The first Radio Liberation broadcast to Ukraine, on August 16, 1954

The first Radio Liberation broadcast to Ukraine on August 16, 1954:

Dear brothers and sisters! Ukrainians!

Today, for the first time, we address you over Radio Liberation. We live abroad, but our hearts and thoughts are with you always. No iron curtain can separate us or obstruct that. Today is a day of joy for us, for, over the air, our vibrant word of greeting, joy, and hope will reach you.

Over one million of us Ukrainians are living abroad. For a long time, we have been telling people in the free world the truth about life in our country. The beginning Ukrainian broadcasts over Radio Liberation entrust us with a new task. We shall speak to you and for you, fellow countrymen, because there in our homeland, you have neither freedom, nor democratic press, nor a free radio.

Wherever we may be … our paths all converge toward Kiev and the towns and views of Ukraine … Kiev Rus, which became the cradle of our Ukrainian nation's existence was an important cultural center, the focus of ancient democratic freedoms in Eastern Europe. Through Kyiv, the "mother of Russian cities," our culture spread to all corners of Eastern Europe. Later, in Khmelnytsky's time [the seventeenth century), the Cossacks gave the Ukraine glamour and might.

In the fire and storm of the Revolution of 1917, Ukraine was re-established as an independent state. Our people, longing to be masters of their own destiny in their own country, proclaimed the Ukrainian Democratic Republic. That was done in a democratic way-the manifestation of the sovereign will of the Ukrainian nation. It took place in accordance with the principles of self-determination of peoples. But the Ukrainian Democratic Republic fell victim to Bolshevist aggression. To deceive the Ukrainian people, to persuade them that nothing had happened, the aggressors converted the Ukrainian Democratic Republic into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which the Communist dictatorship made an instrument of oppression of the Ukrainian people.

In the struggle against Communism, our native land has made great sacrifices on the altar of liberation. But we have faith in God's justice. We are convinced that those sacrifices were not made in vain and that God will reward Ukraine for all her sufferings. The struggle of the Ukrainian people will achieve their purpose.

And you, the Ukrainian people, "master in your house," will take your seat in the "circle of free peoples" The words of Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko, the beloved Ukrainian national poet of the nineteenth century, will come true: “And there will be a son, and there will be a mother, and there will be justice on earth. Because "in our house there is truth, and strength, and the will for freedom."

 

 

August 10, 1951, Press Release: Radio Free Europe Expands Services to Bulgaria

National Committee for a Free Europe 

350 Fifth Avenue, New York 1, N. Y.

August 10, 1951

 

FOR RELEASE AUGUST 11, 1951, or thereafter

 

RADIO FREE EUROPE EXPANDS SERVICES

 

Radio Free Europe will add Bulgaria to its list of "target countries" behind the Iron Curtain tomorrow (Aug. 11) as the first of a special series of programs, written, produced, and broadcast by Bulgarian exiles, goes on air from the station's transmitters at an undisclosed location in Europe.

 

Owned and operated by the National Committee for a Free Europe, Radio Free Europe began broadcasting to Czechoslovakia and Romania on July 14, and to Poland and Hungary on August 4. Hard-hitting commentaries by distinguished political and intellectual exiles, folk and national music "forbidden" behind the iron curtain, and broadcasts of Eastern European news otherwise denied the 80,000,000 enslaved peoples between Germany and Russia, make up its programs broadcast on regular schedules to the five target countries.

 

Tomorrow's program to Bulgaria will feature an address by Dr. G.M. Dimitrov, President of the Bulgarian National Committee and. editor of its newspaper. Dr. Dimitrov has known persecution from the time Hitler's henchmen sentenced him to death for collaborating with the allies until 1946, when he escaped from the communists. He is the former secretary-general of the Bulgarian Agrarian Union.

 

In his address tomorrow, he will emphasize to his fellow Bulgarians the fact that the United States is maintaining its contacts with the Bulgarian people, notwithstanding severance of diplomatic relations, and is actively supporting the victims of Communist tyranny until the day they once again are free.

