Radio Free Europe and Easter ©

In 1955, the Radio Free Europe Press sent via balloon to Hungary an Easter leaflet that read, in part:

“Stand fast and do not let yourselves be caught again in the yoke of slavery.” - The Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Galatians…

Free nations are based on Christ’s precepts. Tyrants from Genghis Khan through Hitler and Stalin have tried to destroy the code of equality, tolerance and justice…

The message of Easter knows no Iron Curtain. The message of Easter is addressed to you – help your fellow who is endangered by hate. The message of resurrection cannot be stilled. Kindle the spirit of self-sacrifice and charity, which unites and strengthens the nation.

RFE Programs

Beginning in 1953, Radio Free Europe broadcast “Polish Gems”, a series of 5-minute programs about prayer and faith 7 days-a-week at 8:l0 a.m. and 7:l0 p.m. Radio Free Europe also broadcast a special program, “Our Lady's Peddler,” which aired in Poland on Easter Sunday 1961.

In April 1963, Radio Free Europe broadcast “special” religious programs, including Pope John XXIII’s Easter message, behind the Iron Curtain in connection with Holy Week and Easter: the programs originating from RFE headquarters in Munich included Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox services, liturgical music, sermons and other special features. The Radio Free Europe Fund’s press release included these summaries of the broadcasts:

Poland

RFE’ Polish section has organized special coverage of Holy Week ceremonies in Rome for broadcast to Poland.  In addition, a Mass, Polish sermon and Polish hymns will be broadcast from a Polish church in Munich.  Other Polish programs will include a morality play, Bible discussions and reading from a 16^th century account of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovak programs will include a Mass, Pope John’s message and programs for Eastern Rite Catholics.  Protestant services in New York will be broadcast, as will a special series of 25 religious musical programs.

Hungary

The Hungarian section is broadcasting 15-minute Easter messages three times daily from April 7 to April 16.  On Good Friday a special program on Easter Customs is being presented.

Romania

A program of religious mediation is being broadcast daily during Holy Week for RFE’s Romanian Orthodox tradition, an Easter midnight Mass is being broadcast at midnight April 13.

Bulgaria

Bulgarians will also hear RFE broadcasts of the Easter Eve midnight Mass, as well as programs of religious music on Easter Sunday and Monday.

Copy and translation of the leaflet sent to Hungary in 1955 is courtesy of Herb Friedman, author of the excellent article on RFE’s balloon / leaflet programs: http://www.psywarrior.com/RadioFreeEurope.html

For more information about RFE’s Polish religious programs, see Patricia F. Phalen (2004): “Profound Sound: Family Theater Radio”, 1947-1970, Journal of Radio Studies, 11:1, 116-130, http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15506843jrs1101_10.

A Cold War Secret Weapon: America's Newspaperboy ©

One of the most effective methods to rally Americans at the grassroots level to back Radio Free Europe was in the 1950s and 1960s, when newspaper carriers were used to collect money for the Crusade for Freedom.  

In April 1955, President Eisenhower, who was himself a former newspaperboy, told a gathering of newspaper journalists at the White House: “Certainly, I am inspired by the knowledge that boys of this nation will freely give of their time and energy—and their hearts—to help bring information of today’s world to those whose masters provide propaganda.” Below, we will look at the 1956 and 1957 Crusade Campaigns, which, perhaps, best illustrates the successful use of the American newspaperboy in the Cold War.

Seventy-five daily newspapers sponsored the 1956 Newspaperboy Crusade — this was an increase from the 1955 campaign, when twenty-five newspapers raised $90,000 in contributions through the efforts of 20,000 newspaper carriers. The 1956 estimation was 100,000 newspaperboys representing newspapers with 13,000,000 readers.

