The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn Rad io Liberation & the Bear-Tamer Radio Liberation, broadcasting from a network of stations which cover the Soviet Union from all directions, offers American...
...And so, one night in Aachen...
...There is only one preliminary question which he will ask: Does the message get through...
...Our leaders think that if we spend a lot of money in the right places we may be able to keep Communism out of the countries which are not yet infected...
...The final straw came one night when he heard Foreign Minister Molotov say over the radio that there had been no Russian soldiers in Korea...
...He was just an ordinary sort of guy, going along with the show and taking care of his bears...
...Starting with one station at Munich almost four years ago, the project now has 11 stations blanketing the USSR with 228 broadcasting hours...
...West Germany, where his company was on tour, the young man said goodbye to his bears and started out in the big world of the West...
...At first, it was just a means of entertainment...
...Such men are respected and listened to at home...
...The messages are beamed out in 17 of the languages of the Soviet world, each spoken by a native in exile...
...they are all men with a personal and perennial mission to liberate their homeland...
...Radio Liberation is supported by Americans, but it is run by Russians...
...Hundreds more contribute to the programming as free-lance writers and speakers...
...THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn Rad io Liberation & the Bear-Tamer Radio Liberation, broadcasting from a network of stations which cover the Soviet Union from all directions, offers American anti-Communists their surest escape from frustration...
...When a young enthusiast ventures to mention the notion of revolution in Russia, he is benignly smiled down upon...
...All that we dare to say officially is that Communism may be "contained...
...AmComLib, as the institution soon came to be called, has sent out an exciting pamphlet which explains its purposes and methods: "The emigration from the USSR, scattered over many nations, had to be brought into cooperation with the venture, in order to give the broadcasts authority...
...These are none of them commercial broadcasters...
...They are so constituted that Communism somehow suits them...
...If we can get across to people in Russia the simple notion that our way is better than theirs, that we are honest and decent, that we are ready to join them in building a safe and peaceful world, their crazy structure will come tumbling down...
...They don't love liberty as we do...
...The Soviet system will not he beaten with atom bombs or economic aid or diplomatic cleverless...
...They like to be shoved around and sent off to slave-labor camps...
...But as for the enormous populations of Russia, China and the satellites, we may as well say goodbye to them...
...Each staff member," the author of the pamphlet explains, "has a personal history—and a profound personal insight based on that history —which enables him to speak in terms and tones convincing and compelling to listeners in the LTSSR...
...Negotiations had to be pursued with foreign governments for the location of studio and transmitter facilities on their soil...
...But every night, after everything had been packed away and the bears had gone to sleep, Viktor would turn on the Munich broadcast...
...It will be overcome by ideas and human faith...
...They know that the Russians back home are about like other people...
...The men who write the scripts and do the broadcasting begin with a piece of knowledge which remains hidden from most Americans...
...Ivan loves liberty even as you and I. And he doesn't enjoy being shoved around any more than anyone else...
...The ablest emigres in the writing and broadcasting fields had to be located and teamed up as a station staff in order to give the programs quality...
...It is from this point of view that the pamphlet sent out by Radio Liberation is peculiarly satisfactory...
...We have no effective strategy...
...But in time he got the idea that there was a different world outside and that things were better there...
...It is entitled Sparks into the USSR, and you can secure a copy by writing to the station at 6 East 45th Street, New York, N. Y. Here is a typical little story about a 26-year-old bear-tamer, Viktor Iljinsky...
...And the men behind Radio Liberation have the most straightforward and effective means to put this idea across...
...When a Byelorussian or a Georgian turns on a broadcast, he hears a fellow countryman talking—only this is a man who is free in the outside world...
...Naturally, all this costs money— not as much as an atom bomb, but still millions...
...Any American, any genuine democrat, any anti-Communist will be glad to give what he can...
...His first impulse, of course, was to tell his tale to the men of Radio Liberation who had given him the idea of escape...
...That aroused Viktor, for he had been a non-commissioned officer there himself...
...Does any answering cry come from the vast masses of Russian people or their oppressed satellites...
...Most of us take it for granted that the Russians are different from us...
...The things we do and say do not get through to the great masses over there...
...Now picture 150 former residents of the USSR conceiving, organizing and presenting Radio Liberation's programs to its vast and mysterious audience...
...Here we are in the midst of this actionless, motionless, stiff-frozen cold war...
Vol. 40 • March 1957 • No. 9
