanský became Minister of Foreign Affairs. He concluded an agreement in August 1939 with Germany that established a military zone in Slovakia, which helped the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. Ďurčanský also signed an agreement with Germany to send forced labor to Germany and permitted the German army to occupy important Slovak factories.

Ďurčanský lost his cabinet posts in July 1940 for not fully explained reasons. For the next four years he practiced law in Bratislava and managed a chemical faction. In April 1945 as the Soviet army moved in Slovakia, he and others escaped to Austria. Reportedly, he escaped with 150 kilograms of morphine. 

In the Spring of 1945, Ferdinand Ďurčanský escaped frin Austria to Rome, with his wife and two children. When Karel Sidor of the Slovak League of America (SLA) declined to share with him funds that were collected from Slovak nationals abroad,  Ďurčanský organized the Slovak Action Committee (SAC) to work for an independent Slovakia. He also lived in a Jesuit monastery in Frascati near Rome, then in Grottaferrata in the College of Oriental Priests and in the Vatican.

In 1946, the United Nations War Crimes Commission listed Ďurčanský as a war criminal, but extradition requests by the Czechoslovak government under President Benes was refused by Italy on the grounds that the Treaty of 1921 between the two countries did not apply to political criminals. In December 1946, a trial against Ďurčanský was opened in Prague, and on April 15, 1947, he was sentenced to death in absentia as a war criminal.  There was apparently a failed attempt to kidnap him in Rome in August and bring him back to Czechoslovakia for trial.

In November 1946, Ďurčanský began his attempts to enter the USA when he registered him-self and his family with the American Consulate in Naples, Italy on the Czech quota waiing list. He applied for a visa in January 1947 but it was declined.

He sailed from Naples, Italy to Buenos Aires, Argentina, under the pseudonym Nandor Vilcek.[1] Ďurčanskýmoved to Argentina, supposedly as the invitation of Evita Peron. and in 1948 Argentina refused his extradition to Czechoslovakia.

               Slovak refugees Dezider Murgaš and Eduard Moščovič, reportedly on the initiative of Ferdinand Ďurčanský, reportedly assembled a radio from parts purchased on the black market from the US Army's stock at the end of winter 1946. Another Slovak refugee R. Dilong went to Salizano, Italy about 100 km from Rome to worship in a Franciscan Monastery. A local priest and convinced anti-Communist placed the radio in the parish house; the church tower acted as an antenna. Radio Barcelona was the call sign and it only had power of 1Kw. Since the station was illegal in Italy, authorities began looking for it. [2]

               Radio Barcelona broadcast daily from 22:00 to 22:30 in Slovak and from 23:00 to 23:30 in English on 44.45m for Slovakia and on 16m band for South America and 19m band for the U.S. Czechoslovak authorities monitored and recorded the broadcasting on March 20, 1947; the last known broadcast was on April 19 1947.[3] The Czechoslovak Ministry of National Defense report in May 1947, concluded that the radio station was actually operating from a British military base near Udine, Italy, a city in north-eastern Italy. [4]

               The radio station “For Free Slovakia” began on November 27, 1948, from Braunau, Austria, operated by Jozef Čačko . It broadcast for two hours on Saturday and Sunday. The U.S. Army’s CIC reportedly confiscated the radio and “For Free Slovakia” ended. [5]

               The “Voice of the Slovak Republic” radio station was first heard on April 16, 1947, spoke on behalf of the Slovak Action Committee. The station later added, “The Voice of Slovak Republic of the Spanish Radio Nacional” to its name. It spoke in behalf of Slovak separatism and used the slogan, “This year over to the attack! Every trace of the Second Czechoslovak Republic will be erased.” Listeners were encouraged to write “SAV” in all public places in Slovakia. One broadcast said,  “Preparations for a revolt are already underway…a rising is in preparation against the Communist government…Insurgent troops are already being organized.” Ďurčanský’s voice was heard in one broadcast, in which he declared that in Slovakia, “No one knew what would happen to him the next day, where there was no religious freedom, and from where people were being deported to the USSR.”

               Ďurčanský arranged for renewal of radio station in Austria on December 5, 1950 that broadcast on Tuesdays and Fridays on 12:45 AM on the short-wave band of 40 meters.

