THE ASSAULT ON RADIO LIBERTY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100260023-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 21, 2011
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: June 22, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT I
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/21 :CIA-RDP90-009658000100260023-1
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caster who still likes to broadcast, gives was recruiting spies.
a high priority to extending the Ameri-
can broadcasting reach. A key facility is
Radio Liberty in Munich. Since its
nadir under the Carter Administration,
the station has experienced a renais-
sance. with growing listener attention
and higher staff morale.
Now the 3Q-month party is over.
Press attacks on Radio Liberty have
made some in congress suggest taking
an ax to the whole radio buildup in a
time of budget austerity.
More than a year ago, Radio Liber-
ty's director, George Bailey, submitted
a letter of resignation to the president
of Radio Liberty-Radio Free Europe in
Munich, James Buckley, to be picked
up if ever a scapegoat might be needed
to get the budget through. Recently
Bailey's resignation was picked up.
It should net surprise that the
coalition that got Bailey included
Communist publicists in the East
and liberal Western publicists, or
that the weapon was slander.
When Reagan became President,
calling the Evil Empire by name, he
upset American media commentators
and caused consternation in the Carter-
era management at Radio Liberty.
The President's remarks had a
healthy effect in the Soviet Union. l
know Russians there who are aware
that they are hated in the nations they
have colonized. Alexander Solzhenit-
syn recalled wartime rape and looting in
his Prussian Nights:
?' We have become universally
huted,
"Everywhere we shalt be cruci-
fie~.
"They wilt slaughter us on the
Vistula, -
' *And in fly build as funeral
pyres."
In 1982 the holdover radio bureau-
cracy opposed the nomination of
Bailey, because Bailey had been liaison-
editor of Kontinent, the emigre
magazine financed by the West German
anti-Communist publisher Axel Spring-
er. The editor of Kon[inen[, Vladimir
Maksimov, had written an open letter
to President Carter charging the radio
The first press attack on Bailey came
from halfway between East and West.
Die Wahrlreit, published in West Berlin
by East Germany's Socialist Unity
(Communist) party, on March 12,
1983, called Bailey a "Springer bud-
dy." Communists will not forgive
Springer his generosity in creating the
only market for Eastern emigres writ-
ing in their own languages.
The first heavy attack in the United
States appeared in the Washington Post
of Sept. 25, 1983. The article, head-
lined, "How America Backs Critics of
Freedom/Our Propaganda Isn't Al-
ways Democratic," was written by
Josef Joffe and Dimitri Simes.
It charged Radio Liberty broadcasts
speeches portraying the United States
as a decadent power and an unreliable
ally. The authors were outraged that
Solzhenitsyn's Taiwan speech was
broadcast "in full" (would censored be
OK?). Solzhenitsyn had condemned a
trend in Congress of demanding of
allies "total adherence to democ-
racy...all the way up to decadence,
treason, the right to destroy the state."
Simes and Joffe demanded Congress
look into Radio Liberty programming,
atld Congress'did as it was told.
Bailey said some of Simes' free-lance
offerings to Radio Liberty had been
unsuitable, so his contributions were
reduced to around once a month, and
Simes stopped contributing. His father,
an educator, continued contributing,
however.
Simes lent weight to the Post article
by citing support from Harvard Prof.
Richard Pipes, a scholar on the Soviet
Union and swell-known anti-Commu-
nist. !telephoned Pipes to inquire. He
conceded he did not often agree with
Simes, but he confirmed he opposed
Bailey's appointment as director.
1 asked if he knew Bailey. No, but
Pipes opposed anyone whu was a i'riend
of Solzhenitsyn, a dangerous na-
tionalist. He cited the novel, August
1914. I told him my copy of August
1914 read almost as though a German
nationalist had; written it, contrasting
neat, clean and competent Germans as
opposed to backward Russians.
Ah, said Pipes, but 1 should see the
Russian-language parts not translated
into English. (Note that his emphasis
was on dangerous nationalism. Later, it
would switch to the virulent charge of
anti-Semitism.l
Fortunately, the new biography,
Solzhenitsyn, by Michael Scammell,
explains Pipes' fury. Pipes was proud
of his vocal. anti-communism, and
when Solzhenitsyn was expelled from
the Soviet Union to the West, Pipes
could have expected Solzhenitsyn to
speak well of him. Instead, Solzhenit-
syn, speaking off the cuff at the Hoover
Institution, referred to an American
scholar who published a "pseudo-
academic book" full of tYtlatakes, exag-
gerations and perhaps premeditatert
distortions." ScammeU said (page 933)
the book was Pipes' Russia Under the
Old Regime.
