In April 1949, someone mailed a letter from Ravenna, Italy to the Voice of America (VOA) office in Rome at Via Vittorio Veneto 62. The envelope was addressed to “LA VOCE DELL ‘ AMERICA” (THE VOICE OF AMERICA). It had no return address. It was stamped by the Italian Post Office in Ravenna on April 9, 1949 and by the Post Office in Rome on April 10, 1949. Italy did not need Mussolini to make its Postal Service and trains function efficiently. The envelope, purchased by me on e-Bay, was empty. We do not know what the letter writer wanted from the Voice of America. He or she may have been requesting a program schedule or responding to one of VOA’s on-air contests. In 1949, the Voice of America was slowly changing from its earlier fascination with the Soviet Union and support for Stalin’s control over East-Central Europe but did not yet start countering Soviet propaganda.
Via Veneto 62 is now a luxury hotel very close to the U.S. Embassy building in Rome. Immediately after World War II, it housed the U.S. Embassy Library and presumably a Voice of America office or was used by VOA as a mailing address.
In 1945, President Truman abolished the U.S. Office of War Information (OWI) where the Voice of America operated during the war and placed VOA within the State Department. That’s where VOA was in 1949. In non-communist countries, VOA services often used local U.S. Embassy addresses to make it easier and less costly for listeners to send letters.
After getting rid of the OWI, the Truman Administration closed down many VOA services which were viewed as no longer necessary after the end of the war or suspected of being dominated by pro-Soviet communist journalists who had controlled most of VOA broadcasts during wartime and in some cases remained as State Department VOA employees after the war. The VOA Italian Service was suspected of being under heavy communist and socialist influence during the war as were all VOA services under the strongly pro-Soviet OWI and VOA senior management. Communist journalists employed by the first VOA Director John Houseman promoted Soviet propaganda lies, but non-communist VOA journalists, many of them socialists, were also deceived by Soviet propaganda. With the exception of a few broadcasters who were quickly silenced or marginalized, the entire wartime Voice of America glorified Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin not only because at that time the Red Army was fighting Hitler’s Germany as America’s most valuable military ally but also because many of these journalists and their bosses were fooled by Soviet disinformation. They became unwitting agents of influence for a mass murderer and a highly repressive political system which to them appeared very progressive. Few original Voice of America World War II recordings and scripts have been preserved, but Sandro Gerbi, a nephew of one of the early VOA Italian broadcasters, Giuliano Gerbi (1905-1976), whose on-air name was Mario Verdi, found a VOA script dated December 21, 1943 which was recorded by his uncle. 1
Today Marshal Stalin is 64. It is perhaps the happiest birthday of the Soviet Statesmans’s entire political and military life. The most sumptuous gift has come from his soldiers. The most gratifying reward for him is the consciousness that he has done everything in his power for the good of his Country. His talents had already manifested themselves through his policies in times of peace. Through an intense campaign to raise the spirit of the Russian people, to give this people, enslaved by the Tsars, the awareness of their own national strength (December 21, 1943). Sandro Gerbi, “Italy and the Voice of America” (Columbia University: Centro Primo Levi New York, 2010), https://primolevicenter.org/italy-and-the-voice-of-america/.
“ITALIAN — 1942 to 1957
Italian was the second language to be broadcast from New York on February 24/25, 1942. The service was discontinued on July 7, 1957 (Pirsen, Network Traffic).” 3 “The European Division VOA/PE” (Washington, DC: Voice of America, July 1981).
Everyone, Mr. Chairman, appreciates the value of psychological warfare on fighting fronts—no one would deny a dollar necessary for that purpose.
It is charged, however and constantly charged that some of the work of the O.W.I. has been harmful, that much of the work has been valueless and wasteful and that the agency’s personnel is not in the condition it should be.
For my part I am frank to confess that I think there is ample evidence to justify grave misgivings on all three counts.
