Radio & Revolt

For more than six years, U.S.-supported (through Crusade for Freedom) Radio Free Europe has served the West as an effective clearinghouse of news flowing in and out of the Communist orbit. When the anti-Soviet revolutions struck in Poland and Hungary, RFE was operating 29 high-powered transmitters out of West Germany and Portugal on a 20-hour-a-day basis to furnish the enslaved peoples with news reports, which the Communists tried to suppress by jamming. Last week RFE was attacked by West German papers and Bonn politicos, and caused some worried U.S. citizens (including NBC Commentator Chet Huntley) to ask a question. Had the RFE broadcasts actually helped spark Russia's reign of terror by giving the satellites false hope of aid from the West?

In West Germany, the Free Democratic Party denounced RFE's operations as "a crime against humanity." Embittered Hungarian refugees and Free Democratic Party papers took up the cry. Said Bonn's Freies Wort: "Irresponsible promises of help and aggressive propaganda of RFE carry a good part of the blame for the blood bath in Hungary." At RFE's Munich headquarters, European Director Richard Condon denied the charges: "In no broadcast did RFE incite to armed revolt or indulge in cheap, inflammatory propaganda. In no broadcast was the promise of active help by the West given."

RFE admitted it had broadcast three types of material that may have stirred up the insurgents, but only after actual fighting had begun: 1) full reporting of the violent attacks in the U.N. on the Soviets; 2) full coverage of protest action throughout the free world; and 3) news from isolated freedom stations. U.S. policy advisers were also hard put to keep angry Hungarians on RFE's staff in line. But the broadcasts were tame. Sample: "The fight has begun and it is going on--not only in the streets but also in the hearts and souls of the people. No matter what the outcome of armed conflict, the Hungarian people will win in the end."

As the flood tide of criticism began to subside, ex-Ambassador Joseph Grew, RFE's boss (as chairman of Free Europe Committee, Inc.), angrily fired off a statement charging: "It is an insult to the brave Hungarian people to suggest that they have responded to any other influence than their innate love of liberty."

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