The program began and ended with the playing of the Slovak Republic’s national anthem in World War II and included the statement: “By fighting Communism we are fighting for the restoration of the Slovak Republic.” The first program was not jammed.[6] Anton Maly was the operator of the station “Voice of the Slovak Republic” and was the Austrian representative of Ďurčanský’s Slovak Liberation Committee. [7]

Ďurčanský returned to Europe on or about May 20, 1952, from Argentina and proceed to Innsbruck, Austria. He requested a visa for Germany, but it was refused by the Combined Travel Board (German and American intelligence services). He then proceeded to Paris, where he received a 3-month French visa, before returning to Germany.

A Free Europe Committee memorandum in May 1952 gave some details about Ďurčanský;

 

Our continuing study of the various attacks on PEROUTKA (head of the Czech Desk of RFE) indicates that they are inspired by agents of two political adventurers and agitators, namely General PRCHALA and Dr. Ferdinand DURCANSKY . . . DURCANSKY’S fulminations and vilifications of many prominent Czechs regularly appear in obscure newspapers published in the Czech or Slovak language in various centers of Czech emigration. [8]

 

In the Slovak émigré newspaper in the United States in 1952, SLOVÁK V AMERIKE, there was a notice announcing the broadcasting of a short-wave radio transmitter on 45 meters daily at 1900 hours, Central European Time. The notice named John Kutasovic as trustee, and urged readers to contribute funds for the radio station. The alleged new transmitter called itself the Voice of the Slovak Republic, and said itself to be the sole defender of Slovak rights. A CIA memorandum dated June 14, 1952, concluded:

 

We strongly believe that direct or indirect American help for Ďurčanský is not only unsound politically and morally, but also will greatly complicate our problems here … [A]nd, in the case of DYCLEAN (CIA)– are in strong opposition to Ďurčanský and will wish to divert their strength to sabotaging and penetrating him, if permitted to do. Psychological warfare operations will be rendered almost useless, as too much conflicting material will be poured into a small target.

 

We respectfully submit…that it will serve no substantial interest of DYCLAIM (OSO) to support Ďurčanský through indirect subsidizations paid to ZIPPER (Gehlen Organization-ORG) for the purpose.

 

With respect to the solicitation of funds in SLOVAK V AMERIKE, if in fact the alleged radio is a hoax, solicitors might be urged to sue the paper for fraud. Hrobek might write an article demanding proof, or some other less indirect but equally effective method used to kill the fund-raising, [9]

 

               In 1953, Ďurčanský was living in Munich, Germany, and tried to set up another radio station in Augsburg, Germany, with the assistance of the German Intelligence organization (Gehlen organization--ORG). 

               Ďurčanský sent a letter dated February 18, 1953, to William (Bill) Griffith, Political Advisor of RFE in Munich, in which he wrote in part:

 

Because it is generally in the interest of every follower of the principles of Freedom and Democracy that resistance against Communism and Moscow’s imperialism be strengthened, and because the realization of these principles behind the Iron Curtain is a pre-condition for peace may I be allowed to remind you that a successful achievement of these aims requires to organize a special Slovak section-desk-in the radio station of the National Committee for a Free Europe in Munich, which would in no way be dependent on the Czechs but would have the same working capacity as the Czech desk.

 

The Slovak Liberation Committee would gladly cooperate with the National Committee for a Free Europe if we would be given the democratic opportunity of broadcasting those ideals of which the Independence of the United States was born and which alone can form the basis of progress, happiness and peace in the World. [10]

 

A copy of his letter was sent to the United States Hight Commissioner in Bonn, James B. Conan.

From 1952 to 1958 Ďurčanský’s acted in an advisory capacity to the Gehlen Organization (ORG), supplying them with information on Czechoslovakia. In March 1953, ORG told CIA that the illegal radio broadcasts would not be made but they would continue working with Ďurčanský—he had the code name “Professor” with ORG. The Gehlen Organization explained to CIA field office that, “Other than a basic discussion with members of the Sudenten German group (Landsmannschaft) three months ago about a joint anti-Communist transmissions to Czechoslovakia, there has been no preparation in this direction. The discussion has to be recognized as having failed. This involved private negotiations of the PROFESSOR without any direct or indirect involvement of the ORG.” [11]

Dr. Ferdinand Ďurčanský died in Munich on March 21, 1974.

 

 

---

[1] Summary of available Personality Information, November 2, 1954, DURCANSKY, FERDINAND VOL. 2_0028, https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/document/519a6b26993294098d5110ae.