 

Recalling the birth of the French Republic on Bastille Day, 1789, he will issue a ringing call to his people to remain firm in the face of communist terrorism. "No earthly power has been able to halt the fight of the people against tyranny, injustice, and terror," he will say tomorrow. "The bloodiest terrorists of the past -- Nero, Robespierre and Marat, could not foil it. Hitler failed to stop it. Stalin will not be able to stop it either."

 

The National Committee for a Free Europe, which owns and operates Radio Free Europe, is a private corporation formed by a group of leading American citizens last year to "halt communism and save freedom for the world." Among its membership of leading Americans are labor leaders, businessmen, scholars, statesmen, and church leaders. Its main offices are located at 350 Fifth Avenue: New York City.

 

Intensified activities of the National Committee for a Free Europe and of Radio Free Europe will be made possible by funds raised in the forthcoming Crusade For Freedom, headed by General Lucius D. Clay. The campaign will be inaugurated on September 4th by General Dwight D. Eisenhower. 

The Original Radio Free Asia, 1951-1953, Part Three

Excerpts from a 1951 Radio Free Asia advertisement

 

SLASH THE RED TENTACLES SMOTHERING ASIA

 

Give your dollars to the Crusade for Freedom...Broadcast the Truth behind Asia's Iron Curtain

 

Unless the Kremlin Gang is stopped in Asia and stopped fast, the free world will be facing the largest, most powerful, and best geographically integrated fortress the world has ever known.

 

China is already Communist controlled.  But we have millions of friends in China... freedom-loving men who hate their Red Masters, men who hunger for the TRUTH and the knowledge that the free world is concerned for them.  To these men, we must send words of hope and encouragement so they will rise again and wrest their native lands from the hands of the foreign dictator.

 

We're doing a good job in Europe right now. Over Radio Free Europe's two powerful transmitters built and supported by the American people...we are blasting the Soviet propaganda being fed the truth-starved peoples of the Satellite nations. Daily, exiled patriots speak to their countrymen in their native tongue, exposing Moscow lies...identifying Red informers...bringing to these prisoner peoples new hope and a will to fight.

 

THE SAME JOB MUST BE DONE IN ASIA. Must be done now...and can be done with the dollars you contribute to the CRUSADE FOR FREEDOM.

 

If we can stop the Communists in Asia...and we can by exposing them...we can win the cold war, and prevent a global hot war. No matter what you contribute to the CRUSADE FOR FREEDOM, the cost will be small...for you can't put a price on freedom, your freedom, and the peace of the world.

 

Doubts about Radio Free Asia

 

The Advertising Council leadership was doubtful about continuing an advertising campaign for Committee for a Free Asia and Radio Free Asia:

 

Consideration must be given to our relationship, if any, in 1952 to Committee for Free Asia. In 1951, when CFA got organized (with funds supplied by NCFE, as recited in CFA's prospectus, Crusade raised its stated goal from $3 to $3 ½ million to get Radio Free Asia started. This was done largely in deference to the attitude on the West Coast, which tends still to be oriented more towards Asia than Europe. This association with RFA doubtless was advantageous to Crusade on the Coast, even though we could speak of RFA in only the vaguest terms (it did not begin its broadcasts until September, and when it did do so the explosion was inaudible).

 

The advantage to the Crusade of having RFA on its team to round out the feeling of a world fight against Communism presumably remains the same. Over against this is the possible danger of the Crusade being associated in the public mind with an organization with no close association. There is no discoverable body of opinion in CFF/RFE/NCFE, which holds that RFA or it corporate parent, CFA knows what it's doing or is going about it wisely or adeptly. 

 

The problem of Communism (and combating it) in Asia is considerably different from that in Europe, strategically and philosophically –let alone tactically.  It solves no problem to recite this fact to our West Coast friends as a reason why “we” (RFE) don’t add a transmitter aimed at China. Committee for Free Asia is an established fact. It has prestige on the Coast by reason of its membership. But so far, no word of its doings has come to our attention, which spells a large accomplishment. 

