propaganda Archives - Cold War Radio Museum

Walter Lippmann, the Voice of America, and the Limits of Liberal and Conservative Thought

Curator — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 00:32:34 +0000

A reexamination of Walter Lippmann’s critique of the Voice of America (VOA) in light of wartime propaganda, Soviet influence operations, and the practical realities of Cold War broadcasting—revealing both the insight and the limits of his analysis. Lippmann’s Prestige—and the Context He Carried With Him A Celebrated Journalist in a Contested Information Environment In August […]

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Communist secret police in Poland spied on Voice of America’s Willis Conover to shut down Radio Free Europe

Curator — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 23:24:31 +0000

One of the secret police informants spying on the Voice of America’s (VOA’s) famous jazz DJ Willis Conover during his visit to communist-ruled Poland in 1959 was the mother of Rafał Trzaskowski, the unsuccessful candidate for Poland’s presidency in 2020 and 2025. Trzaskowski’s late mother’s cooperation with the communist secret police, which also involved spying […]

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Did Radio and TV Pioneer David Sarnoff Coin the Voice of America name?

Curator — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 16:50:47 +0000

Summary David Sarnoff, the pioneer of the radio and television industry in the United States and the founder of the NBC network, was most likely the first American with access to the White House to present a comprehensive plan for U.S. government-funded international radio broadcasting and one of the first to suggest for it the […]

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Soviet Spy Uncovered Through Venona Project Worked at Voice of America Library

Curator — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 23:55:57 +0000

Ted Lipien for Cold War Radio Museum News reports that Poland, in the latest Russia-West prisoner swap, handed over an alleged Russian spy, who had worked for the Voice of America (VOA) as one of its freelance journalists, exposed some of the methods of Russian spying similar to Soviet spying during the Cold War. One […]

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Operation VETO: Radio Free Europe’s Balloons with Leaflets to Czechoslovakia

Curator — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 05:38:05 +0000

By Ted Lipien for Cold War Radio Museum In his book Radio Free Europe’s “Crusade for Freedom: Rallying Americans Behind Cold War Broadcasting, 1950–1960,” Richard H. Cummings describes “Operation VETO” as an attempt by the Free Europe Committee and the Free Europe Press during the Cold War to encourage opposition to the Soviet-imposed regime in […]

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Howard Fast – Voice of America’s First Chief News Writer and Editor and Future Stalin Peace Prize Winner Goes to Prison

Curator — Sat, 06 Apr 2024 23:56:07 +0000

by Ted Lipien for Cold War Radio Museum On June 8, 1950, American novelist and Communist Party USA (CPUSA) activist and journalist Howard Fast, a former Voice of America’s (VOA) chief news writer and editor in the wartime United States Office of War Information (OWI), began serving his three-month prison sentence at Mill Point Federal […]

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Envelope from a Letter Addressed to the BBC Polish Service in 1940

Curator — Wed, 27 Mar 2024 04:58:41 +0000

One of the newest exhibits of the online Cold War Radio Museum is an envelope addressed to the news department of the BBC Polish Service, posted in Great Britain in March 1940. The envelope has the inscription “PASSED BY CENSOR,” indicating that the British military censorship had reviewed the letter sent from Plymouth, and […]

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‘Tu Mówi Warszawa’ – Polish Radio Propaganda Abroad Before 1981 Martial Law

Curator — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 07:41:52 +0000

By Ted Lipien for Cold War Radio Museum On December 13, 1981, the communist government of the Polish People’s Republic subservient to Moscow introduced martial law and formed a military junta in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to crush the Solidarity (Solidarność) independent trade union movement. December 13, 2023 marks the 42nd anniversary of the mass arrests and further […]

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Voice of America in 1957 and 1972 – VOA’s International Broadcasting Successes and Failures

Curator — Sun, 15 Oct 2023 23:30:57 +0000

Ted Lipien for Cold War Radio Museum In February 1972, the U.S. government-funded and managed Voice of America (VOA), then part of the United States Information Agency (USIA), observed the 30th anniversary of its founding in 1942, during World War II. The Voice of America commissioned a bronze medal to mark 30 years of VOA’s […]

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Why are US-funded USAGM journalists defending Russia, Iran over the Hamas massacre? – Ted Lipien Op-Ed in The Hill

Curator — Fri, 13 Oct 2023 14:57:22 +0000

My new op-ed in The Hill includes comments on the latest barbaric attacks by Hamas terrorists on Israeli civilians—defenseless Jewish women, children, and the elderly. I discuss the hard-to-understand and explain defense of propaganda and disinformation from Iran and Russia by U.S. government-managed and funded U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) journalists, including federal employees working for the Voice […]

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