Radio Free Europe and the Invasion of the Colorado Beetles ©

The East German anti-American propaganda or disinformation campaign involving Colorado beetles began in May 1950, when the Amt für Information der Regierung der DDR published a 24-page propaganda pamphlet HALT Amikäfer (Stop Yankee Beetles). The pamphlet included maps, illustrations, and the allegations that American planes had dropped Colorado beetles over the potato fields to induce  starvation--use of "entomological warfare." The pamphlet described how, “Both private farmers and members of the collectives have expressed their outrage at the most recent crimes of American air gangsters.” 

Berliner Zeitung 5/25/50

The May 25, 1950 Berliner Zeitung newspaper published in the Soviet Zone printed a map showing the route that two American planes supposedly flew as they dropped the beetles the day before.

In addition to the pamphlet, stamps with the same message were produced and distributed.


Journalists from China, Czechoslovakia, Poland, France, and Italy were invited to the village of Schönfels near Zwickau on June 17, 1950. They published a protest declaration, which included:

The unanimous testimony of the farmers, who saw the problem in the fields, is that the large number of Colorado beetles appeared a day after the American planes flew over the area. Colorado beetles are smaller than atomic bombs, but they are also a weapon of U.S. Imperialism against the peace-loving working population. We journalists, who serve peace, hereby condemn this new criminal method of the American warmongers.

On June 30, 1950, the Soviet Union Foreign Ministry delivered a protest note to the U.S. State Department stating that it had received information from the DDR that between May 22, 1950, and June 6, 1950, American planes dropped Colorado beetles in many districts of the country. On July 6, 1950, U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson rejected the protest as “Communist propaganda.” The State Department official reply to Moscow included: 

In the present world situation, fraught with explosive tensions, the Soviet Government has chosen to poison the atmosphere even further with one of the most fantastic fabrications that has ever been invented by one government against another. In this whole absurd and ridiculous propaganda invention, this is the one fact that deserves to be noted.

1951

In June 1951, there was a traveling exhibition in Czechoslovakia of the Colorado beetles ("americky brouk") that were allegedly dropped in the displayed Coca Cola bottles from American planes over the country and the DDR. Reportedly one million match boxes were distributed telling the population of the danger of the beetle and to report any findings of the bugs to the authorities.

Similar match boxes were reportedly distributed in Hungary advising those who found the beetles, dropped by the Americans, to report the findings to the police.

In August 1951, the National Committee for a Free Europe (NCFE) created the Free Europe Press, which was used not only for the printing of various publications in the USA and Europe but also for the printing of leaflets and launching of balloons to carry them to Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary. Permanent launching sites were set up in Fronau, Freying, and Hohenhard, West Germany.

The first balloons were launched on August 13, 1951 in an open field along the Czechoslovak border. This test operation, known as the “Winds of Freedom,” was on an experimental stand-alone basis, i.e., the launching of the balloons was not fully part of a coordinated programming effort with Radio Free Europe broadcasts. The Free Europe Press printed up millions of propaganda leaflets to be launched. The leaflets contained such slogans as "A new hope is stirring," and "Friends of Freedom in other lands have found a new way to reach you." The schedule and frequencies of Radio Free Europe’s broadcasts to Czechoslovakia were on the reverse side of the leaflets.

Some of the balloons were carried away by the winds from Czechoslovakia into the East Germany (DDR) state of Saxony. Reportedly, two of the balloons were shot down by the “Peoples Police” near the cities of Chemnitz, Plauen, and Zwickau.

The leaflets were written in Czech and gave the broadcasting schedules of Radio Free Europe. Most of the population in the area did not read Czech so the East Germans decided to use the balloons and leaflets in the ongoing anti-American propaganda.

It so happens that in the summer of 1951, East Germany began the annual “voluntary” search campaign through out the country for Colorado beetles that threatened the potato fields. Now East German propaganda warned in posters about the ingenious American way of sending thousands of Colorado beetles in small bags attached to the balloons that would burst open upon landing and destroy the potato fields. 

