p Today radio broadcasting has become very important worldwide. Every day millions of people on every continent tune in their radio sets to find out what is going on in the world today and what mankind is to expect tomorrow. The radio is the first to bring news of political crises and economic upheavals and to convey people’s concern for the future of the world. It is the first to tell people about scientific achievements, cultural events and sports records. The world’s hopes and sense of anger, its joy and pain can be perceived by every radio listener, determining his or her attitude to what is going on in the world. That is why an enormous responsibility must be placed on radio stations for their programmes.

p There are radio stations all over the world, which act as a country’s visiting card on the air. These are the BBC or Sveriges Radio AB in the north of Europe; Radio Vatican or Radio Monte Carlo in the south; the Voice of America or Radio Canada International in the west; and Radio Moscow or Radio Beijing in the east. And no matter where a citizen of one or another country happens to be, no matter where his private interests or official duties take him, he always tries to pick up the call signs of his country’s radio so as to keep in 7 touch with his people and share their joys and sorrows.

p British businessman George Nicholson once described his wartime experience at Dunkirk. The British soldiers, he recalled, were lying in the sands, afraid to move. The guns were roaring everywhere, shells whistling and bursting. It seemed as though the entire earth had sunk into the dreadful hell of war. The soldiers did not have the strength to raise their heads and go into the attack. Then suddenly they heard on the radio the chimes of Big Ben and the familiar BBC call signs. England was alive! England was fighting! The Nazis and the roar of the guns no longer seemed so terrible and the British soldiers were fully determined to charge the enemy. The participants in the French Resistance and fearless Maquis felt exactly the same way when they picked up the Free French call signs, as did the partisans in Byelorussia and the Ukraine while listening to Sovinformburo reports.

p Radio broadcasts, including those beamed at foreign countries, can really serve the noble goals of,human communication, cultural enrichment, knowledge and, of course, entertaining their listeners. Today radio remains the quickest, most widespread and accessible instrument for disseminating information. According to data from UNESCO, about 80 countries use radio broadcasts in the interests of maintaining peace and goodneighbourly relations, respecting the laws and way of thinking of foreign radio listeners and playing the role of an essential means of cultural exhange, information and education.

p The present book deals with a particular sphere of Western radio—propaganda broadcasts beamed abroad, as well as with the mechanism of propaganda institutions and the guidelines the latter follow in preparing radio programmes for transmission to other countries. Much attention is also given to those in the West who have been and continue to be fundamentally responsible for political propaganda aimed at other countries, to those who determine the content of 8 broadcasts today and who are responsible for their consequences.

p It is the ruling circles in the Western countries who really determine the ideological and political line of programmes broadcast to other countries. It is their fault that, instead of serving as a means of international communication, a channel for disseminating objective information and a rostrum for cultural exchange, these transmissions have become an instrument of exerting political and ideological pressure on citizens in other countries, a weapon of misinformation and political subversion and a platform from which doubtful values of mass culture are forced upon listeners abroad. It is precisely in the sphere of radio transmissions abroad that Western governments should show restraint and respect for listeners and abandon any attempts to interfere in the internal affairs, social system and the operation of the bodies of power of other members of the international community.

p The entire course of history shows that Western radio broadcasts beamed at foreign countries have gradually turned from a means of international communication into that pf sowing international discord and whipping up tension. Over the last few decades this tendency has developed with increasing rapidity. After commencing with occasional subversive broadcasts in the 1930s and 1940s, Western radio stations then began to carry out systematic psychological subversion during the cold war period, and from the mass brainwashing of listeners abroad they have now embarked on a radio war, launching direct acts of aggression on the air. For example, American Congressman Edward Derwinski directly stated that "unbeknown to most Americans, we /the Americans/ are involved in an international radio war"^^1^^. Charles Z. Wick, Director of the United States Information Agency (USIA), once noted: "We are at war with the Soviets, whether de facto or declared.”^^2^^ When asked to clarify his statement, Wick stated that he had meant a war of ideas. It appears from these statements 9 that for some time now the United States has equated radio broadcasting to other countries with a radio war. It is noteworthy that the West has attempted to accuse the Soviet Union of escalating the "radio war" and incite it to indulge in aggressive broadcasts. However, the evidence and facts available clearly show that imperialism is waging the radio war unilaterally. Indeed, the USSR devotes considerable attention to broadcasting to other countries but, being aware of its responsibility for maintaining a positive climate in international relations, it has never resorted to radio warfare.

p The Soviet people understand very well that the international political climate, mutual trust between nations and countries and hence the future of the world largely depend on what information is disseminated by radio and the ways in which it is done. There is no room for a war of words. There is a need for an open and honest dialogue on a global scale.

p The involvement of the special secret services was a critical stage in the evolution of Western radio broadcasts beamed to other countries. To date this process has been completed with the establishment pf intelligence-gathering propaganda centres on the basis of radio stations. With this in mind, the present book devotes special attention to the study of the subversive activities conducted by special services in the, NATO countries under the guise of radio broadcasts and exposes the aims and mechanism of their interaction with the agencies of propaganda for dissemination abroad.

p An attempt has also been made to show the reader the moral make-up of the modern “knights” of the radio war, their creed and essence. As presented by certain Western circles, these people personify the best ideals of Western society and act as the bearers of worthy moral values. But let the reader not be surprised at the shocking degradation of the mercenaries in this radio war: as a rule, shady characters are easily found to engage in a dubious undertaking.

The present authors have made extensive use of reference material: books, newspapers and journals published in the West, treatises by Soviet experts on the problems of Western radio broadcasting, relevant works recently published in the socialist countries, as well as material supplied by TASS and Novosti Press Agency. We are grateful to those Soviet and foreign journalists who have been so kind as to make their documents and dossiers available for our use.