SPEND, SPEND - AND NO ACCOUNTING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP74-00297R000900090027-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 28, 2013
• Sequence Number: 27
• Publication Date: November 18, 1957
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Declassified and Approved For Release @ 50-Yr 2013/10/29: CIA-RDP74-00297R000900090027-8
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Spend, Spend?And No Accounting!
By FULTON LEWIS, JR.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 17?The
Crusade for Freedom is one of
those superprivileged organiza-
tions to whith givers may ad-
dress contributions "care of
your local postmaster." Radio
announcements in Its behalf are
recognized by the Federal Cern-
munications ? Commission a
"public service" announcements.
There are other. official spon-
sorships and pressurangs . into
which appropriate committees
of Congress should Inquire. For
example, the Crusade is One of
the causes for which all gov-
ernment employees are solicited
for contributions, in a circular
addressed to "my fellow work-
ers In government," and signed
by the President.
Participation is all but man-
datory. ? -
Inasmuch as the het proceeds
of the crusade go to support
the profligate Free Europe and
Its affiliated operations, I fall
off the sled.
One of the early organizers
of Radio ?Frec Europe informs
mi that from. the outset, It has
been systernatically.mtumed by
many confirmed Marxists, and
for that reason he finally quit
In disgust.
It operates its own fabulous
empire. in Europe,, wi t h an
estimated minimum of 1,000
people there, not to mention an
additional 500 in New York,
In Munich, it has 'built plush
modern apartment houses for
Its staff, foreign and American.'
with parquet floors, ' ? modern
kitchens, all furnished with
rentals below the' going rentals
t
CAPITAL REPORT
CRITTENBERGER.,
for .Germatt accommodations,
Which are notoriously low. ?
?
WORST OF ALL, the overall.
inanamment in- Neve:York-Is in
the hands'-at a traape,oi. rich
zons,.drawingefancy-sal.
arles for playing an adolescent
game of amateur, inreige ,in.
trigue.
If' this business is serions, it
ought to be in the hands of
se.rhaus men..
-* ?
As It is, the titular bead is
a military friend of President
Eisenhower, a retired. Llenten.
'ant ,General named Willis D.
Crittenberger, ? who was . with
him in Europe in-World War IL
But Immediately under him IS
the Bmer Boy regime- the guid-
ing 'Orinelple of which is .to
measure accomplishment by the
number .of dollars anent. ?
? With the tow ng of balloon
' ? ? .
propaganda operations across
the Iron Curtain, the heads of
that operation .began scurrying
about for some new ventures to ?
justify their existence, and .
came up with what they call
the Asian coat:via program, and
another called the book.dlittribtl*
tion program.
These I shall deal with later
in detail. My point Is that the
basic motivation is to spend
money, somehow, and to keep
knee-deep in clover.
Purportedly. the Free Europe
operation is a privately financed ;
enterprise. It does not admit
any barking by. the..CIA,
chi' or otherwise. If this is Ito:
Its recordS and 'finances should''
be subject to public inspection'i
and public audit.
That is not the way It works;
however. Any such suggestion
Is squelched immediately and
arbitrarily, because of the CIA
connection. in Washington., Even /
Congressional corntrdtteee . are
north)* tee break. the. sanctity
, ?17411. of CIA.. .
But They may be Able to, this A
,- time. At least three Calves.]:
investigttleg committees IN
11)il digging inteitte Free Europe
Mary, and wisit(. its officials t
?pear on theilitand, they'll
I liter tem, to ten the books
yet id recntki, or Idea beingte
U er to get
%?at,, a, least, will
OM the oPen-
ir [view tt errs.. ive.)
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Declassified and Approved For Release @ 50-Yr 2013/10/29: CIA-RDP74-00297R000900090027-8
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- Declassified and Approved For Release @ 50-Yr 2013/10/29: CIA-RDP74-00297R000900090027-8
CAPITAL REPORT
More On
RFE Fiasco
By FULTON LEWIS:JR.
:WASHINGTON, Nov. 18??
The Board? of Disectors-of the-
Crusade for Freedom includes
12- ting shed puhlie-spirited
citizens, many of whom are
friends of mine, and. s me, o
whom, are. unhappy about the
facts I have presented about
Radio Free Etirope, for which
the Crusade is the fund-raising -
organization. ,
This surplises me :because I
consider my expose as a favor
to them, not a criticism. Frank-
ly, they arP.- being. had,.. and for
me, I would want to know about
If criticisms come along, they
are referred to the Radio Free
Europe organization for an-
swers; and, the answers are
. pat.
One .relatine 4lefense, for ex-
ample, .11. fiat Radio Free
EStropoihroadcasts must he el- t
fectiwskter tha Russiane would
not It vsksuting millions of dol-
In efforts to "Jam"'
14 first glance, thiS
isoaable. On second. It
t ?
FIRST place th'ere is
no evtIe that the Russians
are spei4 tig "millions of dol.
tend and no pea-
prove it. .
ond. it assumes that ?
t the Russians don't
which is ridiculous.
r'ojeiti K lion to R.F '
? tars.
? them;
. seems t
Is hoesti
IN Ti
tars" tof
sible wa
/n th
?twain)
like is
The
fa ibr AIN propaganda line Is VI
i,` '41 le people behind the Iron
away from MoSeow
in h y persuading
tablish their own na.
of Commtmlsm, the
h Is demonstrated
of Poland, Hun*
I., via.? :
thesis is not
Crefnlin, any ?
