THE PROPAGANDA SWEEPSTAKES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00845R000201300056-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 28, 2010
• Sequence Number: 56
• Publication Date: March 9, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/28: CIA-RDP90-00845R000201300056-1
using the day, Deepak Kumar, 10,
V 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 t at t e ovie nion spends 53.3
billion annuall y on propaganda activities
of one kind or another. That includes such
overt efforts as Radio Moscow's foreign
service (S700 million) and the Communist
Party's international activities (5150 mil-
lion). It also includes such indirect pro-
paganda efforts as TASS, the Soviet news
agency, which spends S550 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 5448 million. Even
if the S87 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- E
ly every one of the world's 165
countries.
During his presidential cam-
paign, Ronald Reagan spoke of in-
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.
TABS 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 sham
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
creasing uie t'uncliai- yivyaSaa.....
_
ff L .~. ;..ro. nr h,vtort Deepak Kumar studying Russian in New Delhi
1, however, does not exclude an un-
founded allegation here and there.
word, for example, that the U.S.
naping and murder of former Ital-
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
e? Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/28: CIA-RDP90-00845R000201300056-1 ion or an East
Tr?1E
9 March 1981
Broadcasting the news from the Munich headquarters of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty
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 buletins 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