One 1956 newspaper advertisement of the Advertising Council showed a smiling newspaperboy carrying a "Freedom Bell" card with the words “GIVE" and "Crusade for Freedom” that would be used for identification by the newspaperboy. The advertisement, which gave details of Radio Free Europe and the Free Europe Press, carried this message:

He’s collecting for the newspapers that go behind the Iron Curtain. That is not part of his job. But today your newspaperboy is giving freely of his time and enthusiasm to help millions of people he’ll probably never even see. The funds that he and 100,000 other newspaperboys have volunteered to collect will go to the support of Free Europe Press—the important sister service of Radio Free Europe. 

Free Europe Press prints the truth ... and delivers it regularly to the Iron Curtain countries by long-range Freedom Balloons. Truth is a rare commodity there. Radio Free Europe’s “Crusade for Freedom”

Even Communist fighter planes and anti-aircraft have been fired in a vain attempt to stop the balloons.

A letter over the signature of National Crusade for Freedom chairman Eugene Holman was sent to newspapers around the country with an “Award for Exceptional Service” in recognition of the efforts of both the newspapers and carriers. Newspapers accordingly printed the text of the letter:

To salute those citizens and organizations whose efforts in behalf of the Crusade for Freedom have achieved outstanding results, the Board of Directors has established an Award for Exceptional Service. Recipients of the Award are elected by the Board and receive a certificate of recognition and appreciation.

It is my pleasure to inform you that your newspaperboys have been elected to receive the Crusade’s Award for Exceptional Service. We hope this certificate may always serve as a reminder that they have helped hold high the torch of liberty. We do know that captive millions have felts its rays, sometimes fleetingly, sometimes boldly, but always hopefully.

Please accept our gratitude and our congratulations.

Another example of positive feedback from the National Crusade headquarters was the letter David Agnew, assistant to the president of the Crusade, sent to the editor of The Daily Inter Lake newspaper in Kalispell, Montana:

We are all delighted to learn that your newspaperboys have collected a total of $100.12. This certainly is a very important contribution to the Crusade for Freedom not only in money collected, but also in the impact it will produce when news of it is sent behind the Iron Curtain. Your newspaperboys can be very proud of their fine effort.

So far we have reports in from over 100 newspapers, indicating that the overall campaign will be very successful this year. As soon as we have a summary of the Newspaperboy Crusade in other parts of the country, I will send it to you.

Thanks again for the fine support the Inter Lake has given Crusade for Freedom.

A total of $147,000 was collected nationally. The following are but three examples of the widespread activity of the newspaperboy campaign at the local level:

·      The highest per capita collection was in Ames, Iowa, where $600 was collected. The Ames per-capita contribution was 13.4 cents against the national figure of 3.4 cents. The carrier who collected the most money in Ames, Iowa, was Andy Williams, who was selected to fly to New York, where he visited the Crusade for Freedom headquarters, resulting in favorable publicity in his home town.

·      The Morning Herald, Hagerstown, Maryland, carried a photograph of two newspaperboys receiving a Crusade award with a note from Crusade President, William A. Greene: “I think the Herald and the Mail newspaperboys did a splendid job in collecting $129.19 for the Crusade for Freedom.”

·      Newspaperboys in Waco, Texas collected $1,000 and received the Crusade’s “Award for Excellence.” Featured in a newspaper photographs and story were two boys who collected the most money: 14-year-old Tommy Kittlitz and 13-year-old Bobby McCauley, who collected $46.00 and $27.00 respectively. 

 “They’re out to rip the propaganda of Communism wide apart,” began one newspaper advertisement in support of the 1957 newspaperboy campaign. Four boys were seen carrying newspapers who carried donation envelopes and wore or presented a “Freedom Bell Badge,” with a graphic display of the Freedom Bell with the face of a boy. The text continued: 

These boys are newspapermen who know the value of truth – the basic principle by which the news is written in a free nation. And they believe in the power of Truth. It is the backbone of our newspapers and our way of life. Truth is the backbone of freedom, too – it is spread to Europe’s captive people by Free Europe Press and its sister service, Radio Free Europe. People living in the Satellite countries are subject to the confusion of Communist propaganda. They must rely on the Truth reporting of Free Europe Press and Radio Free Europe as a scale for measuring true values. 

