Guidance for Radio Free Europe Broadcasts

Senior officials discuss US policy at a National Security Council (NSC) principals' meeting on July 12. Notwithstanding less cautionary views expressed by Vice President Nixon at the NSC discussion, on July 18 President Eisenhower approved a minor modification of the draft (NSC 5608 and the annex) as NSC 5608/1 to serve as a basic statement of U.S. policy (published as redacted document 80, FRUS, 1955-57, XXV ; unredacted document 17, Békés, Byrne, and Rainer, The 1956 Hungarian Revolution).

CIA and Free Europe Committee (FEC) restate policy for Radio Free Europe in the context of the 1956 upheaval in the Communist world.

A CIA/International Operations Division official recommends policies to guide RFE broadcasting to Hungary during the revolution.

Radio Free Europe (RFE) Director Conerey Egan in New York telephones RFE Deputy Director Richard Condon in Munich to direct that RFE should report Hungarian developments and insurgent demands but not take a position for or against individual leaders or political parties.

CIA redistributes a State Department message of November 1 endorsing RL’s [temporary] ban on commentary on Hungarian events.

An authoritative, cautionary US government guidance, approved by Allen Dulles and Deputy Undersecretary of State Robert Murphy, conveyed to the Free Europe Committee that afternoon.

CIA provides the White House with an early appraisal of RFE broadcasting to Hungary during the Revolution.

CIA/International Operations Division routing slips raise questions about an attached Free Europe Committee (FEC) draft dated November 12 on the FEC’s role in the wake of the Hungarian Revolution and note that the FEC [in New York] did not forward to Radio Free Europe Munich certain CIA guidances on broadcast policy.

The State Department approves with “comments and recommendations” a November 15, 1956, CIA/International Operations Division draft of revised guidelines for the Free Europe Committee (FEC) with handwritten revisions [presumably by a State official].