REACTIONS TO WESTERN LEAFLETS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82-00046R000500290003-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 17, 2013
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: October 26, 1955
• Content Type: REPORT

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/06/24: CIA-RDP82-00046R000500290003-2
c~1
INFORMATION REPORT INFORMATION REPORT
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
This material contains information affecting the National Defense of the United States within the meaning of the Espionage Laws, Title
18, U.S.C. Secs. 793 and 794, the transmission or revelation of which in any manner to an unauthorized person is prohibited. by law.
SUBJECT Reactions to Western Leaflets
DATE OF INFO.
PLACE ACQUIRED
DATE ACQUIRED
REPORT NO.
DATE DISTR. 26 October 1955
NO. OF PAGES 3
REQUIREMENT NO. RD
REFERENCES
SOURCE EVALUATIONS ARE DEFINITIVE. APPRAISAL OF CONTENT IS TENTATIVE.
LIBRARY SUBJECT AND AREA CODES (36)
2-02-0406
10/55
893.2
V (ZM)
893.31
V)
'
8
27M
Ix-
REPORTINFORMATION REPORT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/06/24: CIA-RDP82-00046R000500290003-2
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/06/24: CIA-RDP82-00046R000500290003-2
SECRET
COUNTRY Czechoslovakia
SUBJECT Reactions to Wesern Leaflets
DATE OF INFORMATION
PLACE ACQUIRED
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
SOURCE
$eaotions to Western Leaflets.
Source believed that. nearly all of the Western leaflets sent to Czechoslovakia
by balloon fell in the..border area.. At any rate,.large.numbers of balloons
were brought down-near the border by rifle ' fire. from the members of the Border
Guard. Balloons which escaped the Border Guard were often brought down shortly
thereafter by fighter planes called up for the purposely The soldiers on duty
along the frontier had orders to telephone through channels to the Brigade
Headquarters at Volary (N 48-55, E 13-53) as soon as they sighted any balloons.
The commanding officer of the Brigade in turn.notified the Air Force, which
sent -UP four or five MIG-15'e to shoot down the balloons. At night and when
the weather was bad, of course, the balloons were not as easily sighted or
brought down. The planes were not sent up for them then, but since most of the
balloons appeared to be launched during good weather and in the daytime, when
there was a good eastward breeze, he supposed that few balloons reached the
interior of the country. He had never heard of a balloon falling near his
The only measures the authorities took to prevent circulation of the leaflets,
as far ae'source knew, consisted of the issuance of the classified orders to
the Border. Guard described above, of the published instructions to the public
to turn in leaflets to the police, and of the punishment given people caught
distributing the leaflets. Source said that agricultural laborers and others
in the border areas undoubtedly found large numbers of leaflets which they
took with them into the interior of the country, but he had never heard of
any instances of persons in the frontier area or elsewhere being searched for
leaflets alone. Be had also never heard of any groups of school, children or
others purposely sent to collect leaflets. Persons found.distributing the
leaflets or suspected of doing so, however, were arrestede He recalled, that
REPORT NO.
DATE DISTR. 93 Sept . 195
NO. OF PAGES 2
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/06/24: CIA-RDP82-00046R000500290003-2
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/06/24: CIA-RDP82-00046R000500290003-2
SECRET
-2-
in January or February 19559 a Border Guard recruit serving along the frontier
was found to have. ma.led a leaflet home to. hiss family in Moravia, when his
mail- posted at his Border Guard unit, had been subjected to a.routine censor-
ship check at. the Brigade Headquartered The soldier was not punished for
thiso but was transferred to duty in the:headquarters company at Volary,
where he would not have immediate, access to the border.
In he fall of 1954, two embers of an agricultural brigade at Ceske Zleby,
gear Volary, were arrested-by members of the Border Guard after a Border
Guard agent in the work brigade denounced them for mailing home large numbers
of leaflets with their laundry, At about the same time, also, another young
worker was taken off a train and arrested near Ceske Budejovice when a
railway employee reported that he had a whole suitcase full of leaflets which
he was throwing out of the window of the train at short intervals. In both
of these cases, the men were turned over to the secret police at Ceske
Budejovice. The source did not know what was done with them thereafter.
Source never heard of anyone having put leaflets in balloting boxes in the
form of an election ballot. He also never heard of anyone mailing the leaf-
lets to the authorities, though this is not the sor t of thing he.would have
heard about in the border area. most people who did any-
thing with the leaflets except red em, turned them in to the police. A
considerable number of leaflets were turned in to the police by forest workers
in the border"regions, but he had no idea what percentage of the persons
finding leaflets did this.
5. Source thought that antimCommuniete, who were a large majority in the country,
welcomed- the leaflet action but he was unable to be more specific than this.,
The Communists,
of course, were free with remarks about "this dirty business" and "the
Americans ought to use their money for more useful purposeef?, but source
could
t
ha
no
way w
t their real ide thbjt
as one suec may have been.
Border Guard had.to deal with in that area, There was no legal border crossing
point in the brigade sector.
6. Source had never seen the number "10" written on a wall in Czechoslovakia.
Though he had never heard that this had ever been done, he was sure that
nearly evOcyone at least in the border regions in Czechoslovakia would have
recognized it as an anti-Communist symbol. At the time of the elections in
1954 -- source didn't recall which elections -- the Border Guard was ordered
to provide men to patrol the streets of Ceske Budejovice between three and
four in the morning to look for leaflets which the police had heard might be
thrown about.the streets in the night. The Border Guards were also supposed
to look for anything unauthorized which might have been written on' the windows
of houses in the town. As it. happened, no leaflets were found and no anti-
Communist slogans or markings observed.
1. A more recent leaflet containing pictures of the American and Czechoslovak
flags on one side and a gummed surface on the other aav`e the Border Guards 50X1
more wo r.rd es
Vidi~jGi O7
found one of 1 } se Leaflets pasted on the window *of his house in a village
near Volaryp and several.. other samples of the leaflets were reported pasted
in ublic laces elsewhere in the towns around Volar e i
Cf.
SECRET
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/06/24: CIA-RDP82-00046R000500290003-2