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Voices of Hope: Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty

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bell
Image: 1/17

A 10-ton bell, symbol of Radio Free Europe, is lifted from the casting pit at the British foundry of Gillett and Johnston.

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broadcasters
Image: 2/17

Czech and Slovak broadcasters record a radio play in an RFE studio with assistance from U.S. army personnel.

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balloons_carried_boxes
Image: 3/17

Balloons carried boxes of leaflets whose text told the people that a new wind was blowing, a new hope was stirring. "Millions of free men and women have joined together and are sending you this message of friendship over the Winds of Freedom—which in the upper air always blow from West to East." On the leaflet’s reverse were listed the wavelengths of major free world stations transmitting to Czechoslovakia.

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Svoboda
Image: 4/17

Balloons being filled with hydrogen. Svoboda is Czech for "freedom."

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Josef Swiatlo
Image: 5/17

Josef Swiatlo was the most highly ranked defector from Poland. A 40-page booklet of his testimony was printed, and thousands of copies were dropped on the Polish countryside from 10-foot balloons.

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model
Image: 6/17

Collecting the news.

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news_collector
Image: 7/17

Collecting the news.

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prof
Image: 8/17

Collecting the news.

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Vladimir Bukovsky, Soviet dissident
Image: 9/17

RFE/RL hosted many forums on world issues at their Munich headquarters. Panel members Vladimir Bukovsky, Soviet dissident, scientist, and writer; and Robert Conquest, author, diplomat, and senior research fellow and Russian curator at the Hoover Institution, engage in a panel discussion on the implications of Mikhail Gorbachev’s glasnost policies, May 19, 1987.

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Howland Sargeant
Image: 10/17

Howland Sargeant, president of Amcomlib from 1954 to 1975, was decorated by the Spanish government with the Civil Order of Merit.

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Transmitters
Image: 11/17

Transmitters

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Hungarian Revolution
Image: 12/17

The Hungarian Revolution, 1956.

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Hungarian Revolution
Image: 13/17

The Hungarian Revolution, 1956.

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Hungarian Revolution
Image: 14/17

The Hungarian Revolution, 1956.

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bombed headquarters
Image: 15/17

The bombed headquarters of RFE/RL, Munich, February 21, 1981.

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Lech Walesa
Image: 16/17

Lech Walesa, former president of Poland. Unable to leave Poland as there was no guarantee that he could return, Walesa listens to the RFE broadcast from Oslo, where he has just been awarded the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize for his advocacy of human rights and his organization of Solidarity.

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tape library
Image: 17/17

The tape library in Lisbon, Portugal, former home to some of the more than 60,000 reels of broadcast tapes that will be arriving in the Hoover Institution Archives.

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