 

Radio Free Asia Ceases Broadcasting

 

On March 31, 1953, Harold Miller, president of the Crusade for Freedom, sent a letter to the American Heritage Foundation, including information about Radio Free Asia.  In particular, “The Committee for Free Asia is a different operation. It works with and for Asia groups and individuals in free countries. Because of the delicate nature of any Western relations with Asian groups and individuals, particularly in those countries which have only recently become independent, CFA’s operations must necessarily be less militantly anti-Communist.” 

 

Also, in March 1953, The Central Intelligence Agency reviewed Radio Free Asia’s operation and decided to stop broadcasting. The CIA then sent its findings in a report dated April 1, 1953, to W. H. Jackson, chairman of The President’s Committee on International Information Activities:

 

         Programs Are Not Heard

 

Present broadcasts are on a week (10 k.w.) signal, which cannot regularly be heard anywhere in Asia. Although the broadcasts are not heard, they have served a real purpose in that their production has enabled RFA to build an especially efficient staff, about half of it Chinese. However, CFA has proposed for some time that it be equipped with facilities, which provide a stronger signal, and is now urging that this be done of the broadcasts be terminated. Further expenditures for programs that are not heard can no longer be justified simply in terms of training.

 

RFA’s international broadcasts to Mainland China and the Chinese in

        Southeast Asia are not now reaching the target areas. Either sufficiently powerful transmitting facilities should be provided, or the broadcasts should cease.

 

The decision was made to cancel Radio Free Asia: on April 15, Brayon Wilbur told the press that on April 30, 1953, Radio Free Asia broadcasts were to be replaced with “other means of communicating with Asian peoples. The committee feels that short-wave broadcasting is no longer as effective as other committee activities have been developed. The Committee planned to concentrate on assisting national radio stations in Far East Countries rather than doing the broadcasting from San Francisco.” Wilbur added, “The committee’s operations in the Far East include opening anti-Communist bookstores, producing films, books and magazines, establishing youth centers and helping Oriental youths to get education.”

 

The Committee for Free Asia held a special meeting on August 6, 1954, in San Francisco and resolved to,  

Amend the articles of incorporation, and change the name from the Committee for a Free Asia, Inc., to the Asia Foundation.

Through trial and error, we began discarding some of our original concepts that did not fully satisfy American objectives in meeting the aspirations of the peoples of Asia. For example, "We found that our initial and heavy reliance on some types of' informational programs did little to foster constructive work in Asia and were unfavorably regarded by many Asians. As a specific instance, we terminated the activities of Radio Free Asia in 1953.

The amended articles of incorporation, including importantly the change of' name to The Asia Foundation, should dispel some Asian suspicions that we direct primarily a propaganda or cold war agency. Furthermore, the changes should soothe the sensibilities of many individual Asians and some Asian governments who have been disturbed by the phrase "Free Asia" and who felt the word "committee" had the connotation of being some­thing temporary, a stop-gap organization with short-term policies that would likely fade away.

 

 

 

 

The Original Radio Free Asia, 1951-1953, Part Two

 

In preparing the American public for the second Annual Crusade for Freedom, in August 1951, the Advertising Council used the services of actor, and future U.S. President, Ronald Reagan in a Hearst Corporation movie newsreel and a televised public service appeal for contributions. Reagan was also the star and narrator of the short film The Big Truth, written by Otis Carney and directed by Seymour Friedman. Carney would receive a Freedom Foundation award in 1952 for his screenplay. Excerpts of the film, including Lucius Clay speaking in Berlin on October 24, 1950, were then used for a television film appeal for the 1951 Crusade campaign:

 

My name is Ronald Reagan. Last year the contributions of 16 million Americans to the Crusade For Freedom made possible the World Freedom Bell -- a symbol of hope and freedom to the communist-dominated peoples of Eastern Europe. And built this powerful 135,000 Watt Radio Free Europe transmitter in Western Germany. 

