Page 204 - Gobierno ivisible

Date: 4/5/2011 Page: 204 of 237

The report added it was "regrettable that Radio Free Europe is still entirely financed by the U.S.A. ... Radio Free
Europe depends entirely on American funds and is consequently a purely American affair ... actual political
leadership and the last word rest with the American management."

In June, 1957, a United Nations special committee on Hungary came in with its verdict on RFE:

"Listeners had the feeling that Radio Free Europe promised help ... the general tone of these broadcasts aroused an
expectation of support ... In a tense atmosphere such as that prevailing in Hungary during these critical weeks ...
the generally hopeful tone of such broadcasts may well have been overemphasized in the process of passing from
mouth to mouth ...

"The attitude of the Hungarian people towards foreign broadcasting was perhaps best summed up by the student
...who said: 'It was our only hope, and we tried to console ourselves with it.' It would appear that certain
broadcasts by Radio Free Europe helped to create an impression that support might be forthcoming for the
Hungarians. The Committee feels that in such circumstances the greatest restraint and circumspection are called
for in international broadcasting."

The three cautiously phrased reports, in other words, found in varying degree that RFE's broadcasts, while they
did not promise aid in so many words, "helped to create an impression," as the UN put it, that assistance might be
on the way.

One RFE broadcast that might have contributed to this was a news report of Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge's
words in the UN. Lodge said the Hungarian resistance had given the UN "a brief moment in which to mobilize the
conscience of the world on your behalf. We are seizing that moment and we will not fail you."

Another RFE broadcast during the revolt gave instructions on how to blow up attacking Soviet tanks.

While none of the inquiries produced any evidence that RFE actually promised military aid, there is no doubt that
it encouraged the revolutionary fighters. For example, one script broadcast to Hungary by RFE on November 3, as
Soviet tanks ringed Budapest, said:

"The Soviet monster stands at our gates ... the eight days' victorious revolution have turned Hungary into a free
land ... Neither Khrushchev nor the whole of the Soviet army have the power to oppress this new liberty ... What
can you do against Hungary, you Soviet legions? It is in vain to pierce Hungarian souls with your bayonets. You
can destroy and shoot and kill: our freedom will now forevermore defy you ..." [5]

In his book The Bridge at Andau, James A. Michener said that RFE did not incite the uprising "but this radio did
broadcast messages of freedom and is presumably still doing so. Are we now prepared to assume direct
responsibility for these messages? How long can we broadcast such messages without assuming direct
responsibility for our words?" [6]

Michener's question is well worth pondering. The effect of RFE's words is nowhere more heartbreakingly
recorded than in the broadcasts from inside Hungary in the dying hours of the revolt. Better than any UN or other
investigation, they reflect how the men and women inside Hungary, whether rightly or wrongly, regarded the role
of RFE.

On the afternoon of November 5, Radio Free Rakoczi broadcast this message from inside Hungary at 13:48 hours:
[7]