![Sample our Humanities journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5939/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Humanities.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
From 1954 to 1956, the Free Europe Press, sister organisation to Radio Free Europe, engaged in a covert propaganda campaign known as Operation Focus. Writing under the alias of the fictional Hungarian partisan group Nemzeti Ellenzéki Mozgalom, the campaign encouraged widespread passive resistance against the communist regime through a coordinated print and radio campaign facilitated via specially-designed weather balloons and RFE broadcasts, respectively. Under pressure from the Hungarian and US governments, the campaign came to end just days before the outbreak of the 1956 Hungarian Rising.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 ‘Reaction to Operation Focus in Répcevis’, 5 November 1954, Open Society Digital Archives, http://catalogue.osaarchivum.org (accessed 4 April 2017).
2 Michael Palmer Pulido, ‘Transmitting a Revolution: Mass Communications and the 1956 Hungarian Uprising’ (Master’s Thesis, University of North Carolina, Willimington, VA, 2007), 35; and ‘Balloon Leaflets: Technical Aspects of Balloon Leaflet Operation to Eastern Europe’, Free Europe Press, 9 April 1958, Box 23, Folder Kovacs – Balloon Campaign – Balloon Leaflets, Series IV: Subject Files, Imre Kovacs Papers, 1945–1980, Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, Columbia University, New York, New York [RBML].
3 Arch Puddingon, Broadcasting Freedom: The Cold War Triumph of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty (Lexington, KT: University of Kentucky, 2000), 65.
4 Operation Focus was the third such print propaganda campaign carried out by the Free Europe Press. The two preceding campaigns were aimed at influencing politics in Czechoslovakia, utilising balloons to disseminate leaflets across the countryside as well as broadcasts on Radio Free Czechoslovakia. The first campaign, Operation Prospero, took place between 13–16 July 1953, targeting industrial labourers in the hopes of replicating the events of the June uprising of construction workers in East Germany. The second campaign, Operation Veto, began in mid-1954 in anticipation of that autumn’s parliamentary elections, publishing the fictional People’s Opposition’s ‘Ten Demands’ the Czech and Slovak people should make of their elected officials. In 1955, building upon the success of Operation Focus, the Free Europe Press launched a Polish print propaganda campaign, known as Operation Prospero.
5 ‘How can FEP produce Leaflets which most effectively serve our political warfare purpose?’ 2 December 1955, 1, Box 2, Folder Untitled, Samuel S. Walker Papers, Hoover Institution Library and Archives, Stanford University, Stanford, California [HIA].
6 ‘The Twelve Demands of the National Opposition Movement’, Box 2, Folder 2.1, Free Europe Press: Hungarian: Nemzeti Ellenázlási Mazgazom, Free Europe Press Issuances, HIA.
7 ‘Hungary and the 1956 Uprising: Excerpts from a Report Published by International Research Associates, Inc.’, March 1957, Hoover Institution, Stanford, CA, http://w3.osaarchivum.org, accessed 27 March 2017.
8 ‘Memorandum from Tim Horan to S.S. Walker, Jr., Subject: Hungarian Schedule’, 18 September 1956, Box 25, Folder Free Europe – Free Europe Committee – Correspondences, Series IV: Subject Files, Imre Kovacs Papers, 1945–1980, RBML.
9 Puddington, Broadcasting Freedom: A. Ross Johnson, Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty: The CIA Years and Beyond (Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2010); A. Ross Johnson, ‘Setting the Record Straight: Role of Radio Free Europe in the Hungarian Revolution in 1956’, 7, Working Paper Series, Woodrow Wilson Center Cold War International History Project, December 2006, Cold War International History Project; Richard Cummings, Radio Free Europe’s ‘Crusade for Freedom’ (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2010); Richard Cummings, Cold War Radio: The Dangerous History of American Broadcasting in Europe, 1950–1989 (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2009); Richard Cummings, ‘Balloons over East Europe: The Cold War Leaflet Campaign of Radio Free Europe’, The Quarterly Journals of the PsyWar Society 166 (Autumn 1999); and Georgi Georgiev, ‘Cold War Atmosphere: Distorted Information and Facts in the Case of Free Europe Balloons’, Centarus 61, no. 3 (2019).
