"The Winds of Freedom" -- The First Lofting of Leaflet Balloons Over the Iron Curtain, August 13, 1951 ©

In August 1951, the National Committee for a Free Europe (NCFE) abolished its Research and Publications Service and created the Free Europe Press (FEP). This was used to print various publications in the USA and Europe and print leaflets and launch balloons to carry them to the countries Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Hungary. Permanent launching sites were constructed and set up in Fronau, Freying, and Hohenhard, West Germany. The Free Europe Press (FEP) printed millions of propaganda leaflets to be launched. The leaflets contained slogans such as "A new hope is stirring" and "Friends of Freedom in other lands have found a new way to reach you." The strong messages of the leaflets included,

·      A new wind is blowing    

·      They know that you also want freedom     

·      Millions of free men and women have joined together and are sending you this message of friendship over the winds of freedom.    

·      We are in touch with you daily by radio.    

·      There is no dungeon deep enough to hide the truth, no wall high enough to keep out the message of freedom.    

·      Tyranny cannot control the winds, and cannot enslave your hearts. Freedom will rise again.

The schedule and frequencies of Radio Free Europe's broadcasts to Czechoslovakia were on the reverse side of the leaflets. Organizational signatures on the reverse side included the Crusade for Freedom, the International Federation of Free Journalists, and the Confederation International des Anciens Prisonniers de Guerre (over 1,200.000 war veterans and prisoners of war from Belgium, France, Holland, and Italy).

On August 12, 1951, at 6:30 p.m., a convoy of eleven trucks, two buses, six automobiles, a radio truck, and a few taxis began the trip from Radio Free Europe headquarters in Munich to the Iron Curtain, about 170 miles northeast of Munich. One participant said, "The convoy stretches out over a half-mile. It looks like an army division on the move." The convoy arrived at a field near Tirschenreuth, West Germany, at approximately 1 a.m, on August 13 and set up the base of operations just 3 miles from the Czechoslovak border: The balloon crews began to work almost immediately in five trucks:

The plastic balloon crews work inside the truck--five men to a truck. Two men prepare the ‘pillows' and insert the message sheets; one man operates the hydrogen tanks; another nozzles in the gas; the last man 'weighs' each balloon by attaching a small metal ring with scotch tape. 

When the right amount of gas has been inserted, the balloon hangs almost stationary in the air. Finally, the opening at the corner of the balloon is heat-sealed with an electric gadget like a curling iron. The actual launching consists of tearing off the iron ring and shoving the balloon out the back end of the truck. The 'pillows' take off gracefully and slowly, their silver sides catching the moonlight.

The first balloons, about 4 feet in diameter, with the Czech word  “Svoboda”
(Freedom) written on the side in red letters, were launched at the rate of one per minute. On August 14, 1951, the General Mills public relations department posted the following information on bulletin boards at the corporate headquarters in 
Minneapolis:  

Tens of thousands of General Mills-made freedom balloons are now landing in Czechoslovakia...carrying messages of hope to people behind the Iron Curtain. Called pillow balloons because of their 54" square size, they were developed at company Research laboratories in 1949. The balloons are made of polyethylene, a substance commonly used in food saver bags

The second type of balloon was made of rubber and called "Gummies" (the German word for rubber) by the balloon crews. The "Gummies" were round, colored either red or black, and took off faster and soon raced ahead of the "pillow balloons." Three prominent American personalities eagerly participated in the balloon launchings: 

·      Famed American newspaper syndicated columnist Drew Pearson, a major proponent of the balloon launching program in his widely-read US newspaper column: "The Washington Merry-Go-Round;"

·      C.D. Jackson, President of Free Europe Committee and former Time magazine vice president;

·      Republican Party leader Harold Stassen, former Governor of Minnesota, was the National Chairman of the 1951 Crusade for Freedom campaign.

 

The lofting of balloons continued until approximately 6:30 a.m., when breakfast was served. The crews returned to work at 7 a.m. and continued launching until noon. By then, over 3,000 balloons carrying 4,000,000 leaflets were launched. It was 7 p.m. before the convoy returned to Munich, so the crews and guests could rest and sleep. 

According to Time magazine, the three launched the balloons "looking like three Statues of Liberty, held high above their heads big rubber balloons. At the signal they solemnly let go." 