On Sunday, September 23, 1951, over 200,000 “volunteers”, including school-aged children, from 57 communities began searching for the balloon beetles in the potato fields.  Authorities announced that 26,000 “American” Colorado beetles had been found. The anti-American Sunday campaign was announced as so “successful” that they would continue each Sunday until the harvest was completed as a symbol for the anti-American demonstrations.

Here are other examples of other anti-American posters that appeared in the DDR:

 

 Norbert Muhlen wrote in the February 1, 1953, issue of the magazine Commentary 

“Potato bugs” is the derisive label given to charges the Soviets level at America. For the “hate America” campaign had begun with the story that American planes had dropped Colorado beetles—an insect popularly called  “potato bug”—over East Germany in order to destroy her potato crop (and  also by way of training American aviators for germ warfare, and at the same time opening up a market for Wall Street’s insecticides). But the East Germans never spotted any bug-carrying American planes, and they soon learned the real reason why their potato fields were full of beetles, and why they were unable to get rid of them—unlike West Germany, which had also been visited by the pests. East German insect-control experts had been fired as non-Communists, and East Germany’s stocks of insecticide had been transferred to Poland on Russian orders. By 1952 people in East Germany were sentenced to jail just for muttering “potato bug.”

The use of the Colorado beetle in propaganda appeared again in 1955, when the Czechoslovak newspaper Rude Pravo contained a commentary of one K. Vanek, who wrote, “For years and months the stream of slander spread by the heckling radio station FREE EUROPE proved that it serves one purpose: to disturb, to poison, to subvert … the subversive and espionage activities do not end … they include also sabotage in the economic sector, as for instance the spreading of the Colorado beetle.”

Erhard Geissler, identified as a German biological warfare expert said in a BBC World Service program of September 3, 2013: "The story was aimed at covering the government's own inability to fight the beetles, and provided a handy extra accusation to hurl at the Americans … the East German government did not believe the story themselves. They were not stupid. They had political convictions and they were concerned by the increasing danger of the developing Cold War, but I do not think they were stupid enough to believe their own propaganda. There is no factual basis for the story about the Yankee beetles at all."

Media Images used to support Radio Free Europe

Cold War...It is really an electric battle of information and of images that goes far deeper and is more obsessional than the old hot wars of industrial hardware.

Marshall McCluhan, Understanding Media

Below is a series of some of the images, which were used in newspaper and magazine advertisements, films, etc., to rally Americans in in support of fundraising campaigns for Radio Free Europe.

Cold War Appeals to Colleges and University Students in the Crusade for Freedom ©

 

Students and colleges and universities were a major target of Crusade for Freedom operations in the 1950s.  Below we briefly look at some of the activities.

1950

In the summer of 1950, the Crusade for Freedom organizers put out a newsletter to college and university Crusade committees with suggestions for campus activities.

THE FREEDOM BELL is the symbol of the CRUSADE. Arrange to ring your campus chimes or bells to call attention to the CRUSADE ... maybe to signalize the start ... or at intervals during the CRUSADE to indicate the triumphant 100% enrollment of each group.

ABOVE ALL, be sure your chimes ring long and loudly on October 24th, United Nations Day. All over the free world bells will ring at that time on that day. For at that time the Freedom Bell itself, by then installed in the western sector of Berlin, will first peal out its call to liberty. And just as Radio Free Europe will continue to broadcast every day to the people behind the Iron Curtain, so will the Freedom Bell ring out every day, bringing its message of hope for permanent peace and freedom.

1955 College Crusade for Freedom

The University of Minnesota had been chosen by the Crusade for Freedom as a “combined educational and fund-raising campaign” for the 1954-1955 campaign “on an experimental basis.” In February 1955, the 12th Annual Greek Week organizers at the University of Minnesota also used Radio Free Europe (RFE) and the Crusade for Freedom as its theme. Proceeds of its variety show were contributed to the Crusade campaign. 

During National Freedom Week, February 12-22, 1955, 25 universities adopted a combined education and fund raising campaign in support of the Crusade for Freedom, e.g., Barbara Gibbs, president of the student government at Ohio State University, said, “This is just the kind of program that will capture the interest of the university student.  To know you are helping to alleviate the world crisis is a gratifying thing.” 