10 Joanna Granville, ‘“Caught with Jam on Our Fingers”: Radio Free Europe and the Hungarian Revolution of 1956’, Diplomatic History 28, no. 5 (2005): 812; John P.C. Matthews, Explosion: The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (New York, NY: Hioocrene Books, 2007), 97–100; and John P.C. Matthews, ‘The West’s Secret Marshall Plan for the Mind’, International Journal of Intelligence & Counterintelligence 16, no. 3 (2003): 411.
11 Alfred A Reisch, Hot Books in the Cold War: The CIA-Funded Secret Western Book Distribution Programme Behind the Iron Curtain (Budapest: Central European University Press, 2013), 10–11; and Greg Barnhisel, Cold War Modernists: Art, Literature, and American Cultural Diplomacy (New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2015), 93–135.
12 Radio Free Europe and the Free Europe Press did publicly receive support from the Crusade for Freedom, a domestic, community-based fundraising organisation. However, the Crusade for Freedom never explicitly articulated what these donations were funding, and it is unlikely that the average American would have known about the specifics of Operation Focus.
13 National Committee for a Free Europe Memorandum, 15 December 1952, Box 188, Folder 188.1, Free Europe Committee, Inc, RFE/RL, Inc., Corporate Records, HIA.
14 Richard Cummings, ‘The Ether War: Hostile Intelligence Activities Directed against Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, and the Émigré Community in Munich during the Cold War’, Journal of Transatlantic Studies 6, no. 2 (2009): 169.
15 István Deák, interviewed by Sarah Roth, New York, 11 April 2017; and ‘Technique of Control – RFE, Munich’, 11 June 1952, Box 286, Folder 286.2, RFE Policy General 1950–1956, RFE/RL, Inc., Corporate Records, HIA.
16 Radio Free Europe Policy Handbook, 30 November 1951, 1, Box 79, Folder National Committee for a Free Europe – RFE Policy Handbook (1), Jackson, C.D.: Papers, 1931–1967, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Abilene, Kansas [DDE].
17 ‘Operation Focus, 15 September – 31 December 1954’, Box 152, Folder 152.9, Balloons, Hungary, Operation Focus Review, RFE/RL, Inc., Corporate Records, HIA; Emphasis original.
18 The concept of a fictional resistance movement came from the US members of the Free Europe Press rather than the émigrés. It is unclear whether the émigré writers supported this approach. It is worth noting that while Deák agreed to write the policy paper and contributed to Operation Focus, he later expressed a sense of guilt that he may have play any part in the persecution of his countrymen.
19 István Deák, The Lawful Revolution: Louis Kossuth and the Hungarians, 1848–1849 (New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1979), 3.
20 Deák, Lawful Revolution, 3; and C.M. Knatchbull-Hugessen, Vol. 2, The Political Evolution of the Hungarian Nation (London: National Review Office, 1908), 1–3.
21 Tamás Révész, ‘Soldiers in the Revolution: Violence and Consolidation in 1918 in the Territory of the Disintegrating Kingdom of Hungary’, The Hungarian Historical Review 10, no. 4 (2021): 745; and Ferenc Tibor Zsuppán, ‘The Early Activities of the Hungarian Communist Party, 1918–1919’, The Slavonic and East European Review 42, no. 101 (June 1965): 316–7.
22 Zsuppán, ‘The Early Activities of the Hungarian Communist Party’, 335.
23 István Deák, ‘Budapest and the Hungarian Revolutions of 1918–1919’, The Slavonic and East European Review 46, no. 106 (June 1968): 136–7.
24 Apor Balázs, The Invisible Shining: The Cult of Mátyás Rákosi in Stalinist Hungary 1945–1956 (Budapest, Hungary: Central European University Press, 2017), 34.