The photo shows Stassen talking to reporters with Drew Pearson in the background, wearing a hat, and standing underneath a "Gummi" balloon with leaflets. After the launch, Harold Stassen said, "We tore a big hole in the Iron Curtain. If the free world can send enough messages by radio and balloon, Soviet Russia will have to give up its present world policy, and the prospects for avoiding World War III will be considerably brighter." C.D. Jackson reportedly said, 'Tonight we caught the Kremlin with its Iron Curtain down."

From October 1951 to November 1956, the skies of
Central Europe were filled with more than 500,000 balloons carrying over 300,000,000 leaflets, posters, books, and other printed matter that were sent from West Germany over the Iron Curtain to Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary. 

Cold War Pigeon Power: "Leaping Lena" ©

A true story of when in the 1954-55 Radio Free Europe and Crusade for Freedom used a "Freedom Pigeon" to fight Communism.

As the story goes, a German racing pigeon was to fly from Munich in a race back to her home base of Klautzenbach, near Nuremberg. She got lost and landed in Pilzen, Czechoslovakia. A pigeon fancier found her, attached a message for Radio Free Europe to her leg, and let her go. She flew back to Klautzenbach. Her owner found the note and notified RFE; the pigeon and message were given to RFE. "Leaping Lena" became her nickname. The message she carried was

 

We plead with you not to slow down in the fight against Communism because Communism must be destroyed. We beg for a speedy liberation from the power of the Kremlin and the establishment of a United States of Europe. We listen to your broadcasts. They present an entirely true picture of life behind the Iron Curtain. We would like you to tell us how we can combat "Bolshevism" and the tyrannical dictatorship existing here. We are taking every opportunity to work against the regime and do everything in our power to sabotage it.

    

                  Unbowed Pilsen

 

"Leaping Lena" arrived in the United States on August 1, 1954, when four World War II hero pigeons from Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, and 15 news photographers greeted her as a V.I.P. (Very Important Pigeon). Fort Monmouth was the site of the U.S. Army Signal Corps Pigeon Breeding and Training Center. The American Racing Pigeon Union and the International Federation of American Homing Pigeon Fanciers sponsored her arrival.

 

One thousand American pigeons released in her honor carried a copy of the message to President Dwight Eisenhower and Henry Ford II, president of the Crusade for Freedom. 

 

Newspaper headlines included "Star Crusader for Radio Arrives in Nation" and "Lena, Pigeon Who Crashed Curtain, Gets Big Ovation." One photograph carried the caption: "The bird won honorary pigeonship in the United States after flying an anti-Communist message over the iron curtain." Another read, "Pigeon of Pilsen on Mission in the US." One New YorkTimes headline was "Coos and Kudos to Greet 'Anti-Red" Pigeon Who Flew Message Through Iron Curtain." One newspaper reporter not so kindly described her as "a rather drab looking expanse of feathers resembling any plump pigeon in any park."

 

After three weeks of quarantine at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Clifton, New Jersey, "Leaping Lena" reportedly then went on a press tour, helping to raise funds for Radio Free Europe in the 1954-1955 Crusade campaign. She was the "model for an insignia to be used in the fund drive to support Radio Free Europe broadcasts behind the Iron Curtain" and presumably retired in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey.

 

One of the four World War II hero pigeons was her mate, but, unfortunately, "Leaping Lena's" fate in the United States is not known. Possibly, she was given to a zoo, according to a history of the U.S. Army Signal Corps:

 

The advent of the electronics age brought about the demise of one of the Signal Corps' oldest forms of communications, pigeons. The Army's birds, like horses and mules before them, had fallen victim to progress. Consequently, the Signal Corps closed the Pigeon Breeding and Training Branch (formerly Center) at Fort Monmouth on May 1, 1957. The Corps sold its birds to the public except for the remaining war heroes, such as G.I. Joe, which it was presented to zoos around the country.

 

For more information 

 

Rebecca Robbins Raines. Getting the Message Through: A Branch History of the U.S. Army
Signal Corps. http://www.history.army.mil/books/30-17/Front.htm#toc

Photograph of Lena is courtesy of RFE/RL, Inc.

July 14, 1950

The mobile radio unit “Barbara” used to broadcast Radio Free Europe’s first program on July 4, 1950, to Czechoslovakia. "Barbara" was not one vehicle, but a set of seven vehicles: studio van, the transmitter van, generators, a fuel supply truck, jeep and trailer, camping and housekeeping equipment, and a flatbed truck for the antenna towers. 