Solzhenitsyn was angry at Pipes for
allegedly suggesting a natural continu-
ity between Old Russia and the Soviet
Union. -
Now, a decade later, Pipes was get-
ting even. He was joining, with Simes to
get at Bailey, largely because of Bailey's
Solzhenitsyn sympathies.
It's too bad, really, fo~8ailey knows
Russians and other Soviet' nationals as
well as any native-born American, and
he was the right man for Radio Liberty. .
A gifted linguist, who used to call
with a bullhorn for Germans to sur-
render in World War II-, Bailey also
hurriedly translated into Russian the
draft of the surrender document, and
interpreted in two languages for Gen.
Bedell Smith.
For several years after -the war
(interrupted by a stay at Magdalen Col-
lege at Oxford),. he dealt with Soviet
personnel. He was a liaison officer with
the Soviet army. Then as an Army
Department civilian he interviewed
Soviet deserters before being attached
to the Berlin provost marshal. His job
was police department fiaison with
Soviets in Karlshorst, usually over GI
mishaps.
No American .has more friends in
Europe, ranging from the late Kon~zd
Adenauer and Artur Rubinstein to
sies in Rumania who put .Bailey up
.~TLr7tC"
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when the hotels are full. Adenauer
made it possible for Bailey to write the
introduction to Reinhard Gehlen's
autobiography.
Bailey made some changes at Radio
-Liberty; for example, expanding the or-
phan Ukrainian desk. He promoted
desk chiefs from the various nationals
who had chafed ur;der the tutelase of
"American" (more often, Australian
or Canadian) desk editors.
The inexperienced Ukrainians broad-
cast an unfortunate celebration of na-
tional day, which occurred under the
Nazis, and Bailey was obliged to
apologize to B'nai B'rith and to Simon
Wiesenthal.
Jews never have had a better goyish
friend than Bailey. He learned Hebrew
while studying at Columbiaand serving
as a sbabbas-goyat New York's Jewish
Theological Seminary. He is proad. of
a certificate a colleague from Eatnp
Ritchie gave him claming hiW an
"Honorary- .iew." He knows 'more
Jewish history than most rabbis. His
wife is half-Jewish, so his daughter
qualifies .for disposal under Hitler's
Nuremberg decrees.
Simes arrived in the United States
from the Soviet Union during the Ntx-
on-Kissinger detente. He came to
public notice by telling a congressional
aide (Herbert Romerstein) that the Pen-
tagon Papers had been at Moscow in-
stitutes before the New York Times
published them.
When I called him to check on this
almost a decade later, Simes said he had
not actually seen such documents in
Moscow. He appeared to regret having
brought the matter up. But the infor-
mation he had volunteered in Wash-
ington gave the impression he was an
anti-Communist. Since then, the
"MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour" gave
him recognition as a television author-
ity on the Soviet Union.
Early last year the East German
magazine Norizont published an attack
that was unintentionally amusing,
"Habits of a Crusader," by Wassili
Viktorow. It attributed to Bailey all the
crimes of Mackie Messer, and then
some.
According to Norizont, Bailey is a
CIA man and embezzler who poisoned
his wife's uncle, Karl Ullstein, so Axel
Springer could seize his publishing
company. Bailey also interpreted for
Hungarian counter-revolutionaries tor-
turing to death a Soviet soldier (of
Armenian extraction) in 1956, and in
Berlin, lured the fascinating translator
Tamara Rusiew-Preisz to the West,
???-.. ~ ...... ............~ ~,..a? ,,,.b ~~ ~ ~~~~ The rest of Markham's story concen-
dead finger. traced on "unrest" among the staffers
The Norizont article is a collector's of RFE/RL. His theme, in general
item, and it was imitated, poorly, in terms, was the same as I;,vestia's, just
New Times, the Soviet all-languages as I~vesria's sunburned Iowan quote
magazine under the headline "Sinful was borrowed from !~larkham's earlier
George." story.
