TIME MAGAZINE ARTICLE 'THE PROPAGANDA SWEEPSTAKES'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84B00890R000700020088-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 28, 2005
• Sequence Number: 88
• Publication Date: March 4, 1981
• Content Type: MF

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MEMORANDUM FOR: Director of Central Intelli
ence Fi'(IL If ? ~ 17~1fA% fn'
g
V1Fl . R. E. Hineman, V
Acting Director, National Foreign Assessment Center
Chief, USSR-EE Division, Office of Political Analysis
SUBJECT . Time Magazine Article "The Propaganda Sweepstakes"
1. The article is relatively accurate concerning the thrust and scope
of Soviet propaganda.
2. There is a major asymmetry in the US and Soviet propaganda effort
that the article hints at, but does not spell out. Soviet propaganda is
both pro-Soviet and blatantly anti-US, whereas our official effort is
pro-US while trying to be "objective" but not openly critical of Soviet
realities.
3. There is no mention of Novosti, which is several times larger
than TASS and, disguised as a "quasi-official" news service, is a major
propaganda-covert action-espionage network.
4. In general, the article does not capture the extent to which the
Soviets succeed in using press placements and in coordinating overt with
covert propaganda in the West and Third World, but it does not mention
Western covert-action activities either.
5. The only other comment we would add is that there is also a_
great amount of literature in the Third World that is disseminated by
private Western institutions--i.e., press organs, publishing houses,
etc.--for which there is no Soviet counterpart. Also, Soviet propaganda
is not always as polished and subtle as the Indian examples imply.
Attachment
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9 March 1981
The Propaganda
Sweepstakes
Moscow tries harder
D uring. the day, Deepak Kumar, 10,
goes to school in New Delhi. In the
evenings he earns a few rupees brushing
ticks off the dogs owned by a local Amer-
ican artist. In- response to a question from
his boss about his classwork, Deepak
boasts: "It's all right. I'm best in my class
in Russian. And look, I have a library
card." The card he proudly displays ad-
mits him to the library at the Soviet em-
bassy. There he can find children's books,
as well as tracts on Soviet life. He has no
comparable access to American litera-
ture. Children who want to borrow books
from New Delhi's American center must
have their parents get a card. Deepak's
folks, both of whom work long days, are
unable to make the trip.
Every day, around the globe, the
hearts and minds of people like Deepak
Kumar-as well as his parents and friends
-are reached on a battlefield in the East-
West struggle where words are the? chief
weapons. With their troops occupying
Afghanistan and massed to pounce on
Poland, the Soviets have a lot to explain
these days. Through a propaganda effort
perhaps seven times as large as that of
the U.S., and with more sophistication
than ever before, they are doing just that.
The Central Intelligence Agency es-
timates that the Soviet union spends 1 .3
billion annually on Propaganda activities
of one kind or another. That includes such
overt efforts as Radio Moscow's foreign
service ($700 million) and the Communist
Party's international activities ($150 mil-
lion). It also includes such indirect pro-
paganda efforts as TASS, the Soviet news
agency, which spends $550 million a year
spreading Moscow's view of world events
to foreign countries. By contrast, the U.S.
International Communication Agency
(Ica)-which coordinates the Voice of
America, cultural exchanges, films,
speakers, exhibits and other aspects
of U.S. "public diplomacy"-has a
budget of only $448 million. Even
if the $87 million the U.S. spends
separately for Radio Free Europe
and Radio Liberty are included, the
total is still a small fraction of the
Soviet propaganda budget.
In radio broadcasting, this dis-
parity means that American sta-
tions broadcast for 1,818 hours a
week in 45 languages, mostly to
Eastern Europe and the Soviet
Union, while the Soviet Union
broadcasts for a total of 2,022 hours
a week in 82 languages to virtual-
ly every one of the world's 165
countries.
During his presidential cam-
paign, Ronald Reagan spoke of in-
creasing the American propaganda
effort, but in this winter of budget
seen. This week the President is expect-
ed to name a new head of the ICA. The
leading candidate: California Business-
man Charles Wick, a close friend who
was co-chairman of the Reagan Inaugu-
ration Committee.
The Soviet counterpart is Leonid Za-
myatin, chief of the Central Committee's
International Information Department.
He is a former director of TASS who op-
erates under the guidance of the party's
longtime chief ideologist, Mikhail Suslov.
TASS serves as the backbone of Soviet pro-
paganda. The bluntness of TASS's bias
often works against it. For example, the
Soviets in 1963 provided, free of charge,
equipment for receiving TASS bulletins to
the fledgling Kenyan news agency: The
Kenyans, however, soon started using the
equipment to receive Britain's Reuters
wire service as well. A former Kenyan
journalist says he was supposed.to give
equal play to both news services, but that
the TASS material arrived days later than
Reuters, and was too late to be usable.