Beginning on 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.  On that date, “Barbara” also sent its first broadcast to Romania.

The Murder of Slovak Exile Matúš Černák in Munich in July 1955 ©

Matúš Černák, born on August 23, 1903, in Turčianske Teplice, was a former Slovak Minister to Berlin in World War II, a Slovak National Council Abroad (SNCA) representative in West Germany, and a listed CIA informant. Černák was arrested by the American military in Bavaria, Germany, in 1945 and handed over to Czechoslovakia. He was sentenced to prison. After his release in 1948, he escaped Czechoslovakia to Bavaria. 

He was critical of Radio Free Europe's Czechoslovak Service for not representing the true interests of the Slovak people. Černák later was a joint author of a statement criticizing Radio Free Europe for “suppressing the majority (i.e., Slovaks),  recruiting personnel among communists, betraying routes of escape from Czechoslovakia, and demoralizing their listeners with American jazz.”

 

He was killed by a package bomb explosion in a Munich post office on July 5, 1955. Černák was buried in Munich’s Waldfriedhof cemetary in a ceremony attended by German Chancelor Konrad Adenauer. In 1991, his remains were sent to a cemetery in Bratislava, Slovakia.

 

The Bavarian State Criminal Office promised 5,000 DM, and later 10,000 DM for providing any information that would lead to arrest and prosecution. The police investigation revealed that the explosive package was filed at Frankfurt’s Main Train Station at the post office. It was reportedly sent by a man between the ages of 40-45, 1.65-1.70 cm tall, slim figure, dark hair, a dark beard, and reportedly spoken in broken German with a Slavic accent. The package was sent to the Slovak National Council.

 

On July 6, 1955, the Bavarian Minister-President Dr. Wilhelm Hoegner broadcast a statement in which he said that his police thought it likely that “this was the work of one or another of the exile groups in Germany.”

 

Bratislava Slovakia Radio on July 9, 1955, called the bombing “Gangster warfare in the Underworld of traitors.” 

 

There was comprehensive spread newspaper coverage in the United States and Germany of the bombing. For example, in the US, some grassroots newspapers carried headlines, "Hunting Bomb Slayer of Anti-Commie," "Bomb in Mail kills Anti-Communist Hero," and "Bomb Assasin of Slovak Leader is hunted at Munich."

Michigan Congressman Alvin Morell Bentley made remarks before Congress on July 7, 1955, including this statement, “I personally feel sure that an investigation will substantiate the fact that this is merely another of a series of Communist terrorist activities.”

 

Also, on July 7, 1955, in Munich, there was a press conference of the “Democratic Exile Union (DEU),” an association of Slovak, Romanian, Georgian, Cossak, and Hungarian émigrés. There were more than 50 German and foreign newspapermen and news agency representatives. Černák was a leader of the DEU. The conference was called to discuss his death. In a prepared statement, Černák was called "an idealist whose strength came from his Christian faith ... He died for the cause of freedom for his Slovak people, for whom he joined the ranks of martyrs."

 

On April 13, 1959, in Vienna, Austria, there was a four-hour meeting between an unidentified Czechoslovak intelligence officer and a CIA officer. That was followed up by a message to CIA headquarters about the meeting, part of which included: 

 

Czech Intelligence Service (StB) did blow up Matúš Černák. Operation conceived and run by Intelligence Service man Rudolf Baloun, who was under CTK (news agency) cover. The bomb was made in Prague, delivered to an unknown agent, probably a German, by Baloun in a meadow near Hallein, Austria. (Redacted) drove the car, and a third man, probably Lubomir (or Ladislav) Kubicek, who then TDY from Prague, went along. The agent did not know the package contained a bomb. I mailed it as instructed. When newspapers headlined Černák death, the agent got jitters, went to Vienna, went to Legation, and packed off to CSSR. (Redacted) says the purpose bombing was to create discord between Slovak separatists and Czech nationalists in Munich immigration. Adds bombing not now totally taboo, such proposals no longer approved. 

                        

Circumstantial evidence pointed to an agent who allegedly mailed the package to Černák, as Kurt Baumgartner, code name “Berthelot.” Reportedly, when Baumgartner read the news in the newspapers about the circumstances of the bombing, he panicked and immediately went to Austria to the Czechoslovak Embassy and was transported to Czechoslovakia. His StB case officer, Lieutenant Kubiček (code name “Kautský”), reportedly was awarded 2,000 Czech Crowns for “successful implementation of operative actions abroad.”