Meanwhile, the Simes-toffee piece '~larkham's emphasis on "profes-
in the Washington Post took effect. sionalism" was galling. He appeared to
Joel Brinkley reported in the New go out of his way to avoid saying Bailey
York Times of Feb. 22, 1984, that had won the Overseas Press Club 1959
Geryld B. Christianson, the Demo- award for foreign reporting, was awell-
crats' staff director for the Senate For- known ABC commentator, had been
eign Relations Committee, attacked the chief editor of The Reporter magazine
managers of Radio Free Europe and and wrote three books, including acan-
Radio Liberty. He said they "have so did autobiography, Germans (World,
weakened the controls over program 1972). To say Bailey is a CIA man but
content that commentators hostile to not a professional journalist is not two
the United States are allowed to broad- mistakes, it is two old-fashioned un-
cast to Soviet bloc audiences." truths.
If the Times had named Solzhenit-
syn, readers would have seen the fraud,
but editors had cut out his name. The
newspaper apologized in an Editor's
Note on February 23, supplying the
names of the hostile miscreants: Solz-
henitsyn and Vladimir Maksimov.
All the initial attacks were pure-
ly ideological, intended to force
Solzhenitsyn off the air because he
condemns liberals, and to clear the
airwaves of anything upsetting to
the Soviets.
Last June 10 the Times returned to ~"" ""' "" ?"?`~' "?" ""? `?"`'
the attack with a story from Munich by demolished by virtue of their falsity and
Bonn correspondent James M. Mark- triviality. Solzhenitsyn's themes -that
ham, headlined, "At Radio Free the West does not fight communism
Europe, a Few Changes of Pace." with conviction and makes irrespon-
Markham identified Baffle as "an sible use of its freedom-are shared by
y many, including Frances Jean Fran-
American who had worked for the coil Revel and Britain's Paul Johnson.
right-wing Springer press group in West
Germany." (Most Western correspon- But now a killer attack was mounted,
dents in Bonn consider Springer con- one that seldom fails. In the New
servative, in the manner of his Die Republic of Feb. 4, 1985, Radio Lib-
Welt, not right-wing.) erty was charged with broadcasting
anti-Semitism in the form of a literary
Markham reported that the changes analysis of a new passage in .-1 ugust
appeared to have bolstered morale /9/4. The magazine implied that Solz-
among many of the two stations' 1,674 henitsyn and "an emigre named George
polyglot staffers. "But for others, the Bailey" are both anti-Semites.
advent of a conservative, ideologically The magazine printed a reply by
activist management closely tied to the Frank Shakespeare and Ben vl~atten-
Reagan Administration has caused berg, but declined to take anything
concern that the stations are losing their back except the misidentification of
cast, when jamming might make a Baffle It cited a memo from James
listener lose some words, would have Buckley, president of Radio Liberty, to
been irresponsible.) Bailey, telling liim to pay more atten-
:~1arkham's story reminded readers lion to words used in reference to Jews.
that in the early 1970s the two stations galley said he did not know who sent
were demoralized by the revelation that the magazine his memo.
the CIA had been financing them. Simultaneously with the New Repub-
V1arkham then identified Bailey as "a lic, the Washington Post on February 4
gregarious American linguist andpublished a half-page article charging
former ClA officer." Solzhenitsyn with anti-Semitism, in this
Now, there is nothing wrong with case in a broadcast on the Voice of
someone having been a C[A officer, America.
but Bailey never was, except in Soviet The story, by Joanne Omang, de-
literature. Put in the context of CIA scribed the arcane dispute between Rus-
demoralizing the stations, right after Sian emigres and experts over several
Radio Moscow charged Bailey was a paragraphs in Solzhenitsyn's new addi-
spy, the mistake had a malicious ap-,;~? ,,, ,,,,,,,,,,, ,~,,, ~~,,,~ ?_.,,,_ ,~_.,
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found anti-Semitism in them, others
calling the charge nonsense.
Richard Pipes, unfortunately, lent
himself to the inflammatory project.
Pipes was quoted as saying that, while
Solzhenitsyn did not write anything
overtly anti-Semitic, he wrote subtly,
and audiences in Russia would receive
an anti-Semitic message.