25 Mark Kramer, ‘Stalin, Soviet Policy, and the Consolidation of a Communist Bloc in Eastern Europe, 1944–53’, in Stalinism Revisited: The Establishment of Communist Regimes in East-Central Europe, ed. Vladimir Tismaneanu (Central European University Press, 2009), 79.
26 Balázs, ‘The Invisible Shining’, 69.
27 ‘Guidance Focus, April-June 1955’, 8 April 1955, 3, Box 23, Folder Kovacs – Balloon Campaign – Guidance, Series IV: Subject Files, Imre Kovacs Papers, 1945–1980, RBML.
28 ‘How can FEP produce Leaflets which most effectively serve our political warfare purpose?’ 3.
29 ‘To the Hungarian Farmer’, Box 24, Folder Free Europe – Balloon Campaign – Kolkhoz Leaflet, Series IV: Subject Files, Imre Kovacs Papers, 1945–1980, RBML.
30 ‘Kolkhoz Leaflet’, Box 24, Folder Free Europe – Balloon Campaign – Kolkhoz Leaflet, Series IV: Subject Files, Imre Kovacs Papers, 1945–1980, RBML; Emphasis original. Ironically, ‘the land belongs to those who till it’ is a communist slogan used in the early days of Marxist land reform.
31 ‘Did you Know?’, Free Hungary 4 (1955): 3, Box 23, Folder Kovacs – Balloon Campaign – HOP 4, Series IV: Subject Files, Imre Kovacs Papers, 1945–1980, RBML; ‘Austria is Free’, Free Hungary 7 (1955): 10, Box 23, Folder Kovacs – Balloon Campaign – HOP 7, Series IV: Subject Files, Imre Kovacs Papers, 1945–1980, RBML; and Free Hungary 19 (1956), Box 23, Folder Kovacs – Balloon Campaign – HOP 19, Series IV: Subject Files, Imre Kovacs Papers, 1945–1980, RBML.
32 ‘The Geneva Spirit’, Free Hungary 12 (1955): 1, Box 23, Folder Kovacs – Balloon Campaign – HOP 12, Series IV: Subject Files, Imre Kovacs Papers, 1945–1980, RBML; “Have you Heard?,” Free Hungary 3 (1954): 5, Box 23, Folder Kovacs – Balloon Campaign – HOP 3, Series IV: Subject Files, Imre Kovacs Papers, 1945–1980, RBML; and ‘The Communists’ Dirty Laundry’, Free Hungary 7 (1955): 1, Box 23, Folder Kovacs – Balloon Campaign – HOP 7, Series IV: Subject Files, Imre Kovacs Papers, 1945–1980, RBML.
33 ‘Introduction’, Free Hungary 5 (1955): 1, Box 23, Folder Kovacs – Balloon Campaign – HOP 5, Series IV: Subject Files, Imre Kovacs Papers, 1945–1980, RBML.
34 ‘Letter from Cord Meyer to Whitney Shepardson’, 17 March 1955, courtesy of A. Ross Johnson.
35 ‘This is Radio Free Europe’, News from Behind the Iron Curtain 3, no. 12 (December 1954): 43, HU OSA 298-3-2, Records of the Free Europe Committee Free Europe Press, East Europe Publications, News from Behind the Iron Curtain, Jan 1954-Dec 1954 to News from Behind the Iron Curtain, Jan 1956-Dec 1956, Subject File, 1951–1995, Free Europe Press, Records of the Free Europe Committee, Open Society Archives at Central European University, Budapest, Hungary [HU OSA].
36 ‘Daily Guidance – 26 January 1955’, Box 2725, Folder 2725.1, Programme Summaries 1955, January – March, RFE/RL, Inc., Broadcast Archives, HIA.
37 Ibid.
38 ‘Operation Focus, Vol. I’, Box 152, Folder 152.7, Balloons, Hungary Operation, Focus Effectiveness, RFE/RL, Inc., Corporate Records, HIA.
39 ‘Free Europe Committee, Free Europe Press: Circulation of Focus Leaflets and Concepts in Hungry’, 1 March 1955–2, Box 9918, Folder Free Europe Committee Balloon Projects, Balloon Leaflets, Operation Focus 1954–1956, RFE/RL Corporate Records, HIA.
