Cold War Radio Television Series in Development ©

COLD WAR RADIO Television Series in Development: 

Summary

The story begins around 1949 as Russia sets up satellite states all across Eastern Europe and CIA sets up a radio station that allow refugees to broadcast propaganda and rallying cries for freedom to their countrymen on the other side of the Iron Curtain.

This is the time of the completion of Soviet domination of East Europe, the Berlin airlift, American Care packages to Germany, and the Marshall Plan to renew Germany’s destroyed economy. Central, and Western Europe are physically divided by barbed wire, armed patrols, land mines and guard towers. In Eastern Europe, the Communist monopoly and censorship of media is absolute behind the Iron Curtain. The free flow of information is cut off, not only from the outside, but also internally.

Americans are exhausted and apathetic after World War II so Washington decides to call in experts from advertising and public affairs firms in New York to convince Americans of the danger of Communism. The U.S. Government doesn’t want the station to be linked with CIA, so a domestic campaign, the Crusade for Freedom, is created to persuade ordinary Americans, to contribute “Truth Dollars” to give the appearance of a spontaneous, popular, grass-roots initiative against the Communist threat.

In New York, radio spots, films, and television shows, jingles, slogans and songs convince Americans that they personally can do something about the threat of Communism, and millions of dollars are raised. Such iconic slogans as, Freedom Bell, Freedom Train, Freedom Hat, and Freedom Girl are used in media and outdoor advertising campaigns. Famous entertainment and media stars are recruited for one-minute radio spots.

In Munich, emigrés from Eastern Europe face intimidation, blackmail, threats of kidnapping, bombings, murder attempts, vitriolic denunciations from state-controlled media behind the Iron Curtain, and spies. Actions, in this case hostile actions, speak louder in the battle of ideas fought by East and West. For many, it was “The Worst of Times”, for others “The Best of Times.”

Idea: Uwe Kersken
Coproduction: G5 fiction and Bavaria Fiction
Screenplay: Colin Teevan
Historical advisor: Richard Cummings (Radio Free Europe; "Crusade for Freedom") 

Producer: Uwe Kersken & Moritz Polter 

An Urgent Whisper from Barbara: Radio Free Europe Begins Broadcasting on July 4, 1950, Part Two ©

The first broadcast was via "Barbara," a small mobile short-wave transmitter complex on a former Luftwaffe Air Base in Lampertheim, West Germany. "Barbara" was not one vehicle, but a set of seven vehicles, which included a studio van,  transmitter van, generators, fuel supply truck, and a flatbed truck for the antenna towers.  

Beginning July 4, 1950, the first programs to Czechoslovakia only consisted of music and spot announcements advising the listener that full programming of news and commentary would begin on July 14, 1950.  “Barbara” sent its first broadcast to Romania also on July 14, 1950. In August 1950, shortwave broadcasts began to Hungary, Poland, and Bulgaria. It is doubtful that many behind the Iron Curtain actually heard the first programs due to the relatively low power of the mobile transmitter.

The first Radio Free Europe broadcasts were at first prepared in RFE’s New York studios in the Empire State Building and relayed to West Germany via a high-powered transoceanic transmitter and later program tape recordings were air transported. The administrative and editorial offices were located at Sieberstrasse 4, in Munich, where there were two studios, two newsrooms, a tape library, a recorded music library, a control room installed in the kitchen, offices for the staff, and the workers found space in the passageways of the building. 

Time magazine reported on July 17, 1950, under the rubric “Urgent Whisper”:

This week Czech and Rumanian radio listeners could hear music, plays and satires forbidden by their Communist masters—as well as the voices of men long exiled. These forbidden broadcasts came from a Radio Free Europe transmitter deep in Western Germany.

RFE's lone 7½-kilowatt transmitter is only a whisper compared to the worldwide 58-station network of Voice of America. But RFE, a branch of the National Committee for a Free Europe founded last year by a group of private U.S. citizens, expects to make up in pungency for its lack of volume. Explains Banker Frank Altschul, chairman of RFE: "Unhampered by diplomatic restrictions, we can slant our programs in a more definitely anti-Soviet way than the Voice."

Welcomed by the State Department as a freewheeling, free-speaking ally in the propaganda war, RFE plans to boost its power with five transmitters now on order. It intends, eventually, to speak strongly to every Communist satellite from the Baltic to the Black Sea.

