Origins

     Most historians date the beginnings of the Cold War to early 1946. It is not easy to say exactly when it began, or even to obtain clear agreement on its causes, but factors contributing to its initiation included the following: disagreements between the Soviet Union and its wartime Western partners over the dismemberment of Germany to break its political and military power; the disposition of Polish borders and the creation of a new Polish state; and a variety of other Soviet moves in establishing new governments in Eastern and Central Europe, where it was the occupying force at the conclusion of World War II. In February 1946 Stalin openly attacked the Western powers in a strident speech, and in March 1946 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill declared in Fulton, Missouri, that an "Iron Curtain" had descended to divide Eastern and Western Europe. In June 1948 Soviet troops set up a blockade around the western sectors of Berlin; this act led to the Berlin airlift to keep the few thousand American, British, and French troops there supplied and to provide food and fuel to the blockaded civilians of West Berlin. The blockade lasted 324 days before being lifted in 1949. In August 1961 the Soviets began erecting the Berlin Wall, using barbed wire at first, but gradually reinforcing this most potent symbol of the Cold War until it was finally breached in 1989.

     Throughout this period, the radio services of various states in what was known as the bipolar world attempted to influence one another. In the Eastern Bloc, radio services such as Radio Moscow (USSR), Radio Berlin (East Germany), Radio Bucharest (Rumania), Radio Budapest (Hungary), Radio Prague (Czechoslovakia), Radio Sofia (Bulgaria), and Radio Tirana (Albania) broadcast the communist version of events, commentaries, features, and cultural programs to both the Western Bloc and nonaligned countries, attempting to influence their citizens' opinions and ideological commitments. Likewise, radio services such as the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) World Service (United Kingdom), Radio France International, Deutsche Welle (West Germany), the Voice of America (VOA; United States), Radio Netherlands, and Radio Belgium all broadcast in a similar vein, though they used the news values of the West-such as objectivity and separation of news and editorial comment-in their programs. They broadcast into both Eastern and Central Europe and to the Soviet Union, as well as to the nonaligned countries, in an effort to win "hearts and minds." In addition, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency secretly funded the creation of two surrogate radio stations, Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, which were programmed by emigres from the Eastern Bloc in an effort to provide citizens of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact countries with news and commentary as they would have heard it if their media had been free to operate without ideological constraints. Still another service begun by the United States was called Radio in the American Sector (RIAS); this service ostensibly broadcast to the Allied occupation forces in Berlin, although its signal could easily be heard in much of East Germany, which surrounded the western enclave in the city.

American Radio Services

     In the United States, at the end of World War II, the budget of the international wartime service, the VOA, was cut back significantly, just as all wartime budgets were. But the increasingly confrontational nature of the relations between the "superpowers" and their allies in NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and the Warsaw Pact led Congress to pass the Smith-Mundt Act in 1948, creating a permanent government information agency and providing increased funding for the VOA. With the outbreak of the Korean conflict in 1950, President Harry Truman initiated what he called a "Campaign of Truth" and called on the media to combat communist distortions of American actions and values by exposing them as lies and telling the truth about America. Various boards and agencies were created over the next couple of years to implement that request, and in 1953 Congress created the United States Information Agency as a permanent coordinating agency for all American information activities abroad. The VOA became the official voice of the United States. Three basic principles were adopted to govern its activities. First, the VOA was to become a consistently reliable and authoritative source of accurate, objective, and comprehensive news. Second, the VOA was to represent all aspects of American society and present a balanced and comprehensive view of significant American thought and institutions. It was not, in other words, to be merely a news service but was also to present programs about the arts, culture, science, and everyday life. Third, it would present the official policies of the U.S. government clearly and effectively and provide responsible discussion of and a venue for the expression of opinion about these policies.

     Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty were not to represent the United States; instead, they were to represent those in their target audiences. The opinions of those with "free" opinions­ that is, opinions not under the control of the communist governments in power-were broadcast, along with news about the internal events of the target countries themselves. These two stations were engaged in psychological warfare and sought to stop the spread of communism in Europe and to destabilize the Soviet Union. RIAS was a similar operation concentrating on East Germany and broadcasting the opinions, news, and successes of the West (and particularly West Germany) to the people of West Berlin. It broadcast using both medium wave and shortwave at first (neither of which was needed to reach West Berlin) and eventually began broadcasting in FM. The East Germans said that the service's initials stood for "Revanchism, Intervention, Anti-Bolshevism, and Sabotage."

Soviet and Related Services

     On the Soviet side, in addition to Radio Moscow, the Soviet Union funded Radio Peace and Progress and Radio Kiev; all of them broadcast the Soviet version of history, reported the progress of socialism, and sought to influence opinion in both the West and the nonaligned world, particularly in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and the Indian subcontinent. In addition to those in the capitals of the Eastern European countries that were part of the Warsaw Pact, there were such services in Cuba (Radio Havana), China (Radio Beijing), and North Korea (Radio Pyongyang).