Highlights included the collection of 1,171 pounds of coins worth $12,700 in Dallas, Texas, by the newspaperboys of the newspaper Times-Herald. In Philadelphia, 6,000 carriers of the Philadelphia Bulletin collected almost $36,000 in two days—to pay for “25 solid days of broadcasting over Radio Free Europe.”  

The Crusade active campaign ended effectively on February 28, 1957, by that date newspaperboys from 150 daily newspapers had raised $150, 000 for the Crusade for Freedom. President Eisenhower congratulated the boys “for the fine record you made in gathering Truth Dollars in the Crusade for Freedom.”  

Abraham Lincoln's Birthday and Radio Free Europe ©

Lincoln's Birthday is a legal, public holiday in some U.S. states, observed on the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth on February 12, 1809 in Hodgenville (Hodgensville, Hodgen's Mill), Kentucky. 

Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Texas, California, Missouri, and New York observe the holiday.

Here is what happened on Lincoln's birthday in 1954:

Liberty Bell Rings Oaf For Nations Behind Iron Curtain PHILADELPHIA (UPI) 

The Liberty Bell, symbol of American independence, rang out today for nations behind the Iron Curtain. Seven recent escapees from Red-dominated countries of Europe each struck the historic bell with a rubber mallet and urged "courage" to friends and relations still under Russian rule. 

The ceremony at Independence Hall highlighted a Lincoln birthday demonstration staged by the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars in cooperation with the American Heritage Foundation. The entire affair was tape recorded for re-play on Radio Free Europe to the Iron Curtain nations. 

Representatives of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Estonia, Rumania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Albania tapped the historic bell with a small mallet and encouraged their countrymen to continue to resist. For Czechoslovakia the ceremony bad a double significance. Czechoslovak freedom from Austria-Hungary was first proclaimed at Independence Hall October 26, 19418, by Thomas C. Masaryk, first president of the Czechoslovakia. 

John Svoboda. who escaped from Czechoslovakia two years ago. started the ceremony by raising a replica of the original flag of the United States with 13 Stars. Svoboda, now a waiter here, was selected because his name in Czechoslovakian means "freedom." 

On display in Independence Square was the tank in which eight daring Czechs crashed through the Iron Curtain to freedom several months ago. Vaclav Uhiik. the man who built the tank and engineered the escapade, received Philadelphia's version of a "key to the city"- a small replica of City Hall. Clifford Harbaugh, head of the county American Legion who promoted the ceremony, urged other cities in the nation to launch similar demonstrations, the message of freedom mean a lot," he said. "Every city should put on such a show to make persons conscious of the Communist threat." The names of the escapees from the Iron Curtain countries were not revealed because of friends and relatives still in those nations.

Also in 1954:

On February 12, 1954, three helium-filled balloons with light blue lettering Crusade for Freedom were launched at the international boundary line on the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Two rose up into the sky, the third fell into the Detroit River. The launching was to "remind Canadians and Americans of the importance of the freedom they possess, and to give hope to the people of other countries in Europe under the Communist yoke." 

1955:

In Bismarck, North Dakota, local Eagles Fraternal Order from the steps of the post office launched twenty-one balloons on February 12, 1955. Freedom Scrolls, contribution envelopes and a letter offering a $5.00 prize were in the balloons. The Bismarck Eagles offered one prize was for the first reporting back of a balloon and the other for the reporting farthest from Bismarck. All persons who reported on the balloon received $2.00. The balloon launching was in support of the “Valentines for Freedom” theme that originated from 15-year-old Patty Collins of Bismarck, who had suggested that the balloons launched over the Iron Curtain contain valentines from American children. Balloons were found in both North and South Dakota as far as 153 miles away in South Dakota. 