 

Baumgartner lived quietly in Prague in an apartment provided by the StB, received monthly payments, provided translations, and gave German lessons until he died in 1987. For more information about Černák and Slovak nationalism, see Chapter 9 in 

 

 

 

Press Release July 3, 1950, on the first broadcast of Radio Free Europe July 4, 1950

Press Information

For Release July 3, 1950

 

“Radio Free Europe” to Penetrate 

Iron Curtain Tomorrow

 

The American people, and the exiled leaders of Eastern Europe, will speak to the enslaved peoples behind the Iron Curtain tomorrow with a new and powerful voice as Radio Free Europe takes to the air using its newly completed European transmitters.

 

Owned and operated by the National Committee for 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.

 

“A prime objective of Radio Free Europe will be to bring to these peoples the voice of their democratic leaders, who have been driven into exile by Communist oppression,” said Dewitt C. Poole, President of NCFE. “At the end of the war we joined the United Kingdom and the USSR in promising these peoples that they should solve by democratic means their pressing political and economic problems. This promise has not been kept. Instead, the voices of the democratic leaders of these countries have been stilled by death, imprisonment, and exile.

 

“Now through Radio Free Europe, the numerous democratic leaders who escaped and have survived in exile will be heard by their own people once more. They will speak to the imprisoned countrymen in their own language, in the familiar tones as in a family reunited. They will give the lie to Communist propaganda and tell their listeners of the underlying struggle to ensure freedom everywhere.”

 

The Fourth of July, Independence Day, was deliberately chosen for Radio Free Europe’s first broadcast, according to Frank Altschul, Chairman of the NCFE Radio Committee.

 

“Throughout the world, ‘The Fourth’ is a pivotal date in the long history of man’s struggle for freedom, “ said Mr. Altschul. “During the ‘audience building’ period of broadcasts, from the fourth to the fourteenth – another pivotal date – the programs will consist of announcements of the station’s plans and purposes. On the fourteenth, the anniversary of the fall of the Bastille and the start of the French Revolution, full broadcasting will begin.”

1953 Presidential Committee Report on International Information Activities ©

On June 30, 1953, the Presidential Committee on International Information Activities, under the chairmanship of William Harding Jackson, former Deputy Director for Central Intelligence, submitted a report to President Eisenhower. The  Presidential Committee first met on January 30, 1953. Over 250 witnesses were interviewed, including many representatives of government departments and agencies. The Committee also consulted with members of Congress, studied classified material furnished by various agencies, and received a large volume of correspondence both from government officials and from members of the public and private organizations.”  

In addition, surveys and evaluations of both Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty were included. Specifically, on Radio Free Europe, the report read:  

 

In the original plan, the various national councils were to be responsible for broadcasts over RFE facilities to their respective countries. Since the complexities and rivalries of émigré politics made the organization of national councils difficult, it was decided to set up RFE on a non-political basis. Emigré staff were hired for competence rather than political affiliation, and programs to various countries are now identified as the Voice of Free Czechoslovakia, Poland, and so on. 

 

Although this reason for the national councils no longer exists, they do have potential value in exile relations. If the émigré leaders are prepared to create national councils of their own volition, NCFE should assist them to engage in such propaganda activities as they may be qualified to conduct. Primary attention, however, should be given to the broadcasting phase of NCFE activities. The Committee recommends that the rest of these activities be reviewed by CIA to determine whether they should be continued or modified. 

 

Some specific issues arose in connection with NCFE activities, particularly RFE. There is first the question of cover. It has been suggested that, because the present cover has worn thin, RFE's official connections be freely admitted. However, such a course would vitiate the principal reason for the existence of RFE as a separate organization. So long as its government connections are not officially admitted it can broadcast programs and take positions for which the United States would not accept responsibility. The Committee believes that the present cover is adequate for this purpose.  

 

The recommendations for radio in Chapter 4, Operations against the Soviet System, included:

 

·      All broadcast material to the Soviet system for which the United States government does not wish to accept responsibility should be handled by Radio Free Europe (RFE), Radio Liberation or other covert channels. 

·      The American Committee for Liberation from Bolshevism, Inc., should concentrate on the improvement of Radio Liberation and reduce expenditures on the émigré coordinating center. 