[2] Petr Kubik, “Slovenský exil v Itálii 1945-49,” Securitas imperii Studie, No.21 (02/2012) p.40, https://www.ustrcr.cz/data/pdf/publikace/securitas-imperii/no21/026-047.pdf.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Information from Foreign Documents or Radio Broadcasts, December 5, 1950, Slovak Clandestine Station, https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/document/cia-rdp78-04864a000200010002-6,

[7] Foreign Service Dispatch, American Embassy Vienna, to the Department of State, Washington, Subject: Activities of Czech and Slovak Refugees Political Groups in Austria, March 26, 1952, DURCANSKY, FERDINAND VOL.1_0073, https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/document/519a6b27993294098d5110f5,

[8] DURCANSKY, FERDINAND VOL. 2_0028, Op cit.

[9] Report on the Slovak Committee for Liberation and the Slovakian National Council, June 2, 1951, DURCANSKY, FERDINAND VOL.1_0058, https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/document/519a6b27993294098d5110ef,

[10] Foreign Service Dispatch, From Hight Commissioner, Germany to Department of State, Washington, March 10, 1953, , DURCANSKY, Ferdinand VOL.2_0017, https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/document/519a6b26993294098d511088,

[11] March 30, 1953, Report of Gehlen Organization, DURCANSKY, FERDINAND VOL.2_0020, https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/document/519a6b26993294098d5110a2,

Radio Liberty and Cold War Jazz ©

 Radio Liberty and Cold War Jazz

 

The “Jazz Ambassadors” program  was created by the US State Department in 1956: the US State Department decided to send a group of popular American jazz musicians to countries in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union to play Western jazz music and, by extension, to present a visual challenge to Soviet propaganda about racial tensions in the United States. Some of the musicians included Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Phil Woods, Oscar Peterson, and Benny Goodman.

 

In the late 1950s, jazz great Louis Armstrong visited Radio Liberty’s New York studio. He agreed to an interview and introduced the program in carefully rehearsed Russian. He then played his trumpet to the accompaniment of a popular Soviet song "Five Minutes." 

 

The Benny Goodman band toured the USSR in 1962. Goodman became the first jazz musician to tour the Soviet Union for the State Department, when he made thirty appearances in six cities in five weeks. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev attended the band’s opening night in Moscow. Goodman opened the show with "Let’s Dance" and "Greetings Moscow," a number based on a Russian folk song. Khrushchev later sent Goodman a note reporting that he had been “very pleased and delighted to be at the concert.” 

 

Goodman gave an impromptu solo clarinet performance in Red Square. The New York Times noted that he became a visiting “Pied Piper” for curious children who swarmed around him in the shadow of the Kremlin.

 

Since Russian officials had banned the American musicians from fraternizing with ordinary citizens, reportedly band members Phil Woods and Zoot Sims made contact with jazz fans, who called out to them from behind trees and bushes as they walked through Moscow parks.

 

Original compositions of "Soviet" jazz musicians were "smuggled" out of the USSR by members of the Goodman band, who had surreptitiously met with the local musicians. In June 1963, Radio Liberty introduced a new weekly half-hour program produced in New York that was called This is Jazz (eto dzhaz). 

 

The first broadcast was that of eight musicians who played the smuggled jazz compositions: Bill Crow, bass, and alto saxophonist Phil Woods, tenor saxophonist Zoot Sims, pianist John Bunch, trumpeter Art Farmer (using mostly the fluegelhorn) trombonist Bob Brookmeyer, baritone saxophonist Nick Brignola and drummer Walter Perkins. 

 

The jazz session broadcast was recorded but not released. A CD entitled The Liberty of Jazz with nine of the songs was recently reproduced by Soyyd Records in a limited edition. The CD jacket includes a photograph of the Radio’s transmitter site in Spain and the famous jazz performers. The songs can be previewed for purchase, including the Louis Armstrong recording of "Five Minutes" with him speaking Russian.

 

Radio Free Europe and Cold War Jazz @

 Radios Free Europe and Cold War Jazz

 

Czech disc jockey Eva Stankova was once described in a newspaper article as a “lovely and vivacious refugee.“ She lived in New York and taped her music programs at the New York RFE office. Her program was called “Date with Eva” that was described in 1951 as, "a disk jockey program, brings once again into the enslaved land the native folk music and western jazz banned by the Reds." She traveled throughout the United States giving interviews over domestic radio stations, which played excerpts from her broadcasts and interviews with jazz greats. 