Vagabond-Able and St. Elmo’s Fire ©

Long before the glorified “Pirate Radio” station in the middle of the North Sea in the 1960s, there was a vagabond ship afloat: the United States Coast Guard Cutter (USCGC) Courier that roamed far and wide relaying broadcasts of the U.S. Government’s Voice of America. Well, far and wide might be stretching it a little as the ship was mostly anchored in the harbor of the Greek Island Rhodes, By broadcasting within the territorial waters of a country that gave her permission to do so, she could not be branded a “pirate” radio broadcasting ship.  

The Courier’s call sign was “Vagabond-Able” and she was commissioned on February 15, 1952, in Hoboken, New Jersey.  She normally carried a Coast Guard crew of 10 officers and 80 men, plus some engineers from the United States Information Agency responsible for the Voice of America. The Courier also carried the most powerful transmitter ever installed on a ship: a medium wavelength band (AM band) RCA built transmitter with a strength of 150,000 watts -- 3 times that of the most powerful AM station in the United States. Additionally, she had a 35,000 watt short-wave transmitter. Huge helium filled balloons measuring 69 x 35 feet rose to a height of 900 feet to hold up the main antenna.

President Harry S. Truman not only visited the Courier on March 4, 1952, when the ship docked in Washington, D.C., with the ultimate destination of Korea.  Truman also used the occasion to broadcast a major policy speech beamed at Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.  Truman’s speech is a wonderful example of the Cold War rhetoric in the early 1950s:

            I am speaking to you today from a ship...This vessel will not be armed with

            guns, or with any instruments of destruction. But it will be a valiant

            fighter in the cause of freedom. It will carry a precious cargo – and that

            cargo is truth.

            It will be carrying a message of hope and friendship to all those who are

            oppressed by tyranny; it will be carrying a message of truth and light

            to those who are confused by the storm of falsehood that the Communists

            have loosed on the world.

            It will be able to move from place to place, beaming our campaign of

            truth to people behind the Iron Curtain whom we have thus far been

            unable to reach.

            Its significance lies in the fact that it will carry on the fight for freedom

            In the field where the ultimate victory has to be won – that is in the minds

            of men.

            Wherever you may be listening to this broadcast, remember this: The people

            of the United States extend the hand of friendship to you across the seas.  The

            future may look dark, but let us have faith, together, that all peoples will one

            day walk in the sunlight of peace and justice.

Although originally intended to be stationed off Korea, the Courier then sailed to Europe, making ports of call at Tangiers, Morocco, Naples, Italy, and Piraeus, Greece, before arriving in her home port of Rhodes. But the first visit was short-lived when a newspaper article mentioned that there was a threat that she would be sunk by a torpedo fired by a Communist submarine. The Courier sailed to Turkey while the threat was investigated and declared to be false. She sailed back to Rhodes to begin her relay broadcasting on September 7, 1952.  But because the Courier’s signal interfered with some radio stations in Sweden that power had to be reduced during the maximum listening time to about 40, 000 watts.

During heavy winds, one balloon flew off and landed in Turkey, where there was some apparent damage to a house. A new antenna system was installed between the ship’s main and front masts and balloons were not used again.

The Courier also had a small studio and control center and broadcast for about 11 hours per day, seven days a week, with programs in 13 different languages.

One amusing story about the Courier tells of the night when a small fishing boat anchored within 100 yards of the ship, ignoring international signals of flags and lights telling ships and boats not to come within 1000 yards. The Courier tried to reach the crew by beaming a signal light at the fishing boat.  Apparently the crew was asleep.  A decision was made to ignore the fishing boat and begin relaying Voice of America programs.  

St. Elmo’s Fire is a natural phenomenon like lightening but a little different.  For centuries, sailors, including Columbus and Magellan, reported seeing flashes of light or flames glowing on the ship’s masts during thunderstorms. As the Courierbegan powering up its transmitters, St Elmo’s Fires appeared around the main antenna.  Suddenly, a large bolt arched from the main antenna to the fishing boat’s mast, where it went down into the boat, apparently into the boat’s radio. The fishing boat suddenly left the area and was never seen again.

The original concept of Operation Vagabond was to have six similar vessels stationed around the world.  But the costs were thought excessive and the Courier was the only ship put into service. 