40 Lazló Borhi, Dealing with Dictators: The United States, Hungary, and East Central Europe, 1942–1989 (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2016), 4.
41 Letter from Samuel S. Walker, Jr. to Howard S. Weaver, 18 November 1955, Box 2, Folder Untitled, Samuel S. Walker Papers, HIA.
42 Information regarding the popular reception of the leaflets come from interviews conducted by Radio Free Europe’s Audience Analysis Section with Eastern European refugees arriving in Austria between 1954 and 1957. These interviews consisted of a series of standardised questions about the Hungarian people’s opinions of RFE, as well as inquiries specifically about Operation Focus. All the questions posed operated on the premise that the interviewees were regular listeners of RFE making it impossible for individuals who did not regularly tune in to RFE to complete the survey. While these interviews were conducted in Hungarian, they were contemporarily translated into English and must be approached with an understanding of the biases inherent in any translation. In addition, these interviews represent the perspective of only a small fraction of the population and do not offer a comprehensive overview of the general sentiment of the Hungarian people, particularly those unable or unwilling to leave the country. Material evidence in the form of photographs, letters and diaries could be found in the Hungarian National Archives, the Hungarian Library of Parliament, and the Hoover Institution.
43 ‘Escaped Sopron-Worker’s Comments on Operation Focus’, 2 December 1954, Item No. 10,771/54, HU OSA 300-1-2:46, 20 Nov – 8 December 1954, #s 10,250–10,909, Evaluation Information Items, Information Items, General Records, Records of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute, HU OSA; and ‘A Young Apprentice Reports on Leaflets in the Sopron Area’, 6 January 1955, Item No. 82/55, HU OSA 300-1-2:48, 30 December 1954–27 January 1955, #s 11,650–11,697/54, Evaluation Information Items, Information Items, General Records, Records of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute, HU OSA.
44 ‘Escaped Sopron-Worker’s Comments on Operation Focus: “We are not Left Alone’”, 1 December 1954, Item No. 10,769/54, HU OSA 300-1-2:46, 20 November – 8 December 1954, #s 10,250–10,909, Evaluation Information Items, General Records, Records of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute, HU OSA.
45 The Hungarian citizens used ‘West’ and ‘United States’ interchangeably when talking about sponsorship of the National Opposition Movement.
46 ‘David and Goliath’, Free Hungary 2 (1954): 4, Box 23, Folder Kovacs – Balloon Campaign – HOP 2, Series IV: Subject Files, Imre Kovacs Papers, 1945–1980, RBML.
47 ‘A Dorog Miner’s Report on “Operation Focus”’, 21 January 1955, Item No. 492/55, HU OSA 300-1-2:48, 30 December 1954–27 January 1955, #s 11,650–11,697/54, Evaluation Information Items, Information Items, General Records, Records of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute, HU OSA.
48 ‘Letter from a Refugee’, Free Hungary 12 (1955): 8, Box 23, Folder Kovacs – Balloon Campaign – HOP 12, Series IV: Subject Files, Imre Kovacs Papers, 1945–1980, RBML.
49 ‘Interview with Refugee from Sopron and his Wife’, 3 January 1955, Box 24, Folder Free Europe – Balloon Campaign – Operation Focus, Series IV: Subject Files, Imre Kovacs Papers, 1945–1980, RBML.
50 David Riesman, ‘The Nylon War’, ETC: A Review of General Semantics 8, no. 3 (Spring 1951).
51 ‘Operation Focus, Vol. II’, Box 152, Folder 152.7, Balloons, Hungary Operation, Focus Effectiveness, RFE/RL, Inc., Corporate Records, HIA.
