The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM F.
THE HOME FRONT William E. Bohn A Tireless U.S. Voice WHETHER THE WORLD of the future is to be Communist or free depends upon the thinking which people will do during the next 10 or 20...
...Many people believe that the whole institution will benefit from Murrow's wide experience in radio and television and his general prominence in the public-relations world...
...The last time I was in Washington I had the good fortune to talk with Alexander A. Klieforth, the Program Director of the Voice...
...Voice WHETHER THE WORLD of the future is to be Communist or free depends upon the thinking which people will do during the next 10 or 20 years...
...If you can convince millions of people with an argument, it is not only inhuman but stupid to blow them up with an atomic bomb...
...Broadcasting is carried on in 170 of the 900 African languages...
...But the new management seems to have brought no change in policy, although worldwide improvements in programing and equipment have, perhaps, been speeded up...
...And it is likely to remain that way...
...A new station, which will cost more than $25 million, is being put up at Greenville, North Carolina...
...The Voice operates over 87 radio transmitters, 30 in the United States and 57 overseas...
...To be sure, there is jamming, but it is expensive and can never be completely effective...
...Whenever I visit the Voice's busy and crowded headquarters, I feel that I am among people who understand democracy, who believe in it and are working hammer-and-tongs, tooth-and-nail to make sure it is understood throughout the world...
...There are editors, clergymen, educators and politicians in this country who hardly know what Communism is...
...Special attention is given to communications to Latin America in both Spanish and Portuguese...
...Present appropriations for the Voice are obviously inadequate...
...Edward R. Murrow is the Director of the United States Information Agency, of which the Voice is a branch...
...It is estimated that some 20 million listen more or less regularly to direct broadcasts and about 65 million to rebroadcasts by local stations...
...The situation is much the same as it was during the struggle between Mohammedans and Christians in the Middle Ages, or when Catholics and Protestants battled it out during the time of the Reformation...
...Broadcasting is carried on directly in 36 languages and indirectly in 27 more...
...When we call our own struggle a "cold war" we mean that thus far it has been a battle of arguments rather than of bombs and rockets...
...Another, which will come to about half as much, is going up near Monrovia, Liberia...
...The Communists spend some $112 million a year to keep our messages out, about six times the Voice's total budget...
...But there is also one American organization whose members understand precisely what Communism is, and it is operating energetically and effectively to tell the truth about it all over the world...
...Klieforth and other officials of the Voice with whom I talked agreed that Murrow's appointment has brought new liveliness to the organization...
...Both these periods witnessed long and complicated wars...
...But when the chips were down, it was the people's thinking rather than the fighting that determined history's course...
...Even when a jamming operation is theoretically 100 per cent satisfactory, 40-95 per cent of the broadcasts get through...
...Programs go out to the USSR for six hours daily, and there are regular shows to the satellites...
...In the field of broadcasting, the Soviet Union is first, Communist China is second and the United States— please note!—is tied for third place with the United Arab Republic...
...Many of us on the democratic side are poorly prepared for this historic conflict...
...It is only by doing their very best with what they have that our men have been able to make such a magnificent showing...
...And the station at Wooferton, England, is about to undergo important improvements...
...The people at the Voice are tireless and infinitely ingenious in devising means of spreading the truth...
...The organization to which I refer is, of course, the Voice of America...
Vol. 45 • January 1962 • No. 2