The Courier continued relay broadcasting until 1964, when the transmitting equipment was transferred to a land-based permanent transmitting site. The Courier returned to the United State for decommissioning on August 25, 1964. In 1966, The she was re-commissioned as a U.S. Coast Guard, and later as a U.S. Maritime Service, training vessel until 1972 when she was finally decommissioned.

(The illustration comes from a 1952 Radio Corporation of America magazine advertisement)

For more information and photograph visit:

https://www.coldwarradiomuseum.com/uscgc-courier-wagr-410-was-voice-of-america-shortwave-transmitting-station-19521964-as-uscgc-courier-wagr-410/

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1954 Political Kidnapping of Štefan Kiripolský in Vienna, Part Two ©

Part Two

During his first captivity in Vienna, Soviet officers accused Kiripolský of carrying out espionage activities against the USSR. The Soviets interrogated him repeatedly regarding personnel of the CIC in Vienna. He was transferred to Prague, Czechoslovakia on September 11, 1954.

Kiripolský was in the Bubenec area of Prague for 16 or 18 months during which time the StB as well as the Soviet KGB interrogated him. Kiripolský was subjected to various methods of torture, including continuous nightlong interrogations.  He was placed in a small cell where he could not sit or lie down. From time to time his cell was filled with extremely hot air, which would suddenly be changed to extremely cold air.

On May 5, 1955 the Czechoslovak Attorney General accused Štefan Kiripolský of high treason and espionage. In the trial, which took place on July 27, 1955, at the Military Division of the Supreme Court, Štefan Kiripolský was condemned to the life sentence and his partner Helena Neumanova to five years prison. His prison sentence was later reduced to 25 years and then 15 years—presumably for providing the Czechoslovak intelligence service information about CIC and RFE. He was prepared for a show trial but was too mechanical in his answers and the idea was dropped.

A May 2, 1957, a small newspaper article appeared in a Swiss newspaper on the topic of prisoners of war in Czechoslovakia.  Included in the names of prisoners was one Štefan Kiripolský, “former co-worker of the Vienna office of the Munich radio station Radio Free Europe.”  This article caused a stir within RFE, and on June 12, 1957, the RFE security officer traveled to Vienna to meet Karl Reinoch, the article's source of information. 

Reinoch explained that he was a secretary in the Austrian Consulate General’s office in Bratislava.  On September 22, 1950 he was arrested on the street, taken to Prague, and placed in prison for investigative custody.  He was accused of espionage. The prison was in the Ruzyn section of Prague. He remained there for three months during which time eight different StB officers interrogated him.  He did not know their names and stated that until 1955, StB personnel were known only by a number.

Reinoch said he first met former RFE employee Štefan Kiripolský in May or June 1956 in Leopoldov prison. Kiripolský had been there since the spring of 1956. For three or four months they shared the same cell, and Kiripolský told him how he arrived there.  Kiripolský said that he had been employed by RFE in Vienna, and that he had an American chief in Vienna named Williams, who was not with RFE but with U.S. Intelligence. He mentioned that Williams spoke Slovak and had a cover name that Reinoch could not recall.

Kiripolský also said that he had been accused of’ sending two agents into Hungary, which he admitted to Reinoch as having done. One of them reportedly shot and killed a border guard while crossing the border and he, Kiripolský, also was charged with being involved with the murder.

Reinoch said that Kiripolský told him that while he was in jail in Prague, he was told he would probably be sentenced to death.  But that they would consider giving him a chance for a prison sentence if he agreed to make a statement against RFE and the CIC at a press conference.

Kiripolský agreed and was then taken to another area of Prague, where prisoners were wined, dined, and rested prior to making a public statement.  Those chosen to make statements were well briefed and rehearsed prior to appearing in public. Kiripolský said he learned his role so well that he became too mechanical in his speech, and the StB finally decided he would not make a very good impression. They sent him back to his prison in Prague. After this episode he was never again approached by the StB to make a press statement or to work for the StB in any capacity.