 

This station daily pierces the iron curtain with the truth, answering the lies of the Kremlin and bringing a message of hope to millions trapped behind the iron curtain. Grateful letters from listeners smuggled past the secret police express thanks to Radio Free Europe for identifying Communist Quislings and informers by name.

 

General Lucius D. Clay now asks you to join him in a second great Crusade for Freedom to build two more powerful Freedom Stations that will send more messages of truth and hope through the Iron Curtain. And to establish Radio Free Asia to stop the spread of Communism in the Far East. 

 

Crusade for Freedom Motorcade 

The Ford Motor Company donated 1951 model trucks for the Crusade campaign in the 48 states and the District of Columbia. The Chevrolet Division of General Motors donated the same number of 1951 model station wagon cars. The trucks and cars were identical in every state, and each truck was clearly marked Crusade for Freedom and numbered as part of the fleet around the nation. The station wagon had a sign, Crusade for Freedom, in the shape of a flag and two loudspeakers on the roof. Advance publicity, times, and locations where the vehicles would be parked were shared in each state. 

 

The Ford truck carried a replica of the Freedom Bell in Berlin, a Radio Free Europe transmitter tower, with the words Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia. An arrow of Truth pierced the symbolic Iron Curtain. Transcripts of RFE programs were also available to those interested in reading them, and spectators could hear recordings of the programs coming from the Chevrolet's sound system. Helium-filled Replicas of the Winds of Freedom balloon were often launched from the side of the Ford Truck parked in strategic locations. The Freedom Motorcade is an excellent backdrop for publicity photos for the Crusade campaign.

 

November 1951 Extraordinary Meeting

 

There was an extraordinary meeting of the CIA and the U.S. State Department leadership on November 21, 1951, in the home of State Department official Edward W. Barrett, Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and an early member of the National Committee for Free Europe. Representing the CIA were Allen Dulles, Frank Wisner, Lloyd, Deputy Chief, Psychological Staff Division, and Tom Braden, Chief, International Branch, Psychological Division, OPC.

 

One of the items which the attendees agreed that "Radio Free Asia would undergo no further expansion until the future course of the Committee for Free Asia had been settled in a manner satisfactory to both CIA and State."  The CIA's Tom Braden said, "RFA is staying right there where it is until they are given further orders." Barrett said, "In regard to the radio audience in China, it was his understanding that there is a small and decreasing audience as the result of Communist repressive measures. He felt that it was better for OPC to put its RFA money into local, non-U.S.-labeled operations in the Far East. He said that we did not need another American voice in the area." CIA Director Dulles suggested “RFA be kept going on its present basis along with CFA for next few weeks until the new head of the organization is selected. He should then be brought in for a discussion of this whole operation.” 

 

Alan Valentine became president of the Committee for Free Asia in December 1951. He previously had been the president of the University of Rochester, ECA Chief in the Netherlands from 1948-1949 and Director of the Economic Stabilization Agency from 1950-1951. He participated in the May 10-11, 1952 state-private strategy meeting on political or psychological warfare at Princeton University. C.D. Jackson chaired the meeting with CIA Director Allen Dulles, Charles Chip Bohlen of the State Department, leading officials from Radio Free Europe, the National Security Council, etc. At one point, Valentine is quoted as saying,

 

            I think we have to bring to Asians more of a sense of moral conviction on

            our part – and I underline moral – if we are to convince them that we mean

            more than just support for our program. Following that, we must be very

            careful to get maximum participation by the Asians maximum control of

            individual activities on a partnership basis with the Asian, and emphasize

            as little as possible our part in the activities.

 

            Our radio program, though important will bulk less large in our over-seas

            operations than RFE because of its limited effectiveness due to a more

            limited number of receiving sets, and because there are other devices                    which may be used more effectively for our area than the spoken word.

