CIA Assessment of Radio Free Europe Hungarian Broadcasts

CIA/International Operations Division guidance for Radio Free Europe at the outset of the Hungarian Revolution calls for extensive use of President Eisenhower’s September 23 statement on maintaining the spirit of freedom and for caution in pre-judging Imre Nagy.

Frank Wisner discusses impressions of RFE broadcasts with interlocutors in Vienna

Cord Meyer forwards to Allen Dulles a State Department assessment dated November 13, 1956, of Radio Free Europe Hungarian and Polish broadcasts. The assessment was requested by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and was prepared by State Department official L. Randolph Higgs, responsible for coordinating RFE issues with CIA, and Meyer, who objected to an initial State Department draft.

Cord Meyer forwards to Allen Dulles, with extensive comment, deputy undersecretary of state Robert Murphy’s review, dated November 26, 1956, of selected RFE Hungarian program scripts. Meyer also forwards a CIA/IOD memorandum on RFE policy and program review procedures.

Cord Meyer informs Allen Dulles that Radio Free Europe (RFE) Hungarian broadcasts did not incite revolution or promise outside military intervention. He encloses his memorandum of November 16, 1956, on monitoring and program control of RFE and RL.

Routing slips indicate International Operations Division (IOD) dissatisfaction with the Free Europe Committee (FEC) response dated December 18 to an IOD letter to FEC dated December 3

Cord Meyer forwards to Allen Dulles as background for Operations Coordinating Board discussions a memorandum of that date on “Radio Free Europe – Review of Broadcasting Policy and Content.”

CIA Inspector General Lyman Kirkpatrick provides Allen Dulles with his assessment of RFE operations based on investigations in Munich and New York.