There was no further word on Kiripolský until Hungarian-born Tibor Karman visited the RFE Vienna office on April 13, 1965. Karman was the husband of journalist, Andrea Karman, the daughter of a former high-ranking Austrian civil servant. Mrs. Karman met Karman in Hungary, fell in love with him and tried to smuggle him out to the West via Czechoslovakia. 

All of the persons involved were caught, including Karman and an accomplice, believed to be Australian or British. They were sentenced to six months in jail.  Karman was returned to Hungary. As a result of direct intervention of then Austrian Foreign Minister Bruno Kreisky in Budapest, in October or November 1964, Karman was allowed to leave Czechoslovakia.

Karman said that while he was in jail at Ilava, Slovakia, Karman met another prisoner: Kiripolský. According to Karman, Kiripolský looked hale and hearty. Kiripolský was then working in the Ilava prison hospital to get better food. 

Štefan Kiripolský was released from prison in the Prague Spring in May 1968. He never contacted the radios after the Velvet Revolution in 1989. Štefan Kiripolský died on July 6, 1992, exactly 42 years after he crossed the Danube River in search of freedom. Helena Neumanova died on February 19, 2001.

Photograph courtesy of RFE/RL.

1954 Political Kidnapping of Štefan Kiripolský In Vienna, Part One ©

After World War Two until 1955, Vienna, Austria, was divided into five occupation zones between the Soviet Union, USA, UK and France, and with the First District (Inner City) being patrolled by military units of all four allied powers. Graham Greene wrote in his novella The Third Man:

At night it is just as well to stick to the Inner City or the zones of three of the Powers, though even there the kidnappings occur – such senseless kidnappings they sometimes seemed to us – a Ukrainian girl without a passport, an old man beyond the age of usefulness, sometimes, of course, the technicians or the traitor.

The Third Man film based on the novella is shown three times each week in Vienna, at the English-language movie theater Burgkino, which has shown it continuously for over thirty years--https://www.burgkino.at/movie/third-man, [Accessed January 2020]

Below we will look at one political kidnapping in Vienna and its connection to Radio Free Europe.

Štefan Kiripolský Story

Part One

During the night July 6-7, 1952, Štefan Kiripolský (born December 24, 1914 Palárikovo , Austria-Hungary, now Slovakia) and Helena Neumanova left their village in Czechoslovakia, crossed the Danube River in a small boat to Austria and settled in Vienna as refugees.

On December 1, 1952, Kiripolský started working as an “interviewer” at Radio Free Europe’s News and Information Service Field Office in Vienna. More ominously, he also started working with the United States Military Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC), helping debrief others, who had escaped from behind the Iron Curtain.

Unknown to Kiripolský, the Czechoslovak Intelligence Service (StB) had agents in place in Vienna, who were reporting on his activities, e.g., one agent code-named Cloves (Hribicek), started working for the StB at RFE’s office at the end of November 1952. The StB started an interest file on Kiripolsky in December 1952.

In January 1953, the chief of the First Department of the Intelligence Regional Administration in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, Lieutenant Colonel Stefan Pafco and his second-in-command Captain Vlastimil Kroupa wrote up a plan to kidnap Štefan Kiripolský. In order to accomplish this task, a three-member team was expected to travel to Vienna, and the operation was to be carried out through cooperation with the Soviet counterintelligence service. Then Deputy Minister of National Security, Prchal did not approve the plan and it was dropped at that time. Nevertheless, surveillance of Kiripolský’s activities continued.

On July 17, 1953, at 5 PM, Guenther Schuettler was kidnapped (apprehended?) in Vienna by two men, who drove him to the Bellaria section of Vienna, where he was held for four days and interrogated by Soviet officers.  Of primary concern of the Soviets was Štefan Kiripolský, who worked in the RFE Vienna office and also with the U.S. Army Counterintelligence Corp (CIC) in Vienna.

