$14,935,000 Kept Nixon From Silencing Radio Liberty
By Marcus Boone ·
Soviet dissidents nearly lost their only free voice in a covert CIA operation that Nixon almost terminated, leaving several justifications for the station's existence still blacked out.
On December 17, 1969, Richard Nixon told a man named Mr. Mayo that he intended to terminate Radio Liberty. It was a budget discussion, the kind where sweeping geopolitical instruments are weighed against line items. For a moment, the American state considered silencing one of its primary psychological vectors into the Soviet Union.
This internal tension is captured in an undated memorandum from Henry Kissinger, then the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs, to President Nixon. The document, sourced from the Foreign Relations of the United States (State Dept) archive and marked "Secret; Eyes Only," serves as a frantic piece of damage control. Kissinger was not merely arguing for a budget; he was arguing against a unilateral retreat.
Ninety Percent Coverage
Nixon’s desire to cut the station prompted a rapid response from the intelligence community. On December 19, the CIA forwarded a memorandum—attached as Tab A to Kissinger's note—urging the President to reconsider. The arguments presented were based on cold metrics of reach and impact. The CIA reported that "recent technical measurements reflect that with favorable propagation conditions Radio Liberty can cover 90% of the territory of the USSR."
According to the public record, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is an American state-funded media organization that broadcasts news and analysis into targeted regions. In 1969, that "funding" was not a matter of public ledger but of "CIA covert funding," a detail Kissinger reminds the President was previously approved on February 22, 1969.
The memo describes Radio Liberty as a "free voice from abroad" that acts as a "catalyst for the growing number of Soviet dissidents striving to interpret their society, its purposes and goals." There is a clinical precision to how the document views these dissidents—not as autonomous agents of liberation, but as assets to be leveraged. The State Department noted that Soviet émigrés had a "special contribution" to make to these information programs to influence Soviet leaders toward becoming more "constructive and responsible."
A Major Political Concession
Kissinger’s primary concern was not the spiritual liberation of the Soviet people, but the appearance of American weakness. He warned that the unilateral termination of Radio Liberty would be a "major political concession to the USSR with no quid pro quo." In the transactional logic of the Nixon administration, giving up a strategic asset without extracting a specific price was an unthinkable error.
There were also the practical costs of quitting. In section 5 of the memorandum, Kissinger notes that the estimates for liquidation costs—the specific dollar amount of which remains redacted in the record—were "almost the equivalent of one year of normal operations." To shut the station down would result in "little budgetary saving in FY 1971," and once such an instrumentality is liquidated, Kissinger warns, it "cannot be rebuilt."
Four lines in section 4 of the memorandum remain not declassified, leaving a gap in the specific justifications for the station's existence. But the gap is filled by the panic of the 303 Committee, which met on December 20 to discuss the problem. The committee was unanimous: Radio Liberty was of "considerable value" and should not be eliminated voluntarily.
Fourteen Million Dollars
Beyond the Soviet border, there was the complication of West Germany. Both Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe operated from bases in West Germany. The 303 Committee feared that if the U.S. killed Radio Liberty, the West German government would buckle under political pressures from its Eastern European neighbors and shut down Radio Free Europe as well.
Rather than a clean break, the committee recommended a holding pattern. They suggested continuing the operation for another eight months to see what "quid pro quo might be obtainable from the USSR and/or West German governments." It was a gamble on leverage. While the State Department studied the political implications and the CIA studied the administrative problems of termination, the station would keep broadcasting.
Kissinger’s final recommendation was that Nixon approve the continuation of Radio Liberty for FY 1971. The price for this continued influence was a budget figure of $14,935,000, agreed upon between the CIA and the Bureau of the Budget.
While related files on this subject are held in the US National Archives under NAID 1746756 and NAID 498171414, as well as various volumes of the Foreign Relations of the United States series, this specific exchange reveals the fragility of the operation. The "free voice" was a line item that almost vanished because of a December budget meeting.
President Nixon initialed the approval line on December 23.