 

            We charge ourselves with the mission of bringing back and maintaining 

            freedom and peace from the Kuriles to Korea to about two billion Asians,

            with a.staff most of whom like myself, are amateurs. 

 

The Original Radio Free Asia, 1951-1953, Part One

The original Radio Free Asia (RFA) was a short-lived and unsuccessful CIA “covert action project,” Its fate was directly connected to Radio Free Europe and the Crusade for Freedom. A 1990 secret CIA Report gave some insight into RFA’s establishment as a “private body”:

 

The Committee for a Free Asia” in 1951, sanctioned by the National Security Council and with the knowledge of Congressional Oversight Committees, supported by covert indirect CIA funding, the Committee had been created to help find ways to contain and expand private U.S. contact and communication with people of Asia following the establishment of Communist regimes in China and North Korea. The emphasis was on a private instrumentality that would be privately governed and would have the freedom and flexibility to do things the government would like to see done but which it chose not to do or could not do directly as well.

 

On March 12, 1951, the articles of incorporation of the Committee for a Free Asia Inc. (CFA) were filed with the California Office of the Secretary of State. Brayton Wilbur, an import-export executive, was the first chairman of the Committee for a Free Asia.  In announcing the creation of the Committee for a Free Asia, Wilbur said, “The people of Asia must have more of the facts about the suffering that follows Communist aggression. They must also be shown an alternative to communism.”

            

In the forward to CFA’s “Prospectus” issued in May 1951, Brayton Wilbur wrote, “The purpose of this Committee is to establish channels of direct communication between the people of Asia and the people of the free world everywhere. Through those channels an exchange of thoughts, the hopes and the inspirations of the people of Asia with the people of America and Europe can weld a union of free men which will roll back the dark forces of Soviet imperialism.”  The Statement of Purposes in the “Prospectus” included the following:

 

To promote, aid, and assist the cause of individual and national freedom in Asia, as opposed to Communist and other totalitarian doctrines. 

 

To initiate, assist and conduct, directly or indirectly, investigations and studies relating to such cause; and to obtain, collect, analyze, publish, broadcast, disseminate and distribute information relating thereto through any and all media of communication. 

 

To assist non-Communist and nontotalitarian elements in the countries of Asia in realizing and maintaining the ideals of individual and national freedom. 

 

To assist non-Communist and nontotalitarian travelers, refugees, and exiles from the countries of Asia in maintaining contact with their fellow citizens for the purpose of keeping alive and promoting the ideals of individual and national freedom; and to make available facilities whereby these travelers, refugees, and exiles can contribute to the cause of the maintenance of freedom under law. 

 

Similar to the original incorporation articles of the National Committee for a Free Europe, the Committee for a Free Asia would not “engage in carrying or propaganda or otherwise attempting to influence legislation.” Committee for a Free Asia offices were set up in San Francisco and New York. 

 

1951 Crusade Campaign

 

Radio Free Asia (RFA) was included with Radio Free Europe in the fund solicitation activities of the 1951 Crusade for Freedom campaign. The Advertising Council put out a Crusade for Freedom fact sheet for the American media, in which Radio Free Asia was mentioned in some detail: “Although it is patterned generally after the National Committee for a Free Europe, there are substantial differences because of the more complex pattern of national viewpoints across the Pacific, and because of the different pattern of Red Aggression in Asia. For one thing, CFA is not only engaged in fighting Communism where it has already seized control, but is also waging a preventive battle to keep Kremlin doctrine from spreading to other Eastern nations.” 

 

On May 2, 1951, General Lucius D. Clay, National Chairman of the Crusade for Freedom, announced two goals for the second annual Crusade campaign: enrollment of 25 million Americans and public contributions of $3,500,00 to build two more “freedom” stations in Europe and begin the construction of Radio Free Asia.