On the authority of Aipes' statement,
a Post headline said, "Parts of `August
1914' Viewed as Being Subtly Anti-
Semitic." (No headline noted, "Some
Say `Nonsense.' ")
The Post also pretended to enlist a
powerful authority on anti-Semitism,
Norman Podhoretz, quoting his article
in Commentary in such a way that a
reader would conclude that Solzhenit-
syn had no sympathy for Jews and was
a poor writer: "August 1914 is dead
from beginning to end."
The sentence out of context was a
total misrepresentation of Podhoretz's
views. The thrust of his article in Com-
mentary was the opposite: "Solzhenit-
syn's two major nonfiction wotbks, The
Gulag Archipelago and The Oak and
the Ca1J, are among the very greatest
books of the age.... The Gulag Archi-
pelago will stand forever as one of the
majestic achievements in the history of
literature."
When Bailey was in Washington early
in 1985, he mentioned to the Board of
International Broadcasting that he was
writing to New York Daily News col-
umnist Lars-Eric Nelson, pointing out
mistakes in a column about him. Al-
most immediately, he said, he received
a call from Nelson asking if Bailey had
indeed written him. Bailey said he did
not know who on the board informed
Nelson so quickly.
Nelson's column was picked up in the
Miami Herald. under the irresponsible
full-page headline, "Radio Liberty
Specializes in Anti-Semitism." Nelson
echoed all the charges, but the article
omitted the name "Solzhenitsyn" and
the book, August 1914, the basis of the
story, facts that might have left the
readers doubting the veracity of the
accusation. He cited as his authority-
you have guessed it - "Soviet emigre
scholar Dimitri Simes."
Solzhenitsyn writes of Jews as he
does of anyone. Like Bailey, Solzhenit-
syn has ahalf-Jewish wife. In August
1914, the most positive character is the
Jewish engineer Ilya Arkhangorodsky,
taken from a real person. In Lenin in
Zurich, the most negative character is
Lenin, not Israil Lazarevich Helphand
(Parvus). When Solzhenitsyn first rose
to prominence, the KGB spread the
word he was a Jew.
Soviet Union. But Dim i Stmes and
Richard Pipes, using their access to the
media, may have silenced him, with the
resignation of Bailey, who was too
ideally suited for the post of Radio
Liberty director. ~
M11r. Brute~?. u jureiXn curres~undem Jur the
NrM? York Uaily News jur 20 yturs, rs the uuthur
urBad News: The Foregn Policy of the New York
Times/RerntrvCiu/twov. t9RIl
On the heels of the Washington Post
attack, Dimitri Simes resurfaced on the
opinion page of the Christian Science
Monitor of February 13, and then
again in two articles in the same news-
paper by Elizabeth Pond, who quoted
Simes as her chief expert on disinfor-
mation. (She concluded that "one
man's disinformation may be another
man's free press," and Simes agreed
disinformation has been overblown).
In his opinion piece, headlined, "The
Solzhenitsyn has been a world
celebrity for more than two
decades, writinK all-out, a Force of
nature, like a volcano, earthquake
or tidal wave. He reveals every-
thing about himself. He could not
be a secret, or subtle, anti-Semite
because anti-Semitism is alien to
every word he has written.
Destruction of Liberty," (whose?) Jews should be enraged. There are
Simes charged Soviet listeners were anti-Semites around, and false charges
hearing "anti-Western, antidemocratic trivialize what should be a deadly
polemics, suppression of unpleasant serious subject. The charge is made by
news, extremist nationalism and anti- midgets, over whom Solzhenitsyn
Semitism." Simes wrote that atop towers like a Colossus.
Radio Liberty editor asked rhetorically But they have won. George Bailey
during an interview in Bailey's pres- resigned just after his 65th birthday
ence, "And who has established that because a handful of his and Solzhenit-
anti-Semitism is wrong?" Simes said syn's enemies orchestrated a slanderous
the "competent chief of the Russian attack just at budget time. A few per-
service and its chief of research have plexed Israelis have asked assurances
resigned." that anti-Semitism will not be broad-
Bailey said he is dumbfounded that a cast over a Voice of America transmit-
newspaper with the reputation of the ter, if one is built in Israel-although
Monitor would publish such blatant many other Israelis remember Bailey;
falsehoods. He said the quotation is he covered the Six Day War for The
false, that the two chiefs did not resign, Reporter.
and neither he nor Solzhenitsyn are The KGB could not prevent Solz-
anti-Semites. henitsyn from broadcasting to the
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