J.W. Ashton, vice president of Indiana University, remarked, “It is most appropriate that as a part of their experience in the world of scholarship. Students should be given the opportunity to participate in so significant an activity.”

1956 Colleges Crusade

25 colleges with a student population of over 300,000 accepted to be part of the national campaign, with the purpose of making the students aware of the international crisis facing their generation and what they could do help. The Advertising Council sent a publicity kit to college newspapers and a promotional package was sent to different student groups.

           

In April 1956, college fraternities and sororities around the United States celebrated “Greek Week” by holding dances, parties, dinners, stage presentations and other social events. At the University of Iowa, “the Greek letter groups planned activities to make the campus and community aware of the efforts of Radio Free Europe and the Crusade for Freedom.“ Included  in the week’s programs was the musical show “Damn Yankees“ prepared by the Phi Kappa fraternity and Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, with the processed going to the Crusade for Freedom.  William T. Rafael, program director of RFE, was the principal speaker at the “Greek Week“ campus convention. 

The Cedar Rapids Gazette carried photographs of university students, including one of student waiters dressed in “Balkan-inspired” costumes at an exchange dinner sponsored by the Pi Beta Sorority. 

           

The University of Minnesota had been chosen by the Crusade for Freedom as a “combined educational and fund-raising campaign” for the 1954-1955 “on an experimental basis.” In February 1955, the 12th Annual Greek Week organizers at the University of Minnesota also used RFE and the Crusade for Freedom as its theme. Proceeds of its variety show were contributed to the Crusade campaign. 

The Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity at Indiana University in Bloomington held a car wash, resulting in $35 in contributions.

 1957College Campaign

The 1957 campaign reportedly reached over 250,000 students in 45 colleges and universities. Students at Brigham Young University, for example, wrote scripts and made tape recordings for local radio stations, made a half-hour program for broadcast over the local television station in Salt Lake City and covered the Crusade in the campus newspaper. 

Ohio State Students

At Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, had an extensive program that included four local television programs, classroom discussions, forums, debates, and street corner skits with solicitations. 80 fraternities and sororities participated. $2,300 was collected.

There was a leaflet drop at the University of Minnesota, which also witnessed an “Iron Curtain” dinner and forums “Are We Gaining in our Fight for Eastern Europe” and “How True is Our Propaganda?”

           

In March 1957, Evansville College, Drake University, and Emory University had College Crusade programs. At the University of Illinois, during the annual “Geek Week,” the Crusade program included a jazz concert and variety show, with the proceeds going to the Crusade for Freedom.  In Toledo, Ohio, students washed cars, manned gasoline pumps and changed tires in support of the Crusade.  At Ohio State University, 80 sororities and fraternities combined their effort during “Geek Week” for, group discussions, dinners, a “Stunt Night and a variety show. $2,300 was collected.

           

25 schools participated in a contest sponsored by the Crusade for Freedom and RFE for the most outstanding College Crusade.  From the winning college or university, one student was selected for a summer intern job with RFE in Munich.

Pennsylvania State University Chapel Choir

The Pennsylvania State University Chapel Choir went on its biennial six-week concert tour of Europe in the summer 1957, including a concert in Munich, Germany, where they also visited RFE.  Many of the 60 students were featured in local newspapers in Pennsylvania after their return home, e.g. Carole P. Young, who was featured in the New Castle, Pennsylvania News on September 4, 1957, in an article “Miss Carol Young Aids in RFE Radio Program.”  She was described as, “One of the American College students, contributing to the effort of RFE in carrying the fight of freedom directly into the camp of totalitarian Communism through this College Crusade.” 

           

Another student was Penny Robey of Smethport, Pennsylvania, who was similarly identified in the article text under her photograph, part of which read, “Thousands of American students contribute to this effort through the College Crusade, which is beamed via RFE’s transmitters to captive nations to captive nation students who are subject to Communist indoctrination.”

