FULTON LEWIS, JR AT 7:00 P.M. OVER WGMS ( WASHINGTON) AND THE MBS NETWORK:

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP74-00297R000900080096-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 28, 2013
• Sequence Number: 96
• Publication Date: February 14, 1958
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

IL I 1
Declassified and Approved For Release @ 50-Yr 2013/10/28: CIA-RDP74-00297R000900080096-3
Kze,
Fulton Lewis, Jr. at 7:00 p.m. over WGIC (Washington) and the IBS Network:
LEWIS: "I have here tonight, ladies and gentlemen, a letter which is important,
because it illustrates a vital point in the whole problem of Radio Free Europe and
Crusade for Freedom, or at least it leads to such an illustration. It is a letter
to a broadcasting station official in Pennsylvania from one of the most important and
responsible figures in the radio and television industry, and it is in answer to an
inquiry about the disclosures that I have been making aver this microphone about these
two organizations. The important paragraphs read as follows, quote.
know of the operations of Radio Free Europe first hand, for I was in Europe two
years Ago,andwatched the entire operation for a period of four days. I frankly doubt
that..there' is any substance whatsoever to Fulton Lewis Jr. 's. accusations. I know the
reasons why he makes them, I know the reasons why. the. National Information organization
does not qualify CrUaade,-for Freedom, under its standards. The,advartising_council works
with the National Information organization_and.it, too, understands the entire situation.
I think a look at the list of corporate members,' "listen to this," ...II think a look at
the list of corporate members and the board of directors will and should give you assur-
ance. that there is no pro-Communism involved. That such people are devoted to the business
of protecting American interests, and doubt that we.should enter the fray at this point.
,
..It seems to me evident that_Fulton Lewis Jr. is attempting to create a cause.' "Unquote."
Declassified and Approved For Release @ 50-Yr 2013/10/28: CIA-RDP74-00297R000900080096-3
Declassified and Approved For Release @ 50-Yr 2013/10/28: CIA-RDP74-00297R000900080096-3
TRANSCRIPT OF BROADCAST
BY
Fulton Lewis, Jr.
Station WGMS at 7-7:15 P. M.
14 February 1958
Due to mechanical difficulties the first part of this
broadcast was not taped. The portion missing was a letter
a friend wrote to him at the radio station questioning the
veracity of Mr. Lewis' information.
I consider him my friend and I naturally was somewhat
shocked by what I read. He is a man who is much impressed
with big names and big titles because he has to do business
with them, but I had always thought him to be a man of cau-
tion and prudence and one who is not easily led astray.
Therefore, I called him on the telephone to ask him what he
meant by these things he wrote. I might mention that he
included in the letter he wrote to the radio station a
Complete 11-page set of the phony answers and fact sheet
and whatnot that the Crusade for Freedom has been putting
out to try to appease the protests and inquiries that have
arisen from this series of broadcasts, and I suggested he
make mental note of the fact that he did this without ever
referring the fact sheet to me to find out what I had to
say about them. In fact, he was Quite amazed when I told
him some of the falsifications in this propaganda.
His first explanation to me was that he saw the Munich
operation and went through the plant and saw what was going,
on first hand, and that he was very much impressed. I asked
whether he knew what was being said in the actual broadcasts
and he said that of course he did not because they were all
in foreign languages and he was unable to understand them.
I observed that that, afterall, is the $64,000 question:
just what they are saying, and his answer was that there
seemed to be competent Americans supervising the foreign-
language broadcasters, Whereupon, I pointed out to him that
this was hardly an answer because the-Americans themselves
cannot speak the languages.
I asked whether he had ever heard of the Fletcher
Bartholemew case. He had not. I asked whether he approved
of Ferdinand Perutka, the outright collaborator with the
Stalinist Communists in Czechoslovakia being in charge of
Declassified and Approved For Release @ 50-Yr 2013/10/28: CIA-RDP74-00297R000900080096-3
Declassified and Approved For Release @ 50-Yr 2013/10/28 : CIA-RDP74-00297R000900080096-3
C
O the entire Czech desk of Free Europe. He didn't know
anything about Perutka. I asked if he approved of Radio
Free Europe's having on its payroll such people as the
late Hubert Ripka, one of the great mass murderers of
Present times who issued the orders that brought death to
250,000 Sudeten Germans, or Milos Vanek one of the co-
signers along with Lenin and,Trptsky,of-the Second Comintern
manifesto of Moscow in 192121 He had never heard of either
of them. I asked if he was ,.,aware of the black-market
cigarette scandal that resulted in the conviction of eight
of the top figures in the Free Europe organization in Munich,
and incidentally I'm still waiting for the final official
details on that; we don't want to make any mistakes. He
had never heard of that. As to the reason the Crusade has
been disapproved by the National Information Agency, he said
his understanding is that the Free Europe operation is sup-
ported partly by government funds. He says he does not
know this for a fact but he has heard it.
In short, all this friend of mine does know is that
a lot of prominent names, with himself, know no more about
the facts of Radio Free Europe than he does and allow them-
:selves to be used as sponsors to lend glamor to the opera-
tion, plus the fact that he made a visit to Munich, I sus-
pect, in one of those annual October junkets a few years
ago and went through the plant. That four-day inspection
phrase has a very familiar ring. You may recall the de-
tails of those tours in the article by Mrs. Kelly of the
American Legion Auxiliary. Plus finally the phony, untrue,
devious, self-justifying literature that the Crusade has
pushed into his little warm hand and which he,without taking
the first gesture of trouble to check, passed it on as
authentic information. One of the most shocking angles of
the whole thing is that this is information which Mr. Gwilym
Price, the chairman of the Crusade, voluntarily peddled to
this gentleman in question as he has peddled it to many
other sources over the country.
It all boils down, of course, to a question of re-
sponsibility, and it is rather clear that my friend in this
case was thoroughly and indisputably irresponsible. He is
not alOne irresponsible to himself--he is irresponsible to
the general public, to you, who are listening to this broad-
cast. Because what I have reported to you over this micro-
phone is true, he is guilty of aiding and abetting a very
evil thing, a very evil operation, which in the interest of
truth and the welfare of the free world, he should be help-
ing to bring to light instead of condoning and helping to
cover up.
Declassified and and Approved For Release @ 50-Yr 2013/10/28: CIA-RDP74-00297R000900080096-3
Declassified and Approved For Release @ 50-Yr 2013/10/28: CIA-RDP74-00297R000900080096-3
? On Monday night it will be necessary for me to be
away from this microphone again through the broadcast
because of the necessity of my spending Monday in court
on the witness stand, but on Tuesday I shall be prepared
to begin giving you some of the actual records of Radio
Free Europe in Munich, some of the broadcasts, and some
of the guidances or directives that are being used in
the Munich radio operation so that you can see for your-
self whether Free Europe is preaching the doctrine of
freedom and liberation and anti-Communism or whether it
is instead preaching the story of national Communism
and social statism and is being used to perpetuate the
political philosophy of the very men, the very same col-
laborators of Communismovho sold their countries out to
Russia.
Declassified and Approved For Release ? 50-Yr 2013/10/28: CIA-RDP74-00297R000900080096-3
I.