The New York Times reported, “New ‘Voice’ Talks to Europe Like Member of the Family.” Some grass-root newspapers in the United States printed this editorial about Radio Free Europe and its “secret-location” transmitter:

Many wise statesmen have been appealing insistently to the free world to exert greater effort to the grimy "struggle for men's mind." They have pounded repeatedly on the idea that it isn't enough to combat Russian Communism with economic and military measures: that freedom must be shown to be the great cause it really a way of life eminently superior to the slavery imposed by Moscow.

The first Imaginative stride in this direction has now been taken. From a secret radio transmitter in Europe, a new series of programs is being beamed to the countries behind the Iron Curtain…Radio Free Europe, as the new transmitter is called, is the product of the National Committee for Free Europe, which was organized about a year ago by outstanding American citizens.

We must make plain to decent people everywhere that the language of Communism is the language of falsehood, that Russia's words can never be believed because words to the Soviet Union are simply weapons in the psychological theater of war.

Cord Meyer, the CIA official, who later was directly responsible for Radio Free Europe policy and programming for most of his intelligence career in the International Organizations Division of the CIA, wrote in his autobiography Facing Reality:

At the start, the somewhat naïve notion existed that all that was necessary was to build some radio transmitters and to hand the microphones to exiles to say what they wished…. It quickly became evident that the exile leaders were so divided among themselves on ideological lines and the different political groups were so prone to infighting, that a tower of Babel would be erected if they were left to their own devices.

Paul B. Henze was one of the early American managers of Radio Free Europe in Munich.  He would later join the US State Department and National Security Council.  At a conference at the Hoover Institution in Stanford, California in 2004 examining the role of international broadcasting, Henze succinctly summed up the radio station’s genesis:

Radio Free Europe was an experiment. It was jerrybuilt. Its success was far from foreordained. The early years of its operation were never trouble-free. It faced many difficulties, some inherent in the operation itself, some the result of bureaucratic factors, many caused by doubts about--even strong opposition to--the notion of radio broadcasts as a means of communicating with peoples who had been forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Empire and isolated from the outer world with no immediate prospect of improvement of their situation.

Almost all the planning that went into the creation of Radio Free Europe was an improvised response to the sense of urgency that prevailed in the early 1950s about the threat, which Stalinist aggressive expansionism represented for the United States and the Free World. The notion that Radio Free Europe resulted from a coherent concept of what needed to be done has become widespread in recent years, but it remains an illusion.

Frank Altschul wrote a long status report to Allen Dulles in August 1950, part of which included:

If Radio Free Europe is to be effective, its sincerity must be above suspicion. It would be self-defeating to attempt to expound the gospel of twentieth-century liberalism through the recognized voice of nineteenth-century reaction. This raises a question that goes directly to the very heart of our activity in the field of propaganda. The way in which it is answered may have an important bearing on the success or failure of our effort.

Whether ...  the experiment will seem to continue to justify the very considerable capital and current expenditure involved is primarily a question for those to decide who have assumed the responsibility of defraying up to now our budgetary requirements.

According to an August 1954 State Department Top Secret report,

The Free Europe Committee (FEC) and Radio Free Europe (RFE) are powerful propaganda and psychological political instruments, which are controlled by the Agency and are supposed to operate under policy guidance from the Department. The FEC was created in 1949 as a private organization, financed partly by private donations and partly by funds from the Agency, the latter accounting for about two-thirds to three-fourths of the money.

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An Urgent Whisper from Barbara: Radio Free Europe Begins Broadcasting on July 4, 1950, Part One ©

Radio affects most people intimately, person-to-person, offering a world of unspoken communication between writer-speaker and the listener...That is the immediate aspect of radio: a private experience. 

Marshall McLuhan

On July 4, 1950, Radio Free Europe transmitted its first program, as the “Voice of Free Czechoslovakia,” only 30 minutes in length, as an “audience building broadcast.”  The press notice released in the United States the day before outlined not only the ideological basis for the programming but also the “cover” of Central Intelligence Agency’s true sponsorship of Radio Free Europe:

Owned and operated by the National Committee for a Free Europe, Inc., a group of private American citizens, Radio Free Europe will broadcast the true story of freedom and democracy to the eighty million people living in Communist slavery between Germany and Russia. Freed of diplomatic limitations, the broadcasts will be hard-hitting.

Below, we will briefly look back at the major personalities and circumstances that led to this significant development in the American state-private network for the struggle for men’s minds in the early years of the Cold War.

Frank Wisner, a World War II Office of Strategic Services (OSS) veteran, was the main actor responsible for the development of the American radio stations Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty in Munich in the Cold War. In September 1944, he had been sent to Bucharest. Romania, where he controlled an OSS operation that evacuated Allied airmen downed behind enemy lines. Wisner remained in Bucharest until March 1945, when he witnessed the arrival of Soviet troops and the tragic aftermath of the occupation. 

