The papers of Klement Simoncic comprise six manuscript boxes of correspondence, minutes of meetings, notes, photographs, reports, reviews, and other matter relating to Radio Free Europe (RFE) in the 1950s-70s and the creation and functions of the Society of International Broadcasters. The materials add new dimensions to the history of RFE/Radio Liberty (RL) and international broadcasting.

Simoncic served on the Czech desk of Radio Free Europe from its beginning; among his earliest papers are press reviews to be broadcast dated June 1951. Later papers (1970s-80s) deal with labor relations at RFE/RL and with the creation of the Society of International Broadcasters, a membership organization established in 1977 and devoted to promoting the interests of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s (RFE/RL) employees as well as the interests of U.S. international broadcasting by putting pressure on the U.S. government to continue and expand its support of international broadcasting. The organization was headed by Major General C. Rodney Smith, a former director of RFE/RL.

The collection is especially significant in that it supplements the corporate records of RFE/RL, Inc., and adds to our knowledge of how it operated. Until now, the RFE/RL corporate records, though extensive, are incomplete; the early period of the Radios’ existence has been particularly poorly represented. New acquisitions such as the Simoncic papers allow researchers to gain better access to the organization’s history, not just because they add volume to the existing records but also because they offer a different viewpoint: that of the RFE employee. And, because the history of RFE/RL is in many ways the history of the cold war, such collections are particularly valuable and useful to researchers.