TRANSCRIPT OF BROADCAST BY FULTON LEWIS, JR
Document Type:
Collection:
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST):
CIA-RDP63T00245R000100220167-2
Release Decision:
RIFPUB
Original Classification:
K
Document Page Count:
4
Document Creation Date:
December 16, 2016
Document Release Date:
October 19, 2004
Sequence Number:
167
Case Number:
Publication Date:
December 19, 1957
Content Type:
TRANS
File:
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
CIA-RDP63T00245R000100220167-2.pdf | 363.5 KB |
Body:
- Approved For Release 0 4// ! 7 UCLA-RDP6 00245R000100220167-2
TRANSCRIPT OF BROADCAST
By
Fulton Lewis, Jr.
Station WGMS at 7-7:15 P.M.
19 December 1957
Portions of this broadcast were omitted due to the fact that they
did not pertain to the Crusade for Freedom story or were in any-
way connected with CIA.
There are one or two little items about the Crusade for
Freedom which I have not had time in my broadcast thus far to
cover, and, in the interest of orderly procedure in this story,
probably it is best to get them out of the way before we go on
to the actual Radio Free Europe and its operations. The Cru-
sade for Freedom, with all of its fancy big names sponsorship,
not only collects voluntary contributions of truth dollars
from the general public under the guise of fighting Communism
with truth, as they say, and "sending the message of freedom
behind the iron curtain," but it also puts the squeeze on all
government employees and all personnel of the armed forces.
Every year, over the signature of President Eisenhower him-
self, a written appeal goes out from the White House. There
is one special assistant who devotes his full time to this
for contributions to what is called the National Health and
Welfare campaign, the next one of which will begin on the 1st
of January. All government employees are solicited, and the
list of organizations among which the proceeds are to be di-
vided, is an opposing array of the most worthy medical and
charitable foundations in the nation, such things as the Ameri-
can Cancer society, American Heart Association, Arthritis an
Rheumatism Foundation, Muscular Dystrophy Association of Ameri-
ca and so on. The finest charities imaginable, but then..,down
at the very bottom of the list appears, Crusade for Freedom.
Just what the Crusade for Freedom has to do with charity,
health, or welfare is not clear but it gets a share `of these
collections that are made among government employees and
armed services personnel every year nevertheless. Representa-
tions are made that contributions to this campaign are on a
completely voluntary basis and that the donor may earmark his
contribution to a particular charity or charities. Technical-
ly this`is true but actually no government employee who wants to
remain in good standing is going to systematically refuse to
contribute to this campaign unless there issome extremely
pressing reason, so in effect every government employee and
every member of the armed services gets shaken down every year
for contributions to help support the Crusade for Freedom and
the fantastic operation of the Radio Fret Europe, which it
supports.
Approved For ReIf5Qe f /1 Q/27 :.GIA-RKLVO0245R000100220167-2
Approved For Relea-56 FX14/ 7 `C1'A-RDP'G3Td0245R000100220167-2
Incidentally, I received a telephone call today from Mayor
George Christopher of San Francisco, who was one of those on the
list I read to you last Monday as being on the passenger list
for the latest free trip by the crusade to Munich and Paris
this past October. The crusade says there were 57 people on
that trip;. and that the purpose of the trip is to provide var-
ious leaders of public opinion with an opportunity to view and
inspect the operation, and that it sponsors such a trip for
about 60 individuals every year. They even charter a trans-
atlantic plane to conduct the junket. Mayor Christopher said
he was invited to go along on the junket this year but that he
did not feel it was proper or permissible for him to accept
such an r'emdlumeht from an organization of this kind, particu-
larly in view of the public office he holds. However, he al-
ready had setup a trip for himself at his own expense to Greece,
and inasmuch as he was going to go there by way of the Arctic
route, he arranged to stop off at Munich on the way and timed
his stop as closely as possible to coincide with the junket.
He said it wasn't much of an inspection, the Free Europe offi-
cials gave a few talks on what the operation was trying to do
and claimed to be accomplishing, but that he was not able to
check on what they said or what was being broadcast or even
on the people who were doing the broadcasting.
The official party went to Berlin, for example, and for
your information there isn't even any Free Europe installation
in Berlin. Mayor Christopher said he accepted no emolument
of any kind from the junket, paid his own way in all of his ex-
penses, which information I'm more than happy to pass on to you
with the reminder that when I included Mayor Christopher's name
I was merely quoting from a document which the Crusade itself
printed and put out.
Until I began this series after all they were very proud
of this annual junket and thought it was great stuff. Which
I guess brings us finally around to the Free Europe committee
itself, which gets the money that is collected after these ex-
penses of one kind or another are deducted and I hope, you'll
keep in mind all the time from here on that neither the Crusade
nor the Free Europe operation makes any public accounting of
funds which it collects or any accounting of the way that they
spend those funds. They are tax-free operations but you the
public are not permitted to know anything about the books or
the finances, how your money, your contributions are being
spent. I know a lot because I have sources within the organ-
ization who are outraged at what they see going on and are in-
volved in and are able to supply me with almost any thing I
need, but the organizations themselves will give out no informa-
tion whatsoever on how your money is spent.