 

The Commission's recommendations on Radio Liberation (Liberty) included:

·      In a situation short of war, the project can probably make its greatest contribution by de-emphasizing its political activities and devoting its major effort to the improvement of broadcasts from Radio Liberation. 

·      This station should use Soviet émigrés in an effort to weaken the Soviet regime and should concentrate on the Soviet military, government officials, and other groups in the population, which harbor major grievances against the regime. 

·      The American Committee for Liberation from Bolshevism, Inc., should concentrate on the improvement of Radio Liberation and reduce expenditures on the émigré coordinating center.

 

For more detailed excerpts of the Committee Report, see Appendix E on RFE and Appendix F on Radio Liberty respectively in

Clandestine CIA Broadcasts from Greece to Albania: Voice of Free Albania (VOFA) ©

Following a week of spot announcements, the clandestine radio Voice of Free Albania began regular short-wave broadcasts from its clandestine transmitting site near Athens at 10 P.M on September 18, 1951. The programs were heard in various European cities. In addition, the station was given considerable publicity by Voice of America, BBC, Radio Free Europe, and in newspapers in the United States, including the New York Times. 

“Radio Free Albania“ is often used as the name of the clandestine station, but the official name was Voice of Free Albania. CIA’s cryptonym was HTNEIGH. CIA’s station in Italy monitored the first broadcasts. An internal CIA Information Report was distributed in November 1951 with the subject: Albanian Clandestine Radio Station and contained details of the initial broadcasts: 

·      A new Albanian clandestine radio station, which has been vigorously denouncing the Albanian Communist regime and is known as the “Voice of Free Albania,” has been heard recently on short wave.

·      The station has advised its listeners that it will broadcast instructions for sabotaging the regime.

·      Although the location of the station is unknown, it is believed that it is in Albania itself since it appears extremely well-informed on Albanian matters. 

A subsequent internal CIA Information Report included these comments:

·      It purported to be on Albanian soil and stated its sponsor to be the “Free Albania Committee.” The first bars of the old Albanian national anthem were used as a signature tune.

·      “This is the Voice of Free Albania- for Albania, for Freedom, for the Red and Black Flag.  Brothers and sisters, listen to the Voice of Free Albania; the Voice of Free Albania talks for all Albanians who love their country and want it strong and free…” This was followed by news items and commentary critical of the present Communist regime.

In September 1953, CIA’s monitoring station at Bari, Italy, reported continued jamming of VOFA. The monitoring station believed the jamming was due to the VOFA defection appeal to Albanians repeated daily. The defection appeal was, in part, “Albanians -- you are forcing the regime to the wall! Continue to demand what is due you. The despots are weakening and fearful of the next orders from Moscow. Enlightened and repentant Albanian Communists there is no security in a regime of traitors that uses scapegoats to explain its failures, but there is haven for you in the Free World.“  

One propaganda leaflet dropped into Albania contained information about the NCFA and Voice of Free Albania and included these excerpts:

         Radio Announcement

Albanians!

By means of a clandestine radio transmitter the NCFA fights to eradicate the Communist lies which fill and poison the Fatherland.  “The Voice of Free Albania” transmits each evening at 6:30 and 9 o’clock, as well as every afternoon between 1 and 2 o’clock. Through these transmissions, patriotic Albanians may hear:

The TRUTH on the filthy crimes of the Tirana Communist clique and of their Russian patrons which they serve.

The TRUTH on the strives and fight of your national Committee to bring honor and freedom to Albania.

The TRUTH of the immeasurable strength of our friends and Allies Nations in the free world. 

Albanians!

Those of you who have radios may assist in the Fight for Freedom by listening to the “Voice of Free Albania” and by passing the news secretly to a trusted friend.

It must be emphasized that everything should be done clandestinely and with the greatest protection.  You must be aware of every danger and especially the Sigurimi. (Secret police) 

In 1958 CIA decided to terminate VOFA broadcasts mainly due to the lack of a qualified psychological officer. As a result, three staff members in Athens were let go on February 28, 1958, and returned to the United States. However, CIA clandestine broadcasts continued to Albania as the “National Socialist Radio (NATCOM) that had started broadcasting in May 1957 separately from VOFA that was aimed at medium and lower level Communist Party and government officials. Its cryptonym was OBTEST 1.

For more information on VOFA and NATCOM, see Chapter 5 in