302. Action Memorandum From the Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs (Leddy) to Secretary of State Rusk1
SUBJECT
- Soviet Jamming of VOA Broadcasts
Problem:
The Soviet Union instituted systematic jamming of Voice of America broadcasts in the Russian, Ukrainian, Georgian and Armenian languages as of 2:00 a.m. on August 21, concurrent with the invasion of Czechoslovakia. VOA has subsequently cut back its special round–the–clock news coverage of Czech developments but there has been no reduction in Soviet jamming thus far. We are anxious to avoid a return to the costly radio jamming battle of the pre–June 1963 period.
Discussion:
Russian language broadcasts of the BBC, Radio Liberation, Deutsche Welle and even an Ecuadorian religious station are also being jammed. The fact that the Soviets are using only sky wave jammers, rather than the massive coordinated sky wave and ground wave effort of the pre–1963 era, and are not jamming all broadcasts, e.g., Baltic language broadcasts, gives some ground for hoping that the effort is limited in scope and related directly to Czech developments.
VOA has nevertheless been forced to add three new frequencies to its Russian–language and two new frequencies to its Ukrainian, Georgian and Armenian–language broadcasts. If Soviet jamming continues, VOA will need to consider inter alia reactivating its long wave transmitter in Munich, which operates on a wave length used by Radio Moscow—thus risking an escalation of the jamming effort.
USIA is anxious to protest Soviet interference with its broadcasts to the International Telecommunications Union, of which the USSR is also a member. Under the provisions of the Montreux International Telecommunications Convention, however, member states are required to notify one another of any infringements of the Convention. We would propose, therefore, to protest directly to the Soviets first in order to give them an opportunity to stop their jamming, before we protest formally to the ITU.
[Page 717]Recommendation:
That you approve the attached Aide–Mémoire and authorize Ambassador Bohlen to transmit it to Ambassador Dobrynin at the earliest opportunity.2
- Source: National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Bohlen Files: Lot 74 D 379, Dobrynin/Bohlen Memoranda of Conversation. Confidential. Drafted by T.R. Buchanan (SOV) and cleared by USIA.↩
- Secretary Rusk approved the recommendation on September 18. Bohlen met with Dobrynin on September 19 to give him the aide–mémoire. Dobrynin read it and responded that “he was certain that there was no convention to which his government was a party that would prohibit the right of a state to protect its people or its own territory from broadcasts of a hostile nature to the state.” A memorandum of conversation and the aide–mémoire are ibid.↩