U.S. APOLOGIZES TO POLAND FOR RADIO SLAP

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403350015-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 9, 2012
• Sequence Number: 15
• Publication Date: January 17, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09 :CIA-RDP90-009658000403350015-4
. ;`~:-~ LOS ANGELES TIMES
-~ . fr.; ~r;''~~ ' ~ .. =~ 17 January, 1985
~~
~ ~ - ..
By NORD4AN I:E~fPSTER, Times Staf f tit~riter
~~'ASHINGTON-The L'.S. gov-
ernment apologized to Poland on
~'~'ednesday ? for a broadcast by
Ftadio Free Europe that, in a
heavy-handed attempt at humor
that left Warsaw unamused, com-
pared Polish Premier V~'oiciech Ja-
ruzelski with Adolf Hitler.
"The U.S. government dissoci-
ates itself from that broadcast and
regrets any implication of similari-
ty between Nazi Germany and
present-day Poland, and particu-
larly betx~een Adolf Hitler and
Ger.. Jaruzelski," State Department
spokesman Alan Romberg said,
reading from a prepared statement.
"Although Radio Free Europe
receives funds from the U.S. Con-
gress, it is not a U.S. government
agency, nor is it subject to editorial
censarship by the U.S. govern-
ment," Romberg said. "VVe learned
of the broadcast in question after it
was aired."
`Propaganda Gangsterism'
P.omberg x~as responding to a
complaint by Polish government
spokesman Jerzy Urban, who on
Tuesday branded the broadcast
"propaganda gangsterism." He said
Poland could not seriously consider
Z','ashington's announced interest
in improved relations unless Radio
Free Europe was restrained.
A L'.S. official said the broadcast
apparently was taken word for
word, without credit, from a maga-
zine published in Paris by Polish
emigres. The item was contained in
a satirical issue of the magazine,
but Radio Free Europe did not tell
its listeners that the broadcast was
intended as a joke.
The broadcast Jan. 7 was pur-
ported to be a speech given by
Hitler to members of his National
Socia}ist Yarty in 1939, the year his
government signed a nonaggres-
sion pact with the Soviet Union.
The announcer described the
broadcast as "a cubbyhole of recol-
lections dedicated to Vi'. Jaruzel-
ski." It x?as the on]}? reference to
the Polish leader.
Undoubtcdly Phony ,
The speech, replete with paral-
lels to conditions in present-day
Poland, is undoubtedly a phony
because some of the topics refer to .
events that did not happen in
Germany until after 1939. Never-
theless, the broadcast apparently
touched a responsive chord in
many anti-government Poles.
Radio Free Europe, once a CIA
o eration, now is financed openly
liv the '. government and is
supervised by the presidentially '
appointed Board for International
Broadcasting. It broadcasts in six
lan~uaaes to pastern Europe from '.
a transmitter in A.unich. It has no
connection with the voice of
America. the Qovernment's official
radio outlet, which broadcasts
around the world.
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09 :CIA-RDP90-009658000403350015-4