Using Satire to Identify Quislings and Informers ©

Quisling: a term originating in Norway, which is used in Scandinavian languages and in English for a person who collaborates with an enemy occupying force – or more generally as a synonym for traitor. The word originates from the surname of the Norwegian war-time leader Vidkun Quisling, who headed a domestic Nazi collaborationist regime during World War II. – Wikipedia

Below we will look at how Radio Free Europe in one way identified Communist  “Quislings” and informers behind the Iron Curtain.

In May 1951 the Advertising Council (Ad Council) sent out this press announcement, which read in part:

News Feature FOR HOUSE MAGAZINE EDITORS

NEW YORK - HOLLYWOOD - CHICAGO - WASHINGTON

Voice of Freedom…Day in and day out, Radio Free Europe carries on a slugging, no-holds-barred war of Truth against the propaganda lies of the Kremlin. It undermines the morale of the Red puppet regimes; exposes quislings and informers by name, sends messages from escapees; and keeps alive the hope of freedom…

Note: This editorial may be reprinted in your House Magazine in full or in part.

Through information, exposure, and ridicule, RFE sows disintegration and confusion among the 
enemy. It identifies quislings and informers for its listeners. It reports on disappeared persons. It sends 
messages from escapees. It spikes Red propaganda and spreads news the Soviets would rather not have 
known. The men in the Kremlin have reacted to these broadcasts with angry attempts at refutation.
revealing their fear, their vulnerability to the truth. They can be hit still harder and still oftener as this 
voice of freedom increases in strength.

Syndicated newspaper columnist Bob Considine used this announcement in his column “On the Line” in May 1951, when he wrote:

These are heavy guns in the greatest war of words in history… They will expose Communist Quislings behind the iron curtain, undermine the authority of Moscow's puppet government, and, insofar as is possible, help the prisoner peoples prepare for their day of liberation.

in A stream of doughty letters smuggled out at risk of life or limb has moved steadily into Radio Free Europe offices in Western Germany. There is no question about the stations getting under the skin of the Communists. The Communist radio in East Germany announced not long ago, in violent terms, that all German employees of Radio Free Europe would be executed as war criminals when the Communist “liberate” Western Germany

Hollywood actor and future U.S. President Ronald Reagan in the 1951 movie “The Great Truth” and later television spot announcement is seen telling the audience: “Grateful letters from listeners smuggled past the secret police express thanks to Radio Free Europe for identifying Communist Quislings and informers by name.“

The American entertainment trade magazine Variety, August 15, 1961, Vo. 183, No. 10, contained an article by David Sureck starting on page 2, with the headline: “Radio Free Europe’s Crack Job of Bolstering Red-Trapped Citizenry”.

That something new which has been added to American propaganda abroad is showmanship.  Stuff beamed from Radio Free Europe in Munich and Frankfurt hyped with realism and U.S. know-how, hued with localized satire and humor, is scoring repeatedly behind the Iron Curtain and starting red ears to burn.

Object of all broadcasts is to undermine the authority of the Red puppet rulers, expose Communist quislings, spike the Communist lies with the truth, and encourage hope behind the Iron Curtain…

[O]ne of the popular performers, for example, is Jan Snizek, Czech refugee.  Before fleeing the Commies in 1948 he operated his own Rozmarne (comedy) Theatre. He staged so many plays needling the Kremlin stooges that they jotted him down on their purge list.

Heat was too much for him after he refused to remove a satirical notice from his show windows and he fled to the free world. Now he continues to needle Reds with skits and dramatic bits over Munich’s RFE. He’s assisted by Josef Stelibsky, a well-known Czech composer of light music. Best known of his 14 operettas is “Osterov Milovani” (The Island of Love). Stelibsky also has written music for 58 films abroad.

Who were Jan Snizek and Josef Stelibisky?

