Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty - Cold War Years

Cold War Years

RFE played a critical role in Cold War era Eastern Europe. Its audience increased substantially following the failed Berlin riots of 1953 and the highly publicized defection of Józef Światło. Its Hungarian service's coverage of Poland's Poznań riots in 1956 arguably served as an inspiration for the Hungarian revolution.

RFE's Hungarian service was accused of precipitating the 1956 Hungarian revolution by giving its Hungarian listeners false hope of Western military assistance. However, later investigations of RFE's involvement in the Hungarian revolution cleared the organization of these accusations, while also urging more caution in its broadcasts. RFE's Broadcast Analysis Division was established to ensure that broadcasts were accurate and professional while maintaining the journalists' autonomy.

Others argue, alternatively, that Radio Free Europe's broadcasts may also have precipitated the Soviet crackdown on Hungary on November 3–4, 1956. Inflammatory broadcasts by emigres may have caused Soviet leaders to doubt Hungarian leader Imre Nagy's managerial skills, fear the power vacuum in Hungary, and conclude that a second military invasion was necessary. Moreover, the early balloon and leaflet operations initiated by the National Committee for Free Europe during Nagy's first term as Hungarian prime minister (1953–1955)—namely "Operation Focus"—arguably antagonized Nagy and spawned a stern neutralism (later, hostility) toward him among U.S. diplomats and RFE broadcasters during the crisis.

During the Cold War RFE was often criticized in the United States as not being sufficiently anti-communist. Although its nongovernmental status spared it from full scale McCarthyist investigations, several RFE journalists including director of the Czech service, Ferdinand Peroutka were accused of being soft on Communism. Fulton Lewis a U.S. radio commentator and fervent anti-communist was one of RFE's sharpest critics throughout the 1950s. His critical broadcasts inspired other journalists to investigate the inner workings of the organization including its connection to the CIA. Eventually it was exposed as a CIA-front organization in the 1960s, and funding responsibility shifted to Congress.

In late 1960, an upheaval in the Czechoslovak service led to a number of dramatic changes in the organization's structure. RFE's New York headquarters could no longer effectively manage their Munich subsidiary, and as a result major management responsibilities were transferred to Munich, making RFE a European-based organization.

Broadcasts were often banned in Eastern Europe and Communist authorities used sophisticated jamming techniques in an attempt to prevent citizens from listening to them. Polish Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa and Russian reformer Grigory Yavlinsky would later recall secretly listening to the broadcasts despite the heavy jamming.

Communist governments also sent agents to infiltrate RFE's headquarters. Although some remained on staff for extended periods of time, government authorities discouraged their agents from interfering with broadcast activity, fearing that this could arouse suspicions and detract from their original purpose of gathering information on the radios' activities. In 1965–71 an agent of the Służba Bezpieczeństwa (Communist Poland's security service) successfully infiltrated the station with an operative, Captain Andrzej Czechowicz. According to former Voice of America Polish service director Ted Lipien, "Czechowicz is perhaps the most well known communist-era Polish spy who was still an active agent while working at RFE in the late 1960s. Technically, he was not a journalist. As a historian by training, he worked in the RFE’s media analysis service in Munich. After more than five years, Czechowicz returned to Poland in 1971 and participated in programs aimed at embarrassing Radio Free Europe and the United States government."

Other espionage incidents also included a failed attempt by a Czechoslovak Intelligence Service (StB) agent in 1959 to poison the salt shakers in the organization's cafeteria.

The CIA stopped funding Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty in 1972. In 1974 they came under the control of an organization called the Board for International Broadcasting (BIB). The BIB was designed to receive appropriations from Congress, give them to radio managements, and oversee the appropriation of funds. In 1976, the two radios merged to form Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and added the three Baltic language services to their repertoire.