            

A goal of 1,000,000 signatures of Californians in support of Radio Free Asia, to be enshrined in a future RFA transmitter site, was announced by California Southern Chapter chairman C.B. Tibbets: “Like the scrolls set in place last year with the opening of Radio Free Europe, the 1951 freedom pledges —signed, sealed and delivered – will serve as propaganda springboards from which American truths will hurdle the Communist curtain.” 

 

Radio Free Asia Begins Broadcasting

            

On September 4, 1951, at 6:30 a.m. local time, Radio Free Asia began live broadcasting on a test basis from a rented studio in the commercial radio station KNBC, downtown San Francisco (it was 10:30 p.m. in China). After the sound of a bronze gong being struck three times and music from Mahler’s “Song of the Earth,” the first broadcast began with these words in Mandarin Chinese, “This is Radio Free Asia...the voice of free men speaking to the people of Asia.” 

            

The initial programs of news and commentary were at first 90 minutes long and divided into three segments in Mandarin, Cantonese and English languages. The programs were broadcast via a leased wire RCA short-wave transmitter to Manila, Philippines, and from there to China via a directional short wave antenna. 

 

John W. Elwood, the first director of Radio Free Asia, told the press, “Asians in those areas dominated by Communists had had no access to the truth even about occurrences in their own homelands, let alone truthful reports of world news events.” Elwood was quoted by Time magazine on September 17, 1951, as saying, “Because we have no government ties, we can say anything we damn please.” Time told its readers, “Like its sister organization, Radio Free Europe, R.F.A. was founded by a group of private U.S. citizens who feel that the Voice of America, though effective in its way, is sometimes hampered because of "good & sufficient reasons of national policy."

 

Committee for a Free Asia chairman, Brayton Wilbur, told the press, “The fundamental purpose of the broadcasting efforts of Radio Free Asia will be to pierce the Iron Curtain of Communism in Asia with factual, accurate and truthful news.” He added, 

 

    Eventually, Radio Free Asia will beam towards the various parts of Asia programs             on agriculture, health and other topics designed to assist the people of Asia and to maintain their courage and will to resist Communism. 

 

The symbol chosen for Radio Free Asia was a replica of a wooden Asian bell with the slogan “Let Freedom Ring.” Radio Free Asia broadcasts were expanded to three hours in December 1951, and a third Chinese dialect, Hakka, was added to the broadcast languages.

HARVARD and CABEZONE, two early Cold War CIA Projects affecting Soviet and East European Defectors ©

In January 1950, the National Security Council (NSC) issued Intelligence Directive No. 13, entitled  "Exploitation of Soviet and Satellite Defectors Outside the United States." This directive specifically defined defectors as,  

·      Individuals who escape from the control of the USSR or countries in the Soviet orbit, or who, being outside such jurisdiction or authority, are unwilling to return to it, and who are of particular interest to the U.S. Government because:

 

o   They are able to add valuable new or confirmatory information to existing U.S. knowledge of the Soviet world, and

o   Their defection can be exploited in the psychological field. 

 

NSC authorized and directed that "The Central Intelligence Agency shall be responsible for the covert exploitation of defectors, and shall … coordinate all matters concerned with the handling and disposition of declared defectors from the Soviet Union and the satellite states in order to assure the effective exploitation of all defectors for operational, intelligence, or psychological purposes by the U.S. Government."  

 

NSC Directive No. 13 included these points:

 

Subject to the overall direction of the Chief of Mission, CIA representatives in the field shall have operating responsibility outside the U.S. occupied areas for: 

 

a.   Providing secure facilities and preliminary assessment of a defector’s bona fides and his intelligence or other potential value to the U.S. Government.

b.   Assuring that the other IAC (International Advisory Committee) agencies have adequate opportunity to exploit a defector for intelligence or operational purposes, including immediate access to the defector in the field.

c.    Arranging secure movement of defectors as required.