Jan Snizek was the subject of many public service advertisements 1951 – 53 in support of the Crusade for Freedom and Radio Free Europe. Here is one example from a 1951 Ad Council newspaper advertisement, which compared him to one of America's greatest stars of radio, television, and Hollywood, Bob Hope:

Czechoslovakia’s “Bob Hope” tells how You can help Truth fight Communism 

PAPA SNIZEK, famous Czech comedian, broadcasts the truth about Communism to his captive countrymen over Radio Free Europe’s Holtzkirchen Station, near Munich...built and supported by the contributions of free American citizens. Says Papa Snizek: ‘Contribute your dollars to the Crusade for Freedom...help us stop world Communism. Today, I am an exile from my own country… fighting for its freedom. And it is you who make this possible. You, the free American people who have contributed your dollars to the Crusade for Freedom…the money that built the free world’s most powerful radio station—Radio Free Europe’s Holtzkirchen station near Munich.’

My broadcasts today are not comedy. Rather, they are the deadly serious business of identifying Communist informers and quislings by name, sowing fear and confusion among the Red overlords, sending the truth about the Communists to my countrymen. With your help, we’re doing a good job. But we need more stations of the Munich type to give the facts about Communism to the truth-starved people in other Iron Curtain countries. Please help continue this marvelous work. Give to the Crusade for Freedom…help win the cold war and prevent a global hot war that would destroy the world. Give to the CRUSADE FOR FREEDOM. 

Jan Snizek

Jan Snizek was born December 28, 1904 in Prague. His very first play was "Pro Kazdeho Neco", (Something For Everyone), written in 1921. between 1922 and 1925 he had written seven plays and revues. In 1933, he co-authored a script for the movie "Reka", (The River). His first success was the play "Priklady Tahnou", (Examples Are Catching), in 1939. The play was produced in the National Theater, and also made into a movie and became very popular among amateur and professional groups. He opened his own theater on Prague's Vaclavske Namesti, (Wenceslaus Square), where he produced and directed his satires, "Rozmarne Zrcadlo", (Capricious Mirror), and "Nekonecny Trojuhelnik", (Eternal triangle), both very successful. In 1948 he left Czechoslovakia, worked at Radio Free Europe in Munich for approximately three years and then settled in Paris as a political refugee. There he wrote "Certovo Kolo", (Devil's Wheel), his first book. In 1955 he emigrated to the United States, where he established a theater group, called "Krajanske Divadlo", (Patriot's theater).

His wife Bozena Helclova-Snizkova, a former member of the national Theater in Prague, a screen actress (Mikolas Ales), and a member of Jan Snizek's cast in his Prague theater, was active in this effort as well. The group performed not only in New York City, but toured North America with performances in Washington, D.C., Boston, Toronto, and Montreal.  She worked for Radio Free Europe in the New York office until 1970. Jan Snizek died following a lengthy illness on October 26, 1971.

Josef Stelibsky

Josef Stelibsky was born 5 December 1909 and died 28 April 1962 in Hollywood. Stelibský was acknowledged as the master of romantic tangos. A tango from Stelibský’s first operetta, "Stretch Out Your Hand to Happiness," from 1936 is a celebration of the beauty of Prague and can be heard here:

http://www.radio.cz/en/section/hit-of-century/1936-19th-segment-evening-above-prague-vecer-nad-prahou

April 26, 1950, General Lucius D. Clay is announced as National Chairman of Crusade for Freedom

Lucius Dubignon Clay (1897-1978) retired from the Army as a four-star general in May 1949 and became Executive Director of the Continental Can Company. He was under consideration to head National Committee for Free Europe (parent organization of Radio Free Europe) fund-raising arm, but he had not yet accepted the offer

On April 26, 1950, DeWitt C. Poole, president of the National Committee for Free Europe announced that General Lucius D. Clay accepted the chairmanship of Crusade for Freedom. He would remain in this postion until April 1952, when he resigned. Below are excerpts from the press (news) release of the Clay acceptance, with the text of the Clay statement of purpose.

The Crusade, in which every American citizen will be invited to participate, will carry our message of freedom and friendship to the oppressed and threatened people overseas and give the lie to Kremlin propaganda that our goal is world domination and war.

In accepting the chairmanship of the Crusade for Freedom…[G]eneral Clay issued the following statement of purpose:

“The soul of the world is sick, and the peoples of the world are looking to the United States for leadership and hope.