52 27-M, 76, Box 1, Interviews 11–30, Folder 21–30. Hungarian Refugees Project Records, 1957–1959, RBML; 45-F, 29 – 30 April 1957, 70, Box 2, Interviews 31–50, Folder 41–50, Hungarian Refugees Project Records, 1957–1959, RBML; 85-F, 77, Box 5, Interviews 71–90, Folder 81–90, Hungarian Refugees Project Records, 1957–1959, RBML; Much like Radio Free Europe’s Audience Analysis surveys, these interviews, carried out by researchers working with Columbia University, were conducted with Hungarians in Western Europe and the United States between 1956 and 1958. These surveys covered a range of subjects, including daily life in pre-revolution Hungary, personal recollections of the events of that fall, and impressions of western media in general.
53 ‘Opinion and Suggestion to Operation Focus: 27-year-old clerk and lathe operator from BUDAPEST’, 25 July 1955, Item No. 6162/55, HU OSA 300-1-2:56, 12 July – 8 August 1955, #s 5730–6559, Evaluation Information Items, Information Items, General Records, Records of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute, HU OSA.
54 ‘Recent Budapest Comment on Operation Focus’, 1 March 1955, 2, Item No. 1158/55, Box 25, Folder FEP Balloons, John P.C. Matthews Collection, HIA.
55 53-M, May 20–21, 1957, 63, Box 4, Interviews 51–70, Folder 51–60, Hungarian Refugees Project Records, 1957–1959, RBML.
56 ‘Audience Analysis Interview with a Labourer’, 17 August 1955, Item No. 7947/55, HU OSA 300-1-2:72, 27 July – 23 August 1955, #s 7397–8136, Evaluation Information Items, Information Items, General Records, Records of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute, HU OSA; and ‘Audience Analysis Interview with a Bookkeeper’, 4 August 1955, Item No. 7638/55, HU OSA 300-1-2:72, 27 July – 23 August 1955, #s 7397–8136, Evaluation Information Items, Information Items, General Records, Records of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute, HU OSA.
57 ‘Opinions on the Focus Operation’, 7 March 1955, Item No. 876/55, Box 25, Folder FEP Balloons, John P.C. Matthews Collection, HIA; and ‘Budapest Information in Connection with the Balloon Action’, 13 January 1955, Item No. 287/55, HU OSA 300-1-2:46, 30 December 1954–27 January 1955, #s 11,650–11,697/54, Evaluation Information Items, Information Items, General Records, Records of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute, HU OSA.
58 ‘Budapest Information in Connection with the Balloon Action’, 13 January 1955, Item No. 287/55, HU OSA 300-1-2:48, 30 December 1954–27 January 1955, #s 11,650–11,697/54, Evaluation Information Items, Information Items, General Records, Records of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute, HU OSA.
59 35-F, 17 April 1957, 35, Box 2, Interviews 31–50, Folder 31–40, Hungarian Refugees Project Records, 1957–1959, RBML.
60 ‘An Opinion on How to Improve the “FOCUS” Leaflets’, 13 July 1955, Item No. 5782/55, HU OSA 300-1-2:56, 12 July –8 August 1955, #s 5730–6559, Evaluation Information Items, Information Items, General Records, Records of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute, HU OSA; As historians A. Ross Johnson and Johanna Granville argue, the similarities between the Twelve Demands and the Sixteen Points demonstrate that Operation Focus had succeeded in identifying and articulating the frustrations of the Hungarian people long before October 1956. Indeed, parallels exist between Operation Focus’ Twelve Demands and the Hungarian student protestors’ Sixteen Points. For example, Point Two of the Sixteen Points published by the Budapest University of Technology and Economics called for ‘the election by secret ballot of all Party members from top to bottom’, echoing the NEM’s third demand for ‘the rule of law, not the reign of the Party’. There were several distinct versions of the Sixteen Points published almost concurrently, each influenced by regional social and political concerns. For example, the Sixteen Points published by the student population of Szeged, the birthplace of the non-partisan Association of Hungarian Universities and College Students, stressed the need for the Hungarian Workers Party to be led by elected officials. The Sixteen Points published by the students in Miskolc – a provincial railroad junction located along Hungary’s northeastern border – omitted Szeged’s call for democratic elections while demanding the withdrawal of Hungary from the Warsaw Pact and the return of Transylvania to Hungary following the 1920 annexation by Romania.