 

In the 1950s, Radio Free Europe broadcast pre-written scripts, using phonetics, read by famous jazz musicians Duke Ellington, Gene Krupa, Woody Herman, Oscar Peterson, Earl Hines and Stan Kenton. Newspapers in 1957 carried her photograph with the caption: "Checkin' in Czech -- Roy (Little Jazz) Eldridge says a few words in Czechoslovakia in the Czech language. Helping the famed trumpeter overcome the language barrier is pretty Eva Stankova of Radio Free Europe." The programs were then made available to U.S. audiences through the Crusade for Freedom. 

 

The Billboard magazine in 1958 proudly proclaimed itself in its sixty-fourth year to be “The Amusement Industry’s Leading Newsweekly.”  The March 3, 1958, issue had a full-page article entitled “A Report to the Music Industry” that dealt with Radio Free Europe and the Crusade for Freedom A photograph of the Munich RFE headquarters and a graphic of the RFE transmitter sites and how programs were broadcast from Germany and Portugal to East Europe.  The article focused on music: “The youth in these countries want to know about and hear the latest American pop, dance and jazz records.  And music of all kinds comprises some 15% of broadcast time to each country behind the Iron Curtain.”

 

For the 1959 campaign, the Advertising Council also sent out a two-record set to radio stations: one was entitled “But not for me—Freedom is not free” that contained brief personal appeals in support Radio Free Europe, from musicians and entertainers, Duke Ellington, Arthur Godfrey, Hy Gardner, Judy Holliday, Robert Preston and Dorothy Collins. It was distributed with a second record “This Guitar Chose Freedom” that told the story of Hungarian jazz guitarist Gabor Szabo and his escape to freedom in 1956. Television personality Steve Allen was the speaker and Szabo is heard on the record playing songs “I remember you,” ‘Berklee’s Delight,” “You go to my head” and “Chinatown my Chinatown.” The theme of the recording was “How American jazz – stifled behind the Iron Curtain – sounds in a free land.”

Dr. Zhivago and CIA

 Doctor Zhivago

“No single man makes history. History cannot be seen, just as one cannot see grass growing. Wars and revolutions, kings and Robespierres, are history's organic agents, its yeast. But revolutions are made by fanatical men of action with one-track mind, geniuses in their ability to confine themselves to a limited field. They overturn the old order in a few hours or days, the whole upheaval takes a few weeks or at most years, but the fanatical spirit that inspired the upheavals is worshiped for decades thereafter, for centuries. ”

- Boris Leonidovich Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago

 

CIA Publishes Doctor Zhivago in Russian and Exposes Life in USSR under Communism

The CIA has declassified 99 documents describing the CIA’s role publishing Boris Leonidovich Pasternak’s epic novel, Doctor Zhivago, for the first time in Russian in 1958 after it had been banned from being published in the Soviet Union. 

The Zhivago project was one of many CIA-supported covert publishing programs that involved distributing banned books, periodicals, pamphlets, and other materials to intellectuals in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. This collection provides a glimpse into a thoughtful plan to accomplish fast turn-around results without doing harm to foreign partners or Pasternak. 

Following the publication of Doctor Zhivago in Russian in 1958, Pasternak won the Nobel Prize for Literature, the popularity of the book skyrocketed, and the plight of Pasternak in the Soviet Union received global media attention. Moscow had hoped to avoid these precipitous outcomes by initially refusing to publish the novel two years earlier. There is no indication in this collection that having Pasternak win the Nobel Prize was part of the Agency’s original plan; however, it contributed to appeals to Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, and it was a blow to those who insisted that the Soviets in 1958 enjoyed internal freedom. 

Of note, the documents in this collection show how effective “soft power” can influence events and drive foreign policy.

The CIA documents can be found at  

https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/collection/doctor-zhivago

 

From Conflict to Smokey Joe's: Secret Tunnel Operations in Vienna ©

 Richard H. Cummings

“Divided Cities and Contested Cities during the Cold War”

Gorizia, Italy

20-23 March 2025

 

 

From Conflict to Smokey Joe’s: Secret Tunnel Operations in Vienna

 

 

            Operation Silver was a collective term for several individual tunnel projects. The British secret service MI6 completed three tunnels in Vienna from 1948/49. They were named Conflict, Lord, and Sugar. The purpose was to tap into the Soviet occupying power's military communication.