Approved For Release 2004/10/27 CIA-RDP63T00245R000100220167-2
OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Approved For Rele&FQ q/4127 UJ RDP63TY0245R000100220167-2
Now about Radio Free Europe, it's principle operations
at the present time, principle functions, and for some months
past, some years past, is the operation of two radio stations,
one At Munich, and one at Lisbon, Portugal, both of them
short-wave stations with the finest of equipment and very ex-
tensive and expensive installations. You probably have no
first-hand experience in the management of a radio station,
thus you would not have any minute and specific information
on what is required to operate such.a radio station. But in
a practical way, you probably have seen one of the local
radio stations in your community. You probably do have a
reasonable idea of how many people work there. I know of
some radio stations that are operated by a husband and wife
alone, though ordinarily the staff of course would be some
larger than that. In the case of Radio Free Europe opera-
tion, however, just remember that there is no advertising
department because Radio Free Europe does not take advertis-
ing, so there are no advertising salesmen, no advertising
accounts to be kept, no promotion necessary for prospective
advertising clients, and all this is a great relief to the
operation in terms of necessary manpower.
In any event, knowing what you do know, you can make
your own reasonable guess as to how many employees you think
would be required to operate these two radio stations for a
period of 20 hours a day. I don't believe they're operating
at the present time for as long a period as that, but let's
be generous about it and let's also be generous about your
guess as to how many employees you think should be needed
to operate these two radio stations. Now do you know how
many really are employed there at Munich and in Lisbon, draw-
ing salaries that are paid for out of the contributions that
are coaxed from you the public and out of the armed services
and you who are in government jobs of one kind or another?
Well, hold your hats ladies and gentlemen, would you say
that 50 would be a reasonable number? A hundred maybe, maybe
more than a hundred? Well., the answer is more than 2,000.
This is not my count, these are the official figures of
Radio Free Europe itself, given to me on request by them,
more than 2,000 people to operate these two radio stations.
There are 1,200.1n Munich itself, there are 400 at Lisbon,
there are 200 plus who are listed as elsewhere, and there are
200 in the New York office of Radio Free Europe itself. That
adds up to 2,000 plus and this is for Radio Free Europe alone.
It does not include some 136 employees in-anAffiliated opera-
tion, the balloon propaganda program, more than 2,000 employees
for Radio Free. Europe alone to operate two short-wave radio
stations. Nov after this next break I hope you'll have a paper
and pencil handy because I need your help on this story and I'll
have a very important request to make. '
Approved For Release 2004/10/27 : CIA-RDP63T00245R000100220167-2
OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Approved For ReleQ f f& -W Ra6 'fd0245R000100220167-2
Just a minute ladies and gentlemen, I want you to
take down a name for me. There is one former officer in
the army medical corps who plays a very important part in
the sidelight angle of this Radio Free Europe story, and
various forces seem to be busily at work to try to pre-
vent me from locating the gentleman. This man is a former
lieutenant colonel in the army medical corps, he's a
psychiatrist who was stationed in Munich Germany beginning
in July of 1956, who resigned his commission from the
regular army, not retired, but resigned his commission in
the regular army on September 2 of this year, still in
Munich. I know, however, that he has returned to the
United States and that he is 34 years old, a graduate of
Cornell University, and born in New Rochelle, New York.
I personally and members of my staff have been trying to
locate his present whereabouts for more than four weeks.
I inquired officially through army public information
channels and was informed that they do not know. They
say that they are trying to find out. We tried every
conceivable back door route and unofficial contact in the
army, had a blank wall at every turn. One of my as-
sociates who knows an army doctor at Walter Reed Hospital
,inquired whether he knew the individual in point. The
reply was that he did, he knew where the individual is
located, but would not tell. We tried the American Medi-
cal Association and the American Psychiatric Association
working with the Pentagon. We found ourselves after
the first week being referred back to the same offices
we had already been through to get where we were.
But road blocks are never so good that they can't
be broken, and with your help I think we can break this
one. This man is somewhere in the United States. He has
to live somewhere, and this program goes to almost
every spot in the nation, so if you'll just be on the
lookout for this doctor, this psychiatrist, I'm very
sure we can turn him up. His name is Ralph William Clem-
ments, serial number 057411. Lt. Col. who resigned his
commission in September and was in Munich, Germany, for
the previous year. That name is Ralph William Clemments,
and it is spelled, the spelling is peculiar, it's spelled
with two m's instead of the usual one. If you locate him,
please write to me and let me know. I'll have more news
for you now in just one minute.
Approved For Release 2004/10/27 : CIA-RDP63T00245R000100220167-2
OFFICIAL USE ONLY