EXCERPT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP74-00297R000900090061-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 28, 2013
• Sequence Number: 61
• Publication Date: November 12, 1957
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release @50-Yr 2013/10/29: CIA-RDP74-00297R000900090061-0 -40
?oete4041;)
(EXCPPY)
100 p.m. over WG4t bngon nd the M Network:
nt Elser
group of governMent of
CRUSADE FM. FREEDOM and
entirely innotent,,,Vm Sure
can .become involved in questionable projects when they're.not careful to check
the facto before they go ahead.
d? a luncheon party today at the White House with a
.8 for the purpose of publicizing the so-called
coming fund-raising campaign, -gal of which wae.?,
but it does demonstrate bow well-meaning People ,
"Crusade for Freedom-is the orga zation. the.tcelleote neyevery. year
under the slogan of Truth Dollars to spread the message Of freedom suPpoeedly,
behind the Iron Curtain in gurppe by means of Radio Free Europe and the balloon
propaganda program operated out Of MUnich, Oermany. The purposes, as stated
in their articles of,incorporationvare very glamorous and very noble. It '
actual practice, heWeVer, the propaganda line which the whole Free Europe
operation it taking, and has taken for a long time,paetvis to urge the people
of the Xron Curtain countries to turn, not from their present ,Communism to
democracy., but from their present Communism to national Cemmuniam.
"To support this activity, the Crusade for Freedom, -which the President
'kicked off at the White House today with this luncheon, will spend the rest
of this month soliciting so-called Truth Dollars, as you probably yourself
will be solicited by your news delivery bey that is the method that is u2ed.
"Several nights ago X read to you a directive issued to staff editors, ezedu-
tivee
and so forth, as to the Free Europe operation in Munieh, instructing tha
from that time on the policy line would be to glorify Tito as a great national'
hero who has saved his country from foreign barbarians, and to go slow on:
criticism of Communiem as such.
"I visited the office Of the Free urope Committee in ew lorlc last week,
interviewed some of the officials, made certain specific inquiries through a
very courteous and -cooperative public relations representative by the name of
CRcInerny4. Among the questions I asked was What comment- they had to Make on
this directive or guidance, an they call it, of March 1956.. I had talked to:
leading members of the Free Europe Committeets -Board Of Directors at great
length. They had -confirmed to me that this was the -policy, and even under.,
took to defend it very enthueiastically as a Vise policy.
"With this X certainly do not agree, and I doubt that you de because it
seems to me that any propaganda message that's beamed to the people Of the
Sovietatellite countries, supported by this Crusade for Freedom and the
Truth Dollars it collects from you, Should be a message of freedom and hope
and inspiration to some day regain their own libertiesva message to keep .
alive in their minds the story of what freedom is in the outside free- world.-,
Declassified and Approved For Release @ 50-Yr 2013/10/29: CIA-RDP74-00297R000900090061-0
Declassified and Approved For Release @ 50-Yr 2013/10/29: CIA-RDP74-00297R000900090061-0
-
$ is a point of
rom the point
"The important thing is the reply that gWtoinquiry.
written reply from .a young man by the 'name Of Thomas R. Brown, Jr., who
Acting Director of the whole Radio Free Europe operation, with headquarters
in New York, It tears his signature; it's addresse0 to Mr. Same' 8= Walker,
Jr. -- everybody in the organization seems to be a jr., which I suppose ought
to make me feel at home from Thomas 1. Brown, Jr, and the message reads
as follows: If it is committee policy to reply to Fulton Lewis* inquiry
about the alleged, Radio Free Europe directive or guidante of March, 3.9561 the
answer should be, quote, the rported directive passages which Mr. Lewis has
quoted in various forms are net .and have never been part of any policy dire
ective issUed by the management of Radio Free Europe Or Free Europe Committee,
and do not represent the policy of these organizations, past or present,
unquote. That, despite the fact that the directors of the organization had
confirmed to me the Previous day that the directive does represent the
policy of the Free Europe campaign 'out of Munich=
"Please net that I do not question in any manner, shape
terity of the backers of the Crasalle for Freedom. I'm sure theyve
that the cause they're supporting it actually spreading the message of the
free world to the oppressed People of the Iron Curtain. Certainly the Presiden
would never have put on this luncheon today if he had had the slightest idea
to ,the contrary. Unfortunately, however, there seems to be a decided short
circuit -somewhere between the good intentions of these fund collectors and
the actual operation of the project at the grass roots, and anybody who has
been to Europe and is familiar with the operation will verity that fact in
full."
?
Declassified and Approved For Release @50-Yr 2013/10/29: CIA-RDP74-00297R000900090061-0