CIA RADIO FUNDS PROPOSALS DRAW FIRE IN CONGRESS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP72-00337R000500270027-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 18, 2006
• Sequence Number: 27
• Publication Date: May 24, 1971
• Content Type: REQ

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(Emni ritta on Aur igtt fftixr,
FROM: Congressman Dante B. Fascell (D.-Fla.)
Chairman, Subcommittee on Inter-American Affairs
Committee on Foreign Affairs
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D. C.
PHONE [phone]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, May 24, 1971
CIA RADIO FUNDS PROPOSALS DRAW FIRE IN CONGRESS
The Nixon Administration's support for the creation of a Govern-
ment subsidized corporation to manage Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty
was both praised and chastized by a ranking member of the House Foreign
Affairs Committee who spent nearly ten years urging reorganization of US
overseas broadcasting activities.
In a speech delivered shortly after the House of Representatives
convened, Congressman Dante B. Fascell (Dem-Fla;) commended the Administration
for turning its attention to overseas broadcasting but warned that the
Congress would not buy any "quarter-measures" and "gimmicks" which bring
added burdens to the taxpayers without resolving the problem of conflicting
jurisdictions and policies in US overseas public relations activities.
Pointing to the existence of seven separate radio operations aimed
at foreign audiences, Fascell said that the message which they send to the
world "is frequently garbled by a cacophony of strange and conflicting
sounds as each outlet tries to push its own version of 'The American Dream'
and its own interpretation of America's prescription for the world's ills."
The Miami Congressman admitted that he would not be adverse to the
creation of a mixed, public-private corporation like COMSAT to manage US
overseas broadcasting so long as its charter was not restricted to Radio
Free Europe and Radio Liberty.
Fascell suggested that the time may be running out on US broadcasting
operations in foreign countries, particularly West Germany.
He called for "sensible, realistic new arrangements" including joint
ventures with the Europeans to give US foreign broadcasting operations a new
political footing and to put some of them.jsL _self-sustaining basis.
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HON. DANTE B. FASCELL of Florida
in the U.S. House of Representatives
May 24, 1971
MR. FASCELL. Mr. Speaker, I rise to applaud the Nixon
Administration for coming to the Congress this morning to seek
congressional approval of legislation which would vest the operation
of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty-in a non-profit corporation
chartered by-the Federal Government.
At the same time, however, I would like to suggest that the day
for piecemeal adjustment is over -- and that much more fundamental
surgery is required if the Congress is to play its proper role in assuring
that the United States Government does not speak with a forked tongue
to the world beyond our borders.
I have great respect for the work which Radio Free Europe and
Radio Liberty have performed over the years in carrying the message of
truth and freedom to millions of people in Eastern Europe and Asia. To
many of those peoples, those two radio stations were the only source of
factual information about developments in their own countries and in the
world at large.
I am not adverse, therefore, to this kind of dialogue. As a matter
of fact, in this age of public diplomacy, I believe that it is imperative
for the United States to maintain and enlarge communication with the co-
inhabitants of our planet.
The question is, how do we do it -- and with how many governmental
or government-supported voices should we attempt to project our message
to the world?
At present, that message is frequently garbled by a cacophony
of Strange and conflicting sounds -- with each separate outlet pushing its
own version of the American dream and its own interpretation of the
American prescription for the world's ills.
There is Voice of America, with its sonorous tones proclaiming
to Le the essence of orthodoxy -- though sometimes belatedly -- on matters
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of government policy.
Then there are Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty -- now to be
admitted to the official family entitled to open Federal support -- which
bring to this new role a tradition of unorthodoxy in the pursuit of
their own specialized ends.
Then there is RIAS - Radio in the American Sector -- which tries
to scale the Berlin Pall and give the residents of both Gertnanies, as well
as those few Americans within earshot, a liberal dose of American jazz
and rock interspersed with news keyed to the particular preoccupations of
its listeners.
In addition, there is the American megowatt transmitter in Munich,
with the long wave frequency potential of becoming one of the foremost
communicators of Europe, whose sporadic, lovely function appears to
be the jamming of Soviet messages to its own people and its neighbors.
The Armed Forces Network in Europe is also a part of the
American voice which reaches millions of foreign nationals -- as are
our military broadcasting activities in the Far East.
All of these activities are supported by the American taxpayer,
operate with the sanction of the United States Government and whether
rightly or wrongly, are deemed to carry our Nation's message to the
world.
Unfortunately, each one of them is pretty much its own boss --
and neither the Congress nor the American people have any clear idea of
how they carry out their public mandate or whether they contribute to
the advancement of our national objectives.
As I said at the outset, I am not opposed to the setting up of a
government-subsidized corporation to manage our overseas broadcasting
activities. It seems to me, however, that a corporation in this field,
whether modeled on COMSAT or some other model, would be turning its
back on reality if it were to concern itself solely and exclusively with
Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty.
As nearly a decade of studies conducted by the International
Organizations and Movements Subcommittee which I chaired during the 1960s
showed, we need a drastic, fundamental reorganization of all U.S.
Government-supported broadcasting activities abroad. And the time is
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long passed when we could patch up things by resorting not even to half-
measures but to quarter-measures.
There are two more points I would like to make:
First, it seems to me that by attempting to perpetuate existing
arrangements, we are skating on very thin ice. The cold war thaw has
robbed some of our overseas broadcasting operations of their political
viability. I do not know, for example, how long the West Germans will
indulge us to run our several, disparate operations on their soil but I have a feeling that it will not be very long.
Second, I am not convinced that the American taxpayer should continue
to shoulder the full burden of these rather expensive undertakings. There
is, it seems to me, a pretty good possibility that under more realistic and
practical arrangements, including joint ventures, some of these broadcasting
facilities could become self-sustaining or even return part of the investment
to the U.S. Government. I have not seen this possibility mentioned in the
Administration's proposals.
Mr. Speaker, we live in an age whose very character is shaped by
electronic communications. we ought to recognize that fact in our external
operations. And we ought to employ the instruments of communication available to
us in sensible and imaginative ways so as to advance our national goals and
the cause of peace.
I am delighted that after years of persistent prodding by my Subcommittee,
the Executive Branch has finally turned its attention to these matters. And
I commend the President for coming to the Congress with his proposals. But
I doubt that either the Congress or I as one of its members will be interested
in any partial solution which would place new burdens on the American public
without attempting to go to the heart of the problem which confronts us --
and try to remedy it.
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