Cold War Radio Museum February 8, 2018 In 1959, the Voice of America (VOA) had a clear and convincing public relations message to describe its mission and to justify its $20 million budget [ref]The Budget of the United States Government for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1959. The United States Government Printing Office, Washington, 1959. Accessed February 8, 2018…
OWI, VOA
April 20, 1943 — Congressman Woodruff warns of Soviet propaganda in Voice of America broadcasts
Cold War Radio Museum On April 13, 1943, Nazi Germany’s propaganda machine announced the discovery of the graves containing the bodies of thousands of Polish prisoners of war in Soviet captivity who went missing in Russia in the spring of 1940. A few days later, on April 16 and April 17, 1943, the management of the U.S. Office of War…
Cold War Radio Museum Declassified documents in the National Archives show that a directive issued to on April 17, 1943 by the management of the U.S. Office of War Information (OWI) ordered its Overseas Branch in charge of what were later called Voice of America (VOA) radio broadcasts to air and promote the Soviet propaganda denial of Soviet responsibility for…
Cold War Radio Museum Fascinating and until now generally unknown details of how a single refugee journalist, Julius Epstein, exposed Voice of America’s (VOA) censorship designed to cover up Soviet responsibility for the 1940 Katyn Forest massacre of nearly 22,000 Polish POW officers and intellectual leaders can be found in several volumes of the Congressional Record from the early 1950s…
Cold War Radio Museum Ted Lipien Polish socialist and communist activist and journalist Stefan Arski, aka Artur Salman, was among several communist agents of influence who had worked on Voice of America (VOA) radio programs during World War II while employed by the U.S. government Office of War Information (OWI). Arski and several of his Voice of America colleagues on…
The World War II propaganda arm of the United States government, the Office of War Information (OWI), was the parent agency of the Voice of America (VOA). VOA was celebrating its 75th anniversary in February 2017. In this new historical series about the Voice of America, Cold War Radio Museum presents formerly classified U.S. government documents relating to the origins…
OPINION Cold War Radio Museum How Voice of America Censored Solzhenitsyn Brief History of VOA’s Domestic Propaganda By Ted Lipien The Voice of America (VOA) was an easier target than Radio Free Europe (RFE) or Radio Liberty (RL) for U.S. government bureaucrats wanting to restrict human rights broadcasting to the Soviet Union in 1974 as part of the…
Cold War Radio Museum During the Reagan Administration, foreign language services at the Voice of America (VOA) were for the first time given in the 1980s significant freedom to originate their own news reports and to share them with VOA English programs. Some of these news reports and news backgrounders with audio actualities were also shared in English through the…
Cold War Radio Museum Could a foreign power such as Russia try to infiltrate the Voice of America (VOA) or influence its executives, broadcasters and programs? Could U.S. government-hired journalists and program contributors, acting on their own, support in VOA broadcasts accommodation with authoritarian rulers in countries such as China, Cuba, Iran or even North Korea? Could one-sided propaganda produced…
Executive Order 9182 Establishing the Office of War Information June 13, 1942 In recognition of the right of the American people and of all other peoples opposing the Axis aggressors to be truthfully informed about the common war effort, and by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution, by the First War Powers Act, 1941, and as…
Cold War Radio Museum Commentary by Ted Lipien In his February 26, 1962 speech to mark the 20th anniversary of the Voice of America (VOA), President Kennedy discussed the necessity of freedom of information and complete truthfulness of the press, but he also argued that the Voice of America is different from private U.S. news media. He pointed…
Cold War Radio Museum In 1951, the Voice of America (VOA), which was at that time located in New York but managed from Washington by the State Department, was under heavily criticism, particularly from Republicans in the U.S. Congress, for failing to counter Soviet propaganda. Voice of America listeners in communist ruled Poland, in letters smuggled to the United States…
Cold War Radio Museum In 1951, the Voice of America (VOA), which was at that time located primarily in New York but managed from Washington by the State Department, was under heavily criticism, particularly from Republicans in the U.S. Congress, for failing to counter Soviet propaganda. There was a spirited debate as to whether VOA should continue to offer primarily…
Cold War Radio Museum During World War II and the Cold War, the Voice of America (VOA) used shortwave radio transmitters operated by private U.S. companies to reach audiences in Nazi and Japanese controlled territories and later audiences in communist-ruled nations behind the so-called Iron and Bamboo Curtains. One of the commercial transmitters used under contract with the U.S. government…
By Ted Lipien Cold War Radio Museum Secession, aggression, and threats at large. Rebellions, upheavals, and street fights at hand. How frightening it is to be in charge Of this vast and terrible land! What seemed immortal is now dead. What had not existed now abounds. May God not allow what I fervently dread – That the winds of yore…