61 ‘25-year-old student and former sports instructor who escaped on 9 January 1955’, 12 May 1955, Item No. 3952/55, HU OSA 300-1-2:53, 7 April – 30 May 1955, #s 3320–4100, Evaluation Information Items, Information Items, General Records, Records of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute, HU OSA.
62 ‘Audience Analysis Interview with a Student’, 28 July 1955, Item No. 6337/55, 12 July –8 August 1955, #s 5730–6559, Evaluation Information Items, Media and Opinion Research Department, Administrative Files, 1956–1994, Records of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute, OSA; and ‘The leaflets are not sufficiently aggressive because they do not contain instructions on how to resist the regime’, 17 February 1955, Item No. 1137/55, Box 1669, Folder APOR Items- Hungary Operation Focus 1955 Jan-March, RFE/RL Corporate Records, HIA.
63 Allan A. Michie, Voices through the Iron Curtain: The Radio Free Europe Story (New York, NY: Dood, Mead & Company, 1963), 159.
64 ‘A Strange Incident with “Operation Focus” Leaflets in Dunaföldvár’, 29 December 1954, Box 24, Folder Free Europe – Balloon Campaign – Operation Focus, Series IV: Subject Files, Imre Kovacs Papers, 1945–1980, RBML.
65 ‘A Sopron Mailman’s Open “NO”’, 26 January 1955, Item No. 522/55, HU OSA 300-1-2:48, 30 December 1954–27 January 1955, #s 11,650−11,697/54, Evaluation Information Items, Information Items, General Records, Records of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute, HU OSA.
66 ‘Hungarian Propaganda Posters and Placards’, 19 May 1955, Box 25, State Dept. 1955, John P.C. Matthews Collection, HIA, 1; and ‘Balloon Leaflets: Technical Aspects of Balloon Leaflet Operation to Eastern Europe’, 13.
67 ‘Hungarian Propaganda Posters and Placards’, 1–3.
68 ‘Border Guards Distributed Focus Leaflets’, 29 November 1954, Item No. 10,683/54, HU OSA 300-1-2:56, 20 Nov – 8 December 1954, #s 10,250–10,909, Evaluation Information Items, Information Items, General Records, Records of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute, HU OSA.
69 ‘Personal Searches at Budapest Railway Station, To Find ‘FOCUS’ Leaflets’, 11 November 1954, Item No. 9984/54, HU OSA 300-1-2:45, 6 November – 20 November 1954, #s9480 – 10,249, Evaluation Information Items, Information Items, General Records, Records of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute, HU OSA; ‘Operation Focus’ Leaflets in the Dunantul Area’, 4 November 1954, Open Society Digital Archives, http://catalogue.osaarchivum.org, accessed 17 April 2017. Most of the information pertaining to the anti-leaflet activities of ÁCH is anecdotal, and further research at the Historical Archives of the Hungarian State Security is called for.
70 ‘Focus in Sopron and Vicinity’, 2 January 1956, Item No. 1/55, HU OSA 300-1-2:48, 30 December 1954–27 January 1955, #s 11,650–11,697/54, Evaluation Information Items, Information Items, General Records, Records of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute, HU OSA.
71 ‘Body search in the Győr Schools in Order to find the Focus Leaflets’, 20 November 1954, Item No. 10,363/54, HU OSA 300-1-2:46, 20 Nov – 8 December 1954, #s 9480 – 10,249, Evaluation Information Items, Information Items, General Records, Records of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute, HU OSA.
72 Foreign Ministry of the Hungarian People’s Republic to U.S. Legation in Budapest, 15 October 1954, 1, Box 26, Folder State Dept. 1956 (Prior to Oct. 23), John P.C.Matthews Collection, HIA. The National Hungarian Archives houses the records of the Foreign Ministry and would provide further insight into the Hungarian government’s internal discussions regarding the Free Europe Press’ balloon campaign.
73 ‘Text of Hungarian Protest Note’, 15 October 1954, 1, Box 152, Folder 152.7, Balloons: Hungary Operation Focus Effectiveness, RFE/RL Corporate Records, Inc., HIA.