After WWII, Frank Wisner returned to private practice in the US and joined the Council on Foreign Relations. In 1947 Wisner left private practice and joined the State Department as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Occupied Countries. He became involved with the refugees from the USSR and Soviet-dominated countries in Eastern Europe and traveled to Germany to visit the Displaced Persons (DP) camps, overflowing with over 700,00 refugees.  He initiated a study on the “Utilization of Refugees from the U.S.S.R. in U.S. National Interests”, which to led to the idea of a secret destabilizing émigré force under Operation Bloodstone.

In June 1948, famed career diplomat George Kennan, now with the Department of State Policy Planning Staff, placed Wisner at the head of the list for a new CIA position of Director of the Office of Special Projects, based on the "recommendations of people who know him. I personally have no knowledge of his ability, but his qualifications seem reasonably good.”

By August 1948 in Europe, the CIA had acquired a radio transmitter, a printing plant, and began assembling a fleet of weather balloons intended to carry and drop off propaganda leaflets, and other materials, over the Iron Curtain. Frank Wisner, still with the Department of State, called Director of Central Intelligence Hillenkoetter on August 4, 1948, and told him that “project for the clandestine radio transmitter “ had been approved in principle. A definite approval would only follow after the details of who was to operate the transmitter and “to whom the transmissions would be directed and who would set up the raw material to be transmitted.”

On September 1, 1948, Wisner became Assistant Director for Policy Coordination, in charge of CIA covert operations, of which Radio Free Europe would become a major component.

The Certificate of Incorporation of a nonprofit company called Committee for Free Europe, Inc. was submitted to the State of New York for approval on April 29, 1949. The New York City law firm for which Allen Dulles worked, Sullivan and Cromwell, filed the papers required for incorporation. The Committee for Free Europe was founded, in part, to

Help the non-Fascist and non-Communist leaders who have fled to the United States from the countries of Eastern Europe to maintain themselves in useful occupations during their enforced stay in the United States.

Assist these leaders in maintaining contact with their fellow citizens in other lands and in keeping alive among them the ideals of individual and national freedom.

One of the most critical incorporation document articles was: “No part of the activities of the corporation shall be the carrying on of propaganda or otherwise attempting to influence legislation.”

Directors and officers included future Central Intelligence Director Allen Dulles and future US President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Chairman Joseph C. Grew, former US Ambassador to Japan, announced at a press conference on June 1, 1949, that one purpose of the corporation was "to put the voices of these exiled leaders on the air, addressed to their own peoples back in Europe, in their own language, in the familiar tones.”

On June 2, 1949, the corporate name was changed to the National Committee for Free Europe (NCFE)--it would change again in April 1950 to National Committee for a Free Europe.

The financial books of the NCFE were set up for five Operating Committees:

•    General Administrative

•    Committee on Intellectual Activities

•    Committee on Radio and Press

•    Committee on American Contacts

•    National Committee (Bulgarian, Czechoslovak, Hungarian, Romanian).

The term "Radio Free Europe evolved" from the Operating Committee Radio and Press. 

(Continued in Part Two)

Gene Pell RIP

Obituary for Ernest Eugene "Gene" Pell Journalist and Broadcast Executive 

Ernest Eugene "Gene" Pell, 83, died quietly on April 7, 2020 at his home near Syria, VA, after a valiant 3-year battle with cancer. He is survived by his loving wife, Susan Jane (Roehm) Pell of Syria; two daughters from a previous marriage: Anne Frances Pell of Morsasco, Italy and Jennifer Susan Pell of Makawno, HI; a grandson Sasha Pell of Makawno, HI; a stepson Maj. Philipp Edouard Rigaut who lives in Prince William Co., VA with his wife Amanda and five children; a sister Carol Goodman Taylor of Lexington, KY; a sister Sandria Lynn Cox of Woodbridge, VA; a brother Clark Edward Pell of West Coxsackie, NY; and several nieces and nephews. Gene was preceded in death by his parents and his stepson, Pierre-Louis Rigaut. 

Gene was born March 15, 1937 in Paducah, KY, the oldest of four children of Ernest Joseph and Edna Marie (Stewart) Pell. His father was an early pioneer in radio and television broadcasting who managed technical operations for several stations in Kentucky and later built and ran a television network in Vietnam. His father's work no doubt contributed to Gene's interest in broadcasting, but an even greater impetus was the wonderful, commanding baritone voice he developed at age 13. That remarkable voice, coupled with exceptional intelligence and drive, led to a career of more than 50 years in broadcast journalism. 