Several Senators who made a tour of the world during the last year on their return were very critical of the work of this agency, of the work done in Allied and neutral countries, particularly in Australia and India. Others of standing returning from Europe have a similar point of view. It has been stated to me and stated repeatedly by persons of such authority that I cannot brush aside the statements, that much of the broadcasting of O. W. I. to friendly countries has been sheer communism and to that extent harmful rather than helpful to the war effort. The foreign language press of this country has been repeatedly critical of the work of the O. W. I. Serious criticism has been directed at the Hungarian desk, the Italian desk, the Polish desk, and the Yugoslav desk.
We all know that it was reported authoritatively last autumn that the American Federation of Labor and the Committee for lndustrial Organizations had liquidated their labor short wave bureau set up to aid O.W.I. after protesting for months to Mr. Davis that the O.W.I. overseas branch was regularly broadcasting communistic propaganda; that they liquidated it because they could find no basis for agreement for the elimination of the O. W. I. communistic influence. They objected particularly, as you will recall, to the man who was then head of the bureau, retained because of the insistence of Mr. Barnes, despite his alleged communistic affiliations. It is interesting to note that the World Telegram of December 10, last, reported the resignation of this gentleman, stating that he had joined a pro-Communist labor news service which became in recent years a haven for Communist and fellow-traveler newspaper men.
These are serious charges, Mr. Chairman.
The CHAIRMAN. The time of the gentleman from Massachusetts has expired. 8
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. What percentage of the amount of money spent by O. W. I. for foreign propaganda is spent for propaganda within Great Britain or within countries where the English language is read and where the propaganda material is printed in English.
Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. I cannot give the gentleman a specific answer to that. There was a break-down in the hearings last November, as I recall it, but I do not think the present record brings it up to date.
Mr. TABER. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. I yield.
Mr. TABER. Fifty percent at least of the short-wave broadcasts going out of New York are in English. That applies probably about the same on the west coast. So that all of that might be said to be directed to the British as well as to those who understand English on the Continent. How many of them there might be I would not say.
The CHAIRMAN. The time of the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Wigglesworth] has expired.
Mr. TABER. Mr. Chairman, I yield the gentleman 10 additional minutes.
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. I yield.
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. How many English-speaking nations do we have listed among our enemies? Are there any? I know of no enemy of the United States today that speaks English. Yet, a great percentage, perhaps half or more of all the propaganda put out by the O. W. I. in their foreign branch, is printed or spoken in English. Evidently we are propagandizing not our enemies, but our allies. I wonder why it is necessary to spend so much money for that purpose. 9
It is known that General Dwight Eisenhower, Commander of North African Expeditionary Force, has appealed to the War Department for protection against the American propaganda being distributed by Sherwood’s O.W.I. on the ground that it is doing more harm to the expeditionary force than to enemy morale. 11 Houseman, Front and Center, p. 84.
Notes:
- Sandro Gerbi, “Italy and the Voice of America” (Columbia University: Centro Primo Levi New York, 2010), https://primolevicenter.org/italy-and-the-voice-of-america/. ↩
- Sandro Gerbi, “Italy and the Voice of America” (Columbia University: Centro Primo Levi New York, 2010), https://primolevicenter.org/italy-and-the-voice-of-america/. ↩
- “The European Division VOA/PE” (Washington, DC: Voice of America, July 1981). ↩
- John Houseman, Front and Center, 1st Touchstone ed, A Touchstone Book (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1980), p. 39. ↩
- Houseman, Front and Center, p. 59. ↩
- Houseman, Front and Center, p. 60. ↩
- Houseman, Front and Center, p. 69. ↩
- 90 Cong. Rec. (Bound) – Volume 90, Part 4 (May 12, 1944 to June 12, 1944), p. 5023, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1944-pt4/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1944-pt4-12-1.pdf. ↩
- 90 Cong. Rec. (Bound) – Volume 90, Part 4 (May 12, 1944 to June 12, 1944), p. 5022, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1944-pt4/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1944-pt4-12-1.pdf. ↩
- Houseman, Front and Center. p. 83. ↩
- Houseman, Front and Center, p. 84. ↩
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