After 4 days, he agreed to work for the Soviet Intelligence Service and arrange that Kiripolský would “fall into Soviet hands” for which Schuettler would receive a bonus of 10,000 Schillings.Schuettler was also a member of the Nationale Liga and the “Freikorps Donauland”, and agreed to inform the Soviets about both organizations.

Instead Schuettler reported to the Austrian State Police what happened to him. He did meet with a Soviet contact and was driven around the Soviet occupied district while giving some information. Another meeting was scheduled at the East Railway station in Vienna but Schuettler did not show up and there was no further contact with the Soviet intelligence service. 

The West German intelligence agency Gehlen Organization learned of this and reported to the CIA Chief of Base in Pullach (outside Munich). That office in turn notified the CIA Chief of Station in Vienna, with the request to confirm that Kiripolský worked for RFE and the CIC and that perhaps Kiripolský should be warned that he was a target of a possible kidnapping.

On August 21, 1954, Kiripolský wanted to go on vacation with Neumanova in the southern part of Austria, which meant he would have to travel through the Soviet occupied zone of Austria via Wiener Neustadt. He mentioned it to his supervisor, who advised him not to go.  In spite of the advice, they left for vacation. In Wiener Neustadt, A Russian military officer stopped Kiripolský and Neumanova at a railway checkpoint and took them from the train. The Russian officer was apparently expecting him to come through that point at about that particular tine.  Several other Russian soldiers were present. They put Kiripolský into a Russian-made car and took him to Baden, Austria -- still within the Soviet Zone. Neumanova was transported in a different vehicle.

There was widespread newspaper coverage in the United States that included statements from the RFE manager in Vienna, Russel Hill, who was quoted as saying "There was little doubt that one of RFE's top Czechoslovak employees had been kidnapped by the Russians." Another article reported, "The kidnapping was the first case of direct action against the anti-Communist broadcasting organisation." Radio Free Europe terminated Kiripolsky’s employment on August 31, 1954, because: “He did not return to work after vacation, actually defected or kidnapped to CSSR.” 

A Christmas Gift from "Carlos the Jackal" ©

On December 19, 1980 in Budapest, Hungary, the infamous terrorist “Carlos the Jackal” (Ilyich Ramirez Sanchez from Venezuela) and his right-hand man, German terrorist Johannes Weinrich, had a heated discussion about the bombing of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Carlos said he wanted to do it Christmas Eve or on Christmas Day because no one would expect a bomb attack on those days. Weinrich agreed in principle, but said that they were not ready, as they did not have the cars they required, and suggested New Year’s Eve.

Weinrich then told Carlos that when he and the Swiss terrorist Bruno Breguet were doing surveillance of RFE/RL earlier that month, he had stopped to urinate against one of the trees on the RFE/RL grounds. Two guards were walking in his direction and saw him, but they did not say anything and kept going around the building. He noticed that one guard had a bunch of keys in one hand and a flashlight in the other. Because he had been seen, Weinrich told Carlos that he needed a new coat or the same guard might recognize him when they returned to bomb the building. 

Weinrich said he would not shoot the guard first. Carlos asked, “Why not?” Weinrich answered that the shooting would draw unnecessary attention to them, and that a lighted Christmas tree blocked the view of guard anyway. Weinrich told Carlos that even if the bomb were discovered before it exploded, if anyone tried to move it, it would explode anyway, and the CIA would know just how professional their work was.

The original time for the bombing was scheduled to be 10:15 p.m. Weinrich told Carlos that he had plotted out that he and Bruno Breguet would need twelve minutes to get to the train station and head off from Munich in different directions. If they were discovered on the trains, they would have alibis. Breguet would take the train to Nuremberg, where he would change to a train that would arrive from Switzerland on the way to Berlin. He would exchange tickets with a helper, who was on that train, and Breguet would than continue to Berlin as if he had been on that train the whole time. Carlos told him that this was a great idea.

The bombing took place Saturday night, February 21, 1981. Weinrich and Breguet followed the script and left Munich on the selected trains as planned.