-da material
mple ,, pendence
id n woul tsb. What
'Jamul, . ,.,.done is therefore
entirely Ili, .,144.zdahle.
It does 'Vft Nst. e however,
that the policy
I14.1urope broadcatt
!Thes should be, nor'
l'are'Anything but what
iaccused of being--in favor of '
1
4 national Communism.
The fact Is, there is no rea-
soni to betih ve that the Free
Europe b eadeasts ore being
heard be ild the iron Curtain
to any appreciable extetit.-Theis
? trasismitterp. re ell. shortwave,
. and shorit.iiv,.. receivers in sat-
eflUe eountrie,; are ?erv scarce.
Cuor:
Core'
them,
tional:b
folly ft
by
the Free
what
they
rard'
I.
Tab ONLY RADIO sets avail.
able for purchase are standard
"People's Sets," capable of pick-
ing up the frequencies of the
Communist government stations
on the regular broadcast band.
These are useless for short
wave.
owe....top..Cong,ressionaf
rater who has Interviewed liter-
ally tlionSandg.of -Iron Curtain
(racemes and, persecutees,
forsits..ine that, he has ..asked ev-
,LTYAdividual about Radio Free
Europe and per
Cent of them have ever heard it,
ve.fiear.df:of ft. Most of these
didn't tare. The others reported
that they had no way to get it,
and wouldn't take the risk, any-
way.
For these results, Free
Europe is spending an estimated
10 million' dollars a year. in
Munic,h alone,- and Crusade for
Freedom is ? Collecting the
"Truth Dollars" to support it.
If I were a diroctor, rd want
to know what is going on, and
for my money, I'm doing my
friends a favor.
(0.1557 by iCing Features Synd.. inc.)
hib.a. Declassified and Approved For Release @ 50-Yr 2013/10/29: CIA-RDP74-00297R000900090027-8
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Declassified and Approved For Release @ 50-Yr 2013/10/29: CIA-RDP74-00297R000900090027-8
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Balloon Propaganda
Developed Slow Leak
By FULTON LEWIS, JR. .
WASHINGTON, Nov. 19. ?
The Free Europe balloon prop-
aganda program with 'Lead
-
quarters in Munich, GermAny,
widely touted as one of the big
guns of the so-called Crusade
for Freedom, ceased operations
in October a year ago, after the
outbreak of the Hungarian Rev-
olution.
It had 359 employees, of
whom 268 were on the scene,
and the operating head of it is
a pleasant young man named
Samuel S. Walker, Jr., in New
York. He has an Ivy League af-
t rnosphere, was editor of the
Yale Daily News the year be-
fore William Buckley, smokes
a pipe and is 31 years old.
I have a photostat of an of-
ficial memorandum, dated De-
cember 3, 1956, formally sus-
pending operations as of that
date.
IT GOES SO far as to recom?
mend substitute projects on
which the employees could be
kept busy.
? . Nearly a year later, Mr.
Walker has just dispatched
Spa cial representative, G. A.
? Trutuovsky, a Czech, to finally
Vdismantle" the project and dis,
? - ?
?
pose of all equipment. He is
assigned tO do the job in 45
days' at an 'allowance of twenty
dollars a day plus transporta-
tion.
I asked Mr. Walker about
this, because he already had a
$15,000-a-year assistant in Mu-
nich, Howard_ S. Weaver, who
has been in 'charge of the bal-
loon program since its incep-
tion. Weaver alto is Yale. While
'Isruniovsliy is being sent to
Munich, Weaver is being re-
called. I asked Mr. Walker why.
fle infernied me that 1Yea-
ver's recall is because he' knd
eight other members of the
Munich staff were involVed In
a cigarette Mai* market scan-
dal, about which-the German
government took a dim view..
The Americans had made a
deal with a GI to have him buy
The cigarettes for them at the
Army post exchange at some
thing less than 25 cents a pack,
which is about one-third of
what they sell for on the tax-
paid German retail market
THE FREE EUROPE head-
quarters in New Yofk dis-
patched Its own General Coun-
sel, Richard Greenlee, from.
New York to defend the nine,
his trip cdstitir 'several thou-
sand, dollars." There also was a
German attorney. ,
AU nih4 were convicted and
fined byqhd-German court, and
Weaver was "recalled for a new
assignment in New York."
If The balloon project has the
fr atmosphere of a sort of Yale
/
/ir post-graduate cops-and-robbers
club, i
'4, b, with, ? a Social Register .i;
? screening . system.
%Volker.' deputy director
p.?, ?
CAPITAL REPORT
THE BALLOON BROKE
someivhat younger than he ?
Johp,Kirk, alai a son of Old
Eil also a son of Grayson
pressItlent of Columbia
Univrsity.'ie was hired inA,(4.alt, 1956, .this being his
fir0A-0, at 35,500 a year. To.
day Wts drawing $10,500, which
seems to demonstrate how fast
the mntlern young Man can rise
in the wnrid.
.11r.?Vralker is not very specif-
ic about why the year elapsed
between the end of the balloon
operation$, and the long-last dis-
mantlingi,Ne says it has been
"gradualAtrocess, which seems
to be it Masterpiece of under-
statement.
(C 1(J57, by Abg !tat are- Inc.)
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Declassified and Approved For Release @ 50-Yr 2013/10/29: CIA-RDP74-00297R000900090027-8