The CIA claims that the Soviets often try
to plant loyalists in local broadcasting sta-
tions so that TASS reports will get better
Play.
TASS provides most of the material for
Radio Moscow, the Soviet version of the
Voice of America. In the past two years
the broadcasts have been enlivened by
sprinkling Soviet-made jazz and rock mu-
sic recordings among the turgid recita-
tions of editorials. Radio Moscow propa-
ganda is much less vitriolic than the
printed press; a Soviet delegation
returning from a visit to the U.S.
might be quoted by Radio Moscow as say-
ing that the Americans they met share
with them an aim of world peace. The
broadcasts in English are now particu-
larly subtle, using announcers who try to
sound indistinguishable from those on
the VOA or England's BBC World
however, does not exclude an un-
founded allegation here and there.
Soviet media actively spread the
word, for example, that the U.S.
was responsible for the. 1978 kid-
naping and murder of former Ital-
ian Premier Aldo Moro. In addi-
tion, events often have to be filtered
through an ideological bureaucracy
before they are reported. For ex-
ample, news of the death of former
Prime Minister Alexei-Kosygin was
withheld for 36 hours by TASS and
Radio Moscow. Even Soviet citi-
zens heard the news first on West-
ern broadcasts.
The Soviets also make use of
"clandestine'.' radio broadcasts,
transmissions that purport to orig-
inate from within a particular re-
cipient country but actually come
from the Soviet Union or an East
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tioc ally. The "National Voice of Iran,"
a source of inflammatory anti-U.S. pro-
paganda, is actually located in the Soviet
Union. Furthermore, other Moscow-
aligned Communist countries deliver
more than 5,000 additional hours a week
of pro-Soviet (and anti-American) broad-
casting, more than twice the output of
Radio Moscow. Radio Havana broadcasts
to Africa and Europe through transmit-
ters in the U.S.S.R. In parts of the U.S.,
Radio Havana can be heard at 600 kHz
on AM radio.
The Soviet propaganda effort is fur-
thered by three types of-groups in foreign
countries. Foremost are the Moscow-
aligned local Communist parties, such as
the Tudeh Party in Iran and Communist
parties active in Western European coun-:
tries. In addition, in 126 countries there
Haig that the VOA and other radio sta-
tions under U.S. control were making
"provocative and instigatory" broadcasts
that were "an open interference in Polish
internal affairs." The Soviets are respon-
sible for a little interference of their own.
According to RFE's Buell,. they spend as
much as $200 million a year to jam West-
ern broadcasts, more than twice RFE'S en-
tire budget. (The U.S. does not interfere
with.Radio Moscow transmissions.) The
most effective Soviet jamming is of broad-
casts to Czechoslovakia and the Soviet
Union.
A week ago, the Munich headquarters
of RFE was bombed, causing S2 million
worth of damage but no interruption in j
and Radio Liberty, which broadcasts t
the Soviet Union, are organizationall
and financially distinct from the vo
network. Unlike the VOA, they are en-
gaged in more direct and blunt propa-
ganda. Founded in the early '50s, they
were originally funded secretly by the
CIA. Since 1971 they have been inde-
pendent, congressionally supported cor-
porations with some private donations.
Based in Munich, they are staffed large-
ly by expatriates from the nations they-
broadcast to. There are no Nielsen rat-
ings for international propaganda broad-
casting, but U.S. officials insist that their
programs-a variety of news and music
-are more popular than those of Radio
Moscow. Says acting VOA Director Wil-
liam Haratunian: "The Soviets do more,
but in audience the VOA is No. 1.'- Wil-
xtvi~c. vrc>t vcrman inve5t11F4t0r5 are
focusing, as, one put it, on "the possibility
of an attack by foreign agents."
The U.S. effort is supplemented by
other Western broadcasts, particularly the
highly regarded BBC World Service, which
has 10 million listeners in the Soviet
Union and Eastern Europe. Funded by
the British government at some $100 mil-
lion a year, it has been praised by Soviet
dissidents, for its accuracy and profession-
alism-and savored by expatriate Britons,
and not a few Americans as well, around
the world. "People tune to us because we
still have a reputation of credibility," says
a BBC executive.
a F, ow effective are Soviet and American
propaganda efforts in the crucial
battlegrounds of the Third World and
nonaligned states? Many State Depart-
ment diplomats feel. that the ICA is
amateurish, underfunded, ineffective and
occasionally counterproductive. India, re-
ports TI,rvIE New Delhi Bureau Chief Mar-
cia Gauger, provides a clear, if some-
what dispiriting, example. Says one
Indian: "The impact is that the
Damage caused by explosion a week ago at RFE and Radio Liberty - '~ -
The-Soviets do more, but "we're winning the battle of listenership.
are Soviet "friendship societies" coordi ] liam Buell, senior vice president of Radio
nating cultural exchanges, visits and ex-
hibitions; in 1979 a total of 55,30d stu-
dents from the Third Worldwere studying
in the Soviet Union. On a less direct lev-
el,Moscow has a phalanx of organiza-
tional allies with branches in many coun-
tries; the most notable is the Helsinki-
based World Peace Council. which the
CIA claims is designed to suPBort Mos-
cow's foreign policy through mass meet-
ings and demonstrations in the 130 coun-
tries where it has affiliates. Such groups
not only spread a pro-Soviet ideological
line but provide TASS and Radio Moscow
with sympathetic Western sources to
quote.