“They are looking to us for leadership in a great moral crusade – a crusade for freedom, friendship and faith throughout the earth.

“If we are to prove equal to this desperate need, each U.S. citizen must feel a personal responsibility. We cannot leave the job to government alone.

“Our nation is the symbol of these fundamental principles to liberty loving men and women everywhere. Today these principles are being denounced and reviled. We have been fighting a holding action in the cold war—in the contest of ideas between our way of life and totalitarianism – and we have suffered serious setbacks.

“In the five years since the United Nations Charter proclaimed the determination of all nations to ‘reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights and in the dignity and worth of the human person,’ we have seen the most highly organized and widespread campaign against human right and fundamental freedom that the world has ever known.

“What an inspiration of hope and encouragement it would be to oppressed peoples everywhere if millions of Americans would voluntarily join in a great moral crusade, would accept the challenge of personal leadership and pledge themselves to work steadfastly and firmly until the tide of the cold war is turned and world peace with individual freedom again becomes a possibility.

“Such a ‘spiritual airlift’, originating in the heart-country of liberty, would be the first step in putting freedom on the offensive.

“In the conviction that countless citizens throughout our country would welcome the opportunity to participate in such an effort, representatives of all the major groups of American life are joining forces to initiate the Crusade for Freedom … a movement of United States citizens resolved to strengthen the free peoples of the earth in the struggle of world peace based on individual freedom and human decency—and resolved to carry our message of American friendship and goodwill to men and women everywhere.  The National Committee for a Free Europe is acting as sponsoring agency to bring this movement into being.

“It is with a great deal of humility that I have accepted responsibility as national chairman of the Crusade, for I am convinced that upon its success could well depend the prevention of World War III.

“I am convinced there is nothing that American citizens, so united cannot accomplish in such an effort. We are the greatest, most enthusiastic nation of salesmen in the world. In the cause of freedom and friendship we have the greatest product in the world to sell. With characteristic energy, resourcefulness and imagination our people will somehow get the message of truth through the Iron Curtain.

“The Crusade committee will actively seek from citizens and groups of citizens throughout the country new ideas and new ways of getting the facts of freedom and friendship across to the peoples overseas.  It will mobilize and coordinate all effective methods for doing this job, and undertake to find the resources to translate them into action.

“The Crusade will give all of us an opportunity to help counteract the constant claims that our aim is world domination and war… and, at the same time, assure the victims of tyranny that we, to whom liberty has meant more than to any other people, will not forsake them.

“Ours will be a Crusade of the people. We will depend largely for financial support upon small contributions from many hundreds of thousands of individual citizens. By their broad support, the American people will demonstrate their united determination that freedom shall not die.”

Empowering Women to join the Crusade for Freedom and help support Radio Free Europe

The second annual Crusade for Freedom in support of Radio Free Europe began in September 1951 and ended in February 1952.  Below is a quick look at some of the developments empowering women to contribute to the national effort to support both the Crusade for Freedom and RFE.

Former First Lady of the United States Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) wrote a syndicated column for American newspapers entitled “My Day” that appeared six days a week from 1936 to 1962. This is her September 1, 1951, “My Day” column:

HYDE PARK, Friday—In the last few weeks I have had a number of letters from women who want to reach all the women of the world and pledge them to do whatever is necessary to preserve peace in the world.

I have to answer that it is practically impossible to reach the women behind the Iron Curtain and that to reach women in other countries would have little value unless one could also get the acceptance of women in the Soviet Union and its satellite countries.

The fact that there is a sincere desire among the women of the United States for peace would be accepted anywhere, I'm sure, and I think the same would be believed of women in any other country. However, to accomplish anything really constructive one would have to have unrestricted discussion and a binding agreement among all the women of the world as to what steps should be taken to try to keep the peace of the world.

From my own point of view one of the most important steps is freedom of communication among the nations, a freedom which allows the use of every means of communication—television, radio, movies, the written and spoken word—and which allows free access to people. At present, citizens of Russia and the satellite countries cannot leave their homelands and visitors from other countries cannot get into these countries except after very careful scrutiny and the granting of visas, which are exceptionally hard to obtain.

