OPINION — President Ronald Reagan believed in the power of communication. He aimed to inform a global audience about American values and find ways to provide truthful information and analysis to those who were denied access by their own government to the truth.
President Reagan selected Charles Wick, a successful businessman, to head the U.S. Information Agency (USIA) and William J. Casey, his former campaign manager and successful businessman, to be Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Mr. Wick had an array of agencies – Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, Radio Marti (directed at Cuba) and others – which provided news and analysis in twenty-seven languages to twenty-three countries. Mr. Casey would assist, providing support, for example, to the Solidarity labor movement in Poland and methods for USIA to penetrate the Iron Curtain to reach people who had been denied access to truthful information.
During the Reagan years, information was getting into the former Soviet Union, to include Russian literature (Samizdat) banned by Moscow. When Mikhail Gorbachev was elected supreme leader in March 1985, he inherited a demoralized and financially bankrupt country. In November 1986, Mr. Gorbachev made the decision to withdraw all Soviet combat troops from Afghanistan; that deployment was costing Moscow $4-$5 billion per year, and the Soviets were suffering heavy casualties. Gorbachev also implemented a policy of openness (Glasnost) and economic and political reform (Perestroika) for the beleaguered Soviet Union. In August 1991, Gorbachev resigned and shortly thereafter Ukraine and Belarus declared independence and the Baltic States sought international recognition as sovereign states. hat was the end of the Cold War.
Much of the credit must go to President Ronald Reagan for ending the Cold War with the Soviet Union. Among other things, the Reagan administration worked to give people in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe accurate news and analysis about their own countries and the world, along with access to literature their own governments were denying to the public. This contributed to Gorbachev’s decision to implement the Glasnost policy. Indeed, an informed public demanded the truth from their government, and it was the truth that helped to end the Cold War and facilitate the dissolution of the Soviet empire.
The Trump administration’s recent decision to dismantle the Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Asia and other government media organizations is unfortunate. VOA, established in 1942, serves an audience of 360 million people each week in 50 languages. The Agency for Global Media that oversees VOA manages organizations that broadcast in 64 languages, reaching 427 million people. Why would we cease communicating with the people in Iran via Radio Free Europe/Radio Farda, which is heard by over six million people each week? Why would we stop communicating with the people in all these countries, especially those in autocracies that censor the news and deny their people access to truthful news and analysis?
We live in a global community and a time that unfortunately mirrors the Cold War, with autocrats in different parts of the world controlling access to news and information. We should proudly communicate the narrative of the United States and its liberal democracy and values, while ensuring that objective and independent news and analysis are accessible to everyone, especially those residing in countries where the news is censored. Information is powerful, and unilaterally deciding to stop communicating with other countries is not in our interest.
The international reaction to the dismantling of VOA was welcomed by many of our adversaries. China’s Global Times called VOA “a lie factory.” Moscow, Tehran, Pyongyang and others no doubt share this view. These countries fear the truth.
This column by Cipher Brief Expert Ambassador Joseph DeTrani was first published in The Washington Times
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