Editorial Note

On February 13, the Permanent Investigations Subcommittee of the Senate Government Operations Committee, under its new chairman, Joseph R. McCarthy (R., Wisc.), began hearings regarding charges that the Voice of America’s anti-Communist propaganda had been weakened, that some employees of VOA were Communist sympathizers, and that its engineering projects had been badly managed. The hearings were conducted in New York City and broadcast nationwide on radio and television. For the published record of these hearings, see 83d Cong., 1st sess., 1953, Senate Committee on Government Operations, State Department Information Program—Voice of America: Hearings before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (Government Printing Office, 1953).

The Permanent Investigations Subcommittee continued to meet throughout the first session of the 83d Congress, and it eventually [Page 1672] broadened its initial hearings on the Voice of America to include the entire Department of State overseas information program. After the 83d Congress reconvened its second session, the subcommittee filed three reports, early in 1954, dealing with the overseas information program in general. These were: 83d Cong., 2d sess., 1954, Senate Committee on Government Operations. Waste and Mismanagement in Voice of America engineering projects; Senate Report 880 made by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (Government Printing Office, 1954); 83d Cong., 2d sess., 1954, Senate Committee on Government Operations. Voice of America; Senate Report 928 made by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (Government Printing Office, 1954); 83d Cong., 2d sess., 1954, Senate Committee on Government Operations. State Department information program…; Senate Report 879 made by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (Government Printing Office, 1954).