Whatever is done in the field of communication is just a drop in the bucket. But drops in the bucket are important, and therefore we must support the Voice of America, for one thing. As private citizens, I think we also must support the Crusade for Freedom, which is carried on not by the government but by private funds and individuals.

The Crusade for Freedom sponsors Radio Free Europe, which has just opened a station powerful enough to reach over into the satellite countries. The opening date of the campaign is September 3 and the Crusade for Freedom will be appealing to all of us in this country for funds. Plans are in the making to expand their radio work and really bombard the Iron Curtain countries with as much truthful information as they can get across. It is felt that the truth will shake the Kremlin and the satellite nations. The Freedom Crusade also launches balloons that carry messages to the satellite nations.

There is hope that Russia will hesitate to risk war if her people are being bombarded with information that shows the mother country to be undependable. The truth from abroad is aimed to convince the Russian people that they are being handed a lot of propaganda by their masters, and this may make them and the peoples of the satellite countries more friendly to us.

The theme of Radio Free Europe in the satellite countries assures captive peoples that they have not been forgotten by the outside world, which sustains the hopes of those who are not Communist and tells them to believe that someday they may be free again.

Eleanor Roosevelt also had allowed her photograph and words to be used in the 1950 Ad Council newspaper campaign: “The Big Truth is the best Answer to the Big Lie of Communism” that included a copy of a coupon to be filled out with the name and address of the Crusade supporter, who was contributing money to the Crusade for Freedom.

Crusade for Freedom National Chairman General Lucius D. Clay gave a nation-wide radio address that was broadcast by radio station WNBC at 10:15 P.M., September 8, 1951. The New York Times headlined the speech on September 9, 1951: “CLAY OPENS APPEAL TO AID RED ‘SLAVES.’” There was also a newspaper appeal, in the best Cold-war rhetoric, to the women of the United States to support the Crusade:

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.

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.

That is the primary reason why it is urgent for every woman to enroll in the Crusade for Freedom.

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.

Sally Victor (1905-1972) was born Sally Josephs in Scranton, Pennsylvania. She started working in Macy’s department store in New York as a “saleswoman“ in 1923, moved into millinery and finally successfully created her own millinery shop. This is fromTime magazine, March 30, 1959:

Sally Victor, 54, is not only the biggest fashion hat maker (more than $500,000 a year) in the multimillion-dollar millinery business (1958 sales: $300 million), but she is a trend setter ... the only milliner to win the Coty award, fashion world "Oscar."

She designed hats for First Ladies Eleanor Roosevelt, Bess Truman, Mamie Eisenhower, Jacqueline Kennedy and Lady Bird Johnson. Queen Elisabeth II also wore hats designed by Sally Victor.

For the second Crusade for Freedom campaign she was asked by Crusade organizers to design, a “Freedom Hat” “to make their cause – and their need for money to carry it on – felt by the women of America.”  Reportedly, Sally Victor was told to, “Make a hat so distinctive and so smart that neither women nor girls could resist it. And at a price that would not collapse the average wardrobe budget.”

Sally Victor reportedly was delighted and was quoted as saying, “It’s about time we did something to make people talk. And there’s nothing that makes a woman much more talkative than a new hat, whether it’s hers or her worst enemy”

The “Freedom Hat” was described in American newspapers as:

The Hat is a tricorne, patterned after the famous jaunty cap of Paul Revere.

It is made of softest velour, in the same color of red we find in the American flag.

It is trimmed with gold braid and gold mesh Liberty bells.

It can be worn straight atop the head or tilted to the right, in the fashionable side-swept mode of 1952.

The “Freedom Hat” is as wearable as an old pair of slippers, as chic as a Dior suit, but is more than that. It’s official as a U.N. document.

The photograph of the “Freedom Hat” showed the 1951 Crusade for Freedom Poster behind a fashion model and had this caption: “Patterned after the chapeau worn by Paul Revere, this hat seems destined to be the most talked about hat in the world.”  The article concluded, “The Crusade for Freedom hopes to make plenty of talk and maybe a little money from the hat.”