            Conflict was the operational name for the first tunnel. In the summer or autumn of 1948, an Austrian telecommunications expert is said to have given British Intelligence an explosive tip: Under Aspangstraße in Vienna-Landstraße, a telephone cable handled a large part of Soviet military telephone traffic as well as the international lines to Prague, Budapest, Sofia, and Bucharest.

            Three men worked around the clock in two or three-hour shifts in the tunnel nicknamed "Smokey Joe's" because of the unfiltered air mixture of cigarette smoke and cellar moisture. When a man heard a telephone call, he activated the recording device, the conversation was recorded on an Edison phone cylinder. The cylinders were then flown three times a week in special barrels from Vienna to London. There, the recordings of the MI6 department were listened to and transcribed. The team comprised of 50 to 60 Russian emigrants, Polish army officers in exile and language experts. The transcripts of summaries from this were incorporated into a regular bulletin about the order of battle of the Red Army in Austria.

.           Lord, the longest and most elaborate of the three espionage tunnels, was created at the end of the Simmeringer Hauptstraße – just opposite the Soviet-occupied eastern bank of the Schwechat River The goal was also, in this case, an underground cable, which ran parallel to the road and the Hotel Imperial with the command of the Red Army. Access to the tunnel was via a villa where intelligence officer John Edward Wyke and his wife had previously moved in. Wyke was the right hand of MI6 head Peter Lunn, the driving force behind Operation Silver. The tunnel is said to have been just over 21 meters long. Previously, the house entrance had been renewed with a layer of concrete and dug from the cellar to the cable.

 

CIA Operation

 

            Communications intelligence (COMINT) is information gathered from communications between individuals or groups of individuals, including telephone conversations, text messages, email conversations, radio calls, and online interactions. Specifically, COMINT refers to analyzing the signals containing speech or text generated by these interactions. The targets for the British and Americans were the same: the penetration of Soviet operations and Soviet order-of-battle intelligence. What went on in the Imperial Hotel in Vienna was, accordingly, a major intelligence target. 

            One time Director of CIA Richard Helms wrote in his memoirs: “By 1951 our research showed that the landlines followed the original conduits established for telephonic traffic before World War I in Austria and Germany. The proximity of these lines to areas in which we might work suggested a long-shot possibility of breaking into the mass of communications between Moscow and the Soviet occupation headquarters in Austria, Germany, and the Central Group of Forces in Hungary. However slight our chances, the potential product of a successful operation appeared to justify an all-out effort. Landlines can be intercepted only by tapping the telephone cables. Breaking into the lines—most of which were tucked underground—would be a considerable undertaking, but would have one advantage over radio monitoring.”

            The CIA Vienna station had a blueprint of the underground cables and communications routes between the Soviet command in the hotel and Moscow. Using information from city plans and other sources, Carl Nelson, an officer in the CIA's Office of Communications, was able to put this blueprint together. Helms wrote, "We were well along with this research in Austria when our Vienna office earned that the British had independently come upon the same idea and had made considerable progress in tapping into the underground cables. The potential value of the intercept product in Austria and Germany meant there was too much at stake to risk any overlapping effort in such a narrow field. The British agreed, and we each cooperated to the hilt at all times."

According to one historian, "During its lifetime, the joint operation in Vienna kept a steady supply of firsthand information flowing to top decision-makers in London and Washington. The CIA recruited the first of a series of Soviet intelligence officers at the turn of the year 1952/1953. This invaluable source … contributed greatly to the West's requirements for reliable early warning of a Soviet offensive."

            The deputy head of British Intelligence in London, Section Y, George Blake, had been a Soviet KGB since his imprisonment in the Korean War. In October of 1953, Blake was said to have handed over a folded piece of paper to his KGB contact in London. The folded piece of paper contained a list of all the SIS's telephone tapping operations in the Vienna tunnel operation, as well as information about microphones planted in Soviet and East Bloc embassies in Western Europe. In only their second or third meeting, in early December 1952, “Blake handed over a hugely damaging Minox film of a ninety-page report entitled 'Banner 54/1', which contained a compilation of the tapped calls between Austria and Hungary, obtained via the tunnels in Vienna.”