He often joked that he began his broadcasting career covering "rasslin" matches while he was still in high school, then worked at the campus radio station while attending Harvard University. He graduated from Harvard in 1959 with a BA in English, then served as an officer in the Navy for 3 years where, among other assignments, he was the Program Director for the Armed Forces Radio Service in New York City. He returned to college after the Navy and earned a MS in Journalism from Boston University. 

Gene began his career in television news in 1963 as an investigative reporter with WBI-TV in Boston, then became an anchor for Boston stations WBZ and WCVB. In 1969 he joined the Westinghouse Broadcasting Company first as the National Political Correspondent in Washington and then as Chief of the Westinghouse Foreign News Service in London. In 1974 he was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard and in 1977 a Visiting Fellow at the Harvard Russian Research Center. He joined NBC News in 1978 and served as the NBC News Correspondent in Moscow from 1978-1980 and as the Pentagon Correspondent from 1980-1982. From 1963 through 1982 Gene covered every major news story and interviewed countless American and international newsmakers. He reported on the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War, the assassinations of President Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, Watergate, five Presidential campaigns, the Iran Hostage Crisis, and countless other events across the U.S. and around the world. Another journalist who worked with him during that period recently said "Gene lived his professional life as a serious and devoted advocate of reporting the truth, using the medium of broadcasting - radio and TV. Like many of us, he was proud and a bit arrogant. But more importantly he was riveting and honest. I'm not certain where his inspiration came from, but the results were impressive: great curiosity, a commitment to support and nurture quality broadcast journalism, and an abiding dedication to servicing the audiences." 

Gene began his government career in 1982 when he was recruited by the Reagan Administration to help modernize the technology and programming at the Voice of America (VOA). He initially served as the Director of News and Current Affairs, then as the Deputy Director for all VOA Programming, then in June of 1985 he was appointed by President Reagan as the Director of VOA. His contributions to the modernization were so successful that he was recruited by the Board for International Broadcasting to become the President/CEO of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Inc. in Munich, Germany. He became President/CEO in October, 1985 and led that organization for eight years through one of the most remarkable periods in modern history. He spent much of 1985- 1989 transforming the management, technology, and programming at RFE/RL which significantly improved the organization's capability and credibility when the USSR began to collapse. 

Under Gene's leadership, RFE/RL was at the heart of the peaceful revolutions that occurred in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union from 1989-1992, broadcasting accurate news and credible information in 21 languages, 7 days a week. He was frequently on the air during that period speaking to audiences in both English and Russian. Many Eastern European and Russian leaders, including Czech President Vaclav Havel and Russian President Boris Yeltsin, later testified to the importance of RFE/RL broadcasts in helping to end the Cold War. Polish leader Lech Walesa told an audience in 1989 that the role played by RFE/RL in Poland’s struggle for freedom “cannot even be described. Would there be an earth without the sun?" 

In 1991 RFE/RL was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for the critical part it played in the peaceful revolutions across the Soviet bloc. Gene won a wide array of journalism awards through the years, but he was most proud of the contributions he made to VOA and RFE/RL that helped to end the Cold War.

Gene retired from RFE/RL in June of 1993 and returned to broadcasting which was his first love. He joined Radio America where he wrote and hosted a weekly radio program and produced and narrated a series of television programs about Congressional Medal of Honor winners. He also acted as master of ceremonies for several years at the annual WWII Veterans Association meeting in Washington. 

In 1998, Gene and Susan moved from Washington, D. C. to a wonderful home on a mountain near the town of Syria in Madison Co., VA . They immediately fell in love with Madison County and the many good friends they made there. They became active members of the community and worked on a series of projects with the Chamber of Commerce, MESA, Madison Troop Support, and others. Gene was especially proud of the annual oratory competition he endowed and judged for Madison High School students. He hoped that some of those students might follow in his path and build careers in broadcast journalism. 

After cremation, Gene's ashes will be interred in the Criglersville Shiloh Cemetery. A memorial service will be held at a later date. The Preddy Funeral Home in Madison, VA is assisting the family with arrangements. 

Notice of Gene's death will be published in the Washington Post, the Madison County Eagle, and the Paducah Sun newspapers. 

RFE/RL's tribute to Gene Pell can be read here: https://pressroom.rferl.org/a/ernest-eugene-gene-pell/30549220.html

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.”