The Voice of America, on the other
hand, aims to build credibility mostly
by presenting straight news, not pro-
paganda. Radio Free Europe, which
broadcasts to most Warsaw Pact nations,
Free Europe, agrees, saying of the three
American broadcast services: "We're win-
ning the battle of listenership.".
The recent rise of limited free expres-
sion in Poland has resulted in a few tes-
timonials to the effectiveness of Radio
Free Europe. Union Activist Waldemar
Sobora ?was quoted as saying of the
Gdansk strikes: "I learned what was hap-
pening on the coast from RFE and other
Western stations." In a censored article
that later appeared in the samizdat (the
underground press), Writer Stefan Kisie-
lewski charged: "The [Polish] media be-
long to the party elite and not to the peo-
.ple, who must learn about their own
doings from RFE.,,
Such influence has produced frequent
complaints from Moscow. Two weeks ago,
Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko angri-
ly wrote Secretary of State Alexander
great white father has come to dispense
knowledge on his lowly children." The
Soviet presence, on- the other hand, is
extensive, sensitive and effective. Says
Indian Housewife Jayshree Ramanathan:
"When Brezhnev was here,- they sent a
booklet on what a great guy he is,
from his grandparents through his
life to his grandchildren." The booklet,
which describes the Soviet leader as a
boy who rose from poverty, was printed
in 14 Indian languages and distributed
all over the country. The Soviets have
the Communist Party of India to work
through, its party . newspaper called
the Patriot to reflect their line, and
considerable influence over other news-
papers through propaganda advertise-
ments, such as descriptions of visiting
Moscow delegations.
When American aid to India was
reduced in the early '70s, so was the
U.S. propaganda effort there. The So-
viets, meantime, have stepped up their
efforts.. There are 50p6 more Soviet ra-
dio broadcasts to India than American
ones per week, and the monthly mag-
azine Soviet Land, published in twelve
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languages, has a circulation almost eight
times that of America's Span, which costs
more than three times as much. The
U.S. provides Indian editions of about
200 books and six academic texts; the
Soviet catalogue is 144 pages long and
lists some 2,200 titles. In addition to pro-
paganda tracts, the Soviets offer such
things as medical textbooks (nearly 50
titles) priced as low as $1.10 a copy.
The Soviets have also just reactivated
their "Friends of the Soviet Union"
program, while ICA-sponsored Indo-
American Friendship Societies have lan-
guished. The American effort is based
on reaching about 6,000 of the urban po-
litical and professional-elite. Officials say
this is the most effective way to use
their limited resources, but critics say it
is preaching to the converted. The So-
viets, on the other hand, travel to the
most remote regions to participate in
local festivals, and their visiting academ-
ics join in seminars organized by Indian
scholars.
The difference has -caused; observers
say, the American image to be: capital-
istic, imperial and elitist while the So-
viets are perceived as "pro-people." Says
one high Indian source: "The Soviets
have not only established contacts among
the urban elite, but they have gone to
the smaller towns to form Indo-Soviet
friendship societies and socialist study
groups. The Indian is impressed that
the average Soviet is interested in learn-
ing our languages. Their cultural offi-
cers stay here for years and years." Says
another Indian observer. "The best im-
pact ever made by the Americans was a
group of high school students who gave
a musical performance. They were open-
faced, bright young people. They were
fascinated by elephants. Such a group
.singing folk songs is worth more than
.500 articles on American policy, which
only puts people's backs up."
F ormer U.S. Ambassador Robert Go-
heen, who was born in India, says the
.:ICA has done a respectable job with its
limited money, but adds that the effect
of Moscow's enormous effort is worri-
some. Says he: "The Soviets have cre-
ated an image of a country that is non-
threatening and supportive of India.
Because of a record. of more than 30
years, Soviet ships in the Indian Ocean
are perceived as. benign, whereas Amer-
ican ships raise the threat of a super-
power confrontation." One ray of hope
is that Soviet actions, such as the in-
vasion of Afghanistan, will undo that
country's public relations prowess, and
that the US. will not repeat policy shifts
that angered the Indians, such as the Car-
ter Administration's withholding of
promised nuclear fuel. Says Goheen: "All
the public diplomacy in the world cannot
overcome the erratic or threatening ac-
tions of a country." -By Walterlsoocson.
Reported by Hays Gorey/Washington and
Bruce W. Ne%n/Moscow
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