74 Ibid.
75 Ibid.
76 ‘Telex from Ravndal to the Secretary of State, No. 222’, 8 November 1954, 511.64/11-854, Box 2462, 511.64/1-450 to 511.6441/12-2951, Decimal File 1950–1954, Department of State, Record Group 59, National Archives at College Park, College Park, Maryland [NARA II].
77 ‘Memorandum from Mr. Thurston to Mr. Merchant, Subject: The Current Situation in Hungry’, 4 November 1954, Box 3935, 764.00/8-253 to 764.00/12-2854, Decimal File 1950–1954, Department of State, Record Group 59, NARA II.
78 ‘Operation Focus, Vol. III’, 1–5, Box 25, Folder Free Europe – Balloon Campaign- Analytical Results, Series IV: Subject Files, Imre Kovacs Papers, 1945–1980, RBML.
79 ‘Memorandum from Mr. Thurston to Mr. Merchant’.
80 ‘Telex to Griffith’, Box 22, Folder FEP Balloons Press Reports (NYT, etc.), Free Europe Comm. Press Release, John P.C. Matthews Collection, HIA.
81 ‘Memorandum from Mr. Murphy to Mr. Wellborn, Mr., Beam, Subject: Differences on Matters of Policy Between Board Members of Free Europe Committee and the Department’, 29 November 1955, Box 27, Folder Satellites 1949–1955, Miscellaneous Office Files of the Assistant Secretaries of State for European Affairs, 1943–1957, Miscellaneous Lot Files, Record Group 59, NARA II.
82 ‘Telex from Galantiere to Shepardson, Lang, Walker’, 18 October 1954, Box 152, Folder 152.5, Balloons, Hungary, General, RFE/RL, Inc., Corporate Records, HIA.
83 ‘Telex to American Delegation, Budapest’, 27 October 1954, 511.642/1-1554, Box 2462, 511.64/1-450 to 511.6441/12-2951, Decimal File 1950–1954, Department of State, Record Group 59, NARA II.
84 Christian Ravndal was a protégé of C.D. Jackson, who described Ravndal as ‘understand[ing] and us[ing] psychological warfare better than practically any other Ambassador I have ever met’. Ravndal was a strong proponent of the use of psychological warfare tactics in Eastern Europe and a staunch supporter of the Free Europe Committee’s activities throughout the region.
85 ‘Telex from Mr. Merchant to Mr. Murphy, Subject: Reply to Hungarian Protest Concerning RFE Balloon Drops’, 9 November 1954, 1, 511.64/11-554, Box 2462, 511.64/1-450 to 511.6441/12-2951, Decimal File 1950–1954, Department of State, Record Group 59, NARA II.
86 ‘Telex from Ravndal to the Secretary of State, No. 222’, 8 November 1954, 511.64/11-854, p.1, Box 2462, 511.64/1-450 to 511.6441/12-2951, Decimal File 1950–1954, Department of State, Record Group 59, NARA II; and Memorandum from Lewis Galantiere to Mr. Shepardson, 13 December 1954, 2, Box 190, Folder 190.12 Free Europe Committee, Inc., Memoranda 1951–1955, RFE/RL, Inc., Corporate Records, HIA.
87 ‘Letter from C.D. Jackson to Allen Dulles’, 24 November 1954, Box 48, Folder Dulles, Allen (4) Jackson, C.D.: Papers, 1931–1967, DDE.
88 ‘Telex to American Delegation, Budapest’, 27 October 1954, Box 2462, 511.64/1-450 to 511.6441/12-2951, Decimal File 1950–1954, Department of State, Record Group 59, NARA II.
89 ‘Press Release’, 20 December 1954, 1, Box 152, Folder 152.5, Balloons, Hungary, General, RFE/RL, Inc., Corporate Records, HIA.
90 Ibid.
91 Larry D. Collins, ‘The Free Europe Committee: An American Weapon of the Cold War’ (Ph.D. Dissertation, Carleton University, Ottawa, 1973), 227.
