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OPINION:
President 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 denied access by their own governments to the truth.
Reagan selected Charles Wick, a successful businessman, to head the U.S. Information Agency and William J. Casey, his former campaign manager and successful businessman, as director of the CIA. Mr. Wick had an array of agencies — Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, Radio Marti to Cuba and others — to provide news and analysis in 27 languages to 23 countries. Mr. Casey was to assist by supporting the Solidarity labor movement in Poland and developing methods for USIA to penetrate the Iron Curtain to reach the people who were denied access to truthful information.
Information such as Samizdat literature, banned by Moscow, was getting into the Soviet Union. When Mikhail Gorbachev was elected supreme leader in March 1985, he inherited a demoralized and financially bankrupt country. In November 1986, Gorbachev withdrew all Soviet combat troops from Afghanistan to end a war that cost Moscow $4 billion to $5 billion annually and caused heavy casualties. He implemented a policy of openness (glasnost) and economic and political reform (perestroika). In August 1991, Gorbachev resigned. Shortly thereafter, Ukraine and Belarus declared independence and the Baltic states sought international recognition as sovereign states. That was the end of the Cold War.
Much of the credit must go to Reagan for ending the Cold War. The Reagan administration worked to give people in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe accurate news and analysis about their countries and the world and access to literature their governments were denying to the public. This contributed to Gorbachev’s implementation of glasnost. Indeed, an informed public demanded the truth from their government, and it was the truth that helped end the Cold War and facilitate the dissolution of the Soviet empire.
The recent decision to dismantle the Voice of America, Radio Free Asia and other government media organizations is unfortunate. VOA, established in 1942, serves a weekly audience of 360 million in 50 languages. The Agency for Global Media, which oversees VOA, manages organizations that broadcast in 64 languages, reaching 427 million people. Why would we cease communicating with the people in Iran with Radio Free Europe/Radio Farda, which is heard by more than 6 million people each week? Why would we stop communicating with the people in all these countries, especially those in autocracies that censor news and deny access to truthful news and analysis?
Unfortunately, we live in a global community that mirrors the Cold War, with autocrats controlling 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 best interests.
Many of our adversaries welcomed the international reaction to VOA’s dismantlement. China’s Global Times called VOA “a lie factory.” Moscow, Tehran, Pyongyang and others no doubt share this view. These countries fear the truth.
Communicating with the global community is in our interest.
• The author is the former special assistant to CIA Director William J. Casey, former director of the National Counterproliferation Center and former associate director of national intelligence. The views are the author’s and not any government agency or department.
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