            The CIA covered 75 percent of the cost of the joint tunnel operation, which ran until 1955 when Austria regained sovereignty. The CIA had been so impressed by Operation Silver's output that it copied it on a much larger scale: in 1954/55, a 450 meter-long tunnel was dug under the Soviet-occupied sector of Berlin: Operation Gold.

Isaac Patch and Radio Liberty Committee’s “Book Project” ©

 Isaac Patch and Radio Liberty Committee’s “Book Project”

 

            Although CIA files and documents relating to Radio Liberty Committee’s book distribution program remain basically closed, we can still glimpse this important Cold War activity.

            Parallel to Radio Free Europe, the short-wave international radio network that became known as the CIA covertly financed Radio Liberty from its beginning. Eventual financial support from U.S. Government funds for Radio Liberty would amount to $160 million.  William H. Chamberlin, one of the original members of the RLC Advisory Council, succinctly described the major difficulty it faced: 

 

Emphasis was on trying to promote a united organization of Russian and non-Russian émigré groups (Communists, Fascists, and extreme reactionaries excluded), which would carry on radio broadcasting and other anti-Communist activity in the name of a united politically conscious emigration.  

 

This attempt was frustrated by the atmosphere of suspicious hostility, which prevailed among the Russian and non-Russian political groups, and also by personal feuds among leaders of the groups.

 

            The man chosen to unite the émigré groups was Isaac Patch, who had been a career diplomat in Moscow in World War II and later in Prague, from where he was expelled on 24-hours-notice in October 1949 for having been involved in anti-Communist underground activities in Czechoslovakia. 

            Patch joined RLC in Munich as "director of émigré relations" or "political coordinator," in a failed attempt to unite the émigré groups. In his memoirs, he wrote, “My job as émigré relations advisor had run its course. Although I had been unsuccessful in bringing the Russians and non-Russians together in a committee to serve as its sponsor, I did help in recruiting people for the various Radio Liberty desks.”

            Patch then took over the Special Projects Division, which published a newspaper and quarterly journal for the Russian émigré community. In 1956, Patch transferred to RLC headquarters in New York to begin “The Book Project.” He has written that the purpose of “The Book Project” was “To communicate Western ideas to Soviet citizens by providing them with books -- on politics, economics, philosophy, art, and some technology -- all denied them by the Soviet dictatorship.”

            Howland Sargeant, president of RLC, heartily endorsed Patch's Program and presented it to the CIA for financial support. The CIA responded with an initial grant of $10,000. To give cover to the book program, The Bedford Publishing Company was initially created as a "private venture" to publish Western books that had not been previously translated into Russian. The Bedford Publishing House remained physically separate from Radio Liberty operations. Although no longer officially associated with Radio Liberty, Patch attended its regular staff meetings in New York.

            The Bedford Publishing Company had offices in London, Paris, Munich and Rome. Book translations were made in France and England, and publishing was done in Italy. Soviet visitors to cities such as London, Paris, New York, and Rome were given books, as were Western travelers to the Soviet Union. In the 14-year-long book program associated with Radio Liberty, over one million books were delivered to the USSR this way. In his memoirs, Patch broke down this number:

 

35 percent were given to Soviet travelers to the West:

 

·      Engineers,

·      Teachers,

·      Artists, 

·      Students and

·      Journalists.

 

40 percent were given to Western travelers to the USSR:

 

·      Doctors, 

·      Lawyers, 

·      Teachers and

·      Engineers

 

10 percent were mailed to people authorized to receive book packages from the West

Fifteen percent found their way to the USSR by special routes.

            Although CIA funding for The Bedford Publishing Company, as a unit of the Radio Liberty Committee, ceased in 1970, support continued until the Program was consolidated with the International Advisory Council (IAC) into the International Literary Center (ILC) in July 1975.

            Patch wrote, "There was no evidence that the Soviet government made any concerted attempt to disrupt our efforts." He added, “The Book Program was a rewarding endeavor for me and everyone involved. Americans in the Department of State approved of the project, and Walt Raymond, who was my liaison with CIA, told me years later that the Book Program was highly regarded by his agency. It was great fun dealing with books and ideas and working with other book lovers who enjoyed searching for titles and translators. Those of us working on the Program were thrilled to think that those hundreds of thousands of books perhaps helped to broaden Soviet minds and horizons toward democracy and western economic ideas.”

            Isaac (Ike) Patch died on May 31, 2014; he was 101 years old.