92 ‘Memorandum from Richard J. Condon to All Correspondents, Subject: VETO, FOCUS and Audience Analysis Interviews’, 10 January 1955, Box 152, Folder 152.6, Balloons, Hungary, General, 1955, RFE/RL, Inc., Corporate Records, HIA.
93 ‘HOP 3 (2)’, Box 2, Folder 2.18 Free Europe Press: Hungarian: Szabad Magyardrszak, No. 2, 2nd Ed., Free Europe Press Issuances, HIA.
94 Anthony Eden, The Eden-Eisenhower Correspondence, 1955–1957, ed. Peter G. Boyle (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2005), 63.
95 ‘Memorandum for Mr. Armstrong, Mr. Murphy, Mr. Merchant’, 7 February 1956, Box 28, Folder Balloons, Miscellaneous Office Files of the Assistant Secretaries of State for European Affairs, 1943–1957, Miscellaneous Lot Files, Record Group 59, NARA II.
96 ‘The Anti-Balloon Campaign’, 2, Box 22, Folder FEP Balloons Press Reports (NYT, etc.), Free Europe Comm. Press Release, John P.C. Matthews Collection, HIA.
97 ‘Daily Guidance’, 8 February 1956, Box 2725, Folder 2725.5 Programme Summaries 1956, January-March, RFE/RL Broadcast Records, HIA.
98 ‘Telephone Call to Sec. Quarles’, 6 February 1956, Box 5, Folder Memoranda of Telecom. General 3 January 1956–30 April 1956 (3), Telephone Conversation Series, Dulles, John Foster: Papers, DDE. ‘Recommended Strategy’, 6 March 1956, 2, Box 219, Folder Diary 1956, Adolf. A Berle Papers, Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, Hyde Park, New York; In an effort to prevent an overt denouncement of the Free Europe Press’ activities, Allen Dulles insisted that the State Department include the word ‘provisionally’ in its promise to halt the balloon operations.
99 ‘Letter from Allen Dulles to C.D. Jackson’, 12 February 1956, Box 48, Folder Dulles, Allen (3) Jackson, C.D.: Papers, 1931–1967, DDE.
100 ‘Letter from C.D. Jackson to Allen Dulles’, 14 February 1956, Box 48, Folder Dulles, Allen (3) Jackson, C.D.: Papers, 1931–1967, DDE.
101 ‘Telex from Condon, O’Connor, Griffith to Egan, Hunt, Galantiere’, 10 February 1956, Box 150, Alphabetical File, Folder 150.15, Balloons, General 1951–1956, RFE/RL, Inc., Corporate Records, HIA.
102 ‘Telex from Condon, Weaver, Griffith to Shepardson, Walker, Egan, Galentiere’, 28 February 1956, Box 150, Alphabetical Files, Folder 150.15, Balloons, General 1951–1956, RFE/RL, Inc., Corporate Records, HIA.
103 Johnson, Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, 73.
104 Puddington, Broadcasting Freedom, 74.
105 ‘Letter from S.S. Walker, Jr. to W.H. Shepardson’, 9 March 1956, HU OSA 312-0-5, Box 2, Free Europe Committee Balloon Programme 1951–2010, Folder S. S. Walker Collection, Hoover Institution Library and Archives, Archival Reference Material, Alfred Reisch Collection, HU OSA.
106 Reisch, Hot Books, 18.
107 Ibid., 24.
108 ‘RFE and FEP Operation to Hungary and Poland, 1 October – 1 December 1956’, 7 December 1956, Box 2, Folder Untitled, Samuel S. Walker Papers, HIA.
109 20-M, 21 March 1957, Box 1, Interviews 11–30, Folder 11–20 Hungarian Refugees Project Records, 1957–1959, RBML.
110 19-M, 21 March 1957, Box 1, Interviews 11–30, Folder 11–20 Hungarian Refugees Project Records, 1957–1959, RBML.
111 54-M, 20–1 May 1957, Box 4, Interviews 51–70, Folder 51–60 Hungarian Refugees Project Records, 1957–1959, RBML.