Project HARVARD was activated initially in 1948 to provide safe-house and Operational aid facilities for all CIA activities in Germany. HARVARD was expanded in 1952 when the CIA set up the "Defector Reception Center" (DRC) near Frankfurt and Kaiserslautern. The objectives of the Project were changed when HARVARD was assigned 

           responsibility for the rehabilitation and resettlement of defectors, agents, and agent-trainees as their usefulness to the CIA is exhausted. In this latter capacity, HARVARD strives, insofar as possible, to resettle some of these individuals with an eye to their future usefulness for defector inducement and Psychological warfare purposes. In effect, HARVARD handles the resettlement aspects of the Defector Program, to which, under NSCID No. 13, the CIA is firmly committed. 

CIA had another defector project at the Frankfurt, cryptonym CABEZONE, which was financially separately supported by HARVARD. Actual debriefing and interrogation of defectors and potential defectors, including the use of the lie detector, was the responsibility of the CABEZONE officers. Afterward, if approved by CABEZONE, the defectors would be turned over to HARVARD for relocation and resettlement. The number of resettlements from 1953 through 1961:

1953                95

1954                182

1955                61

1956                114

1957                194

1958                90

1959                93 

1960                56

1961                74

For example, during the fiscal year 1953, HARVARD successfully resettled 95 defectors, of which 55 were resettled between 1 January and 1 July 1953. HARVARD provided for,  

·      immediate housing and subsistence on the local economy, 

·      arranges for documentation and legal status in Germany, 

·      takes care of personal needs, welfare, and morale problems,

·      arranges for physical examinations and medical and dental care when indicated, 

·      arranges for language instruction and apprenticeship training, 

·      handles official formalities involving births, weddings, name changes, European travel, etc., and 

·      arranges for transportation to resettlement destination

CIA's Cold War Project AEROOT Accomplishments, 1955-1958 ©

Below is a list of achievements of the CIA Project AEROOT involving early Cold War operations into Estonia as listed in the 2 April 1957, Memorandum for the Chief of Foreign Intelligence: 

Subject: Request for renewal of Project AEROOT

This is a continuing project on Foreign Intelligence (FI) operations involving Estonia and Estonian nationals of the USSR. The original AEROOT Project was approved on 13 May 1953 under Basic Plan AEBASIN and has been continued by means of renewals and extensions to 31 October 1956

Summary of AEROOT accomplishments in the period 5 April 1955 to 1 November 1956: 

a. Recruited and trained two REDSOX agents. *

b. Recruited three REDSKIN agents. **

c. Recruited two Soviet Estonian residents as informers. 

d. Detected and followed up with three Russian Intelligence Service (RIS) agents from Estonian SSR in cooperation with Swedish and British intelligence services. 

e. Interrogated and caused confessions of two RIS agents from Estonian SSR. 

f. Spotted one principal agent (P/A) candidate for work in cooperation with Finnish IS. 

g. Recruited one agent for a repatriation mission to Estonian SSR. 

h. Recruited a merchant seaman qualified to visit Soviet ports. 

i. Recruited two mail drops for S/W correspondence with Estonian SSR. 

j. Detected RIS control of a Swedish IS agent in Estonian SSR, with whom we also were in unilateral communication. 
k. Established, with the aid of a liaison, that all Swedish and British IS agent assets in Estonian SSR were under RIS control. 

1. Provided two PM agent candidates for Hot War covert operations training. 

m. Thirteen reports were disseminated, of which three were judged to be of considerable value and ten of value, probably true. 

n. Expanded our network of emigre informants in several countries dealing with matters of interest to Clandestine Services. 

From 1 November 1956 to 31 March 1958, project AEROOT's accomplishments included: 

a. Recruited, trained, and dispatched a contract agent under deep cover in Finland. His mission was to exploit REDSKIN leads obtained from his Finnish contact and resident Estonian nationals in Finland.

b. Spotted a recruit for development as a resident foreign intelligence (FI) agent for the exploitation of REDSKIN channels in Finland. 

* Operations involving the illegal return of defectors and emigres to USSR as agents

** Operations involving legal methods of placing, recruiting, and communicating with agents within the USSR.