Editing Voice of America (section)

===Cold War===
[[File:Iron Curtain map.svg|thumb|The [[Iron Curtain]], in black:
{{legend|#004990|[[NATO]] members{{efn|[[Spain]] joined NATO in 1982.}}
{{legend|#FF8282|[[Warsaw Pact]] countries}}}}]]
The VOA ramped up its operations during the [[Cold War]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=February 24, 2023 |title=Voice of America |url=https://ohiomemory.ohiohistory.org/archives/5859 |website=Ohio Memory |publisher=Ohio History Connection, State Library of Ohio}}</ref> [[Foy D. Kohler|Foy Kohler]], the director of VOA from 1949 to 1952, strongly believed that the VOA was serving its purpose, which he identified as aiding in the fight against communism.<ref name="Kohler-1951">{{Cite journal |last=Kohler |first=Foy |date=1951 |title=The Effectiveness of the Voice of America |journal=The Quarterly of Film Radio and Television |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=20–29 |doi=10.2307/1209931 |jstor=1209931 |hdl-access=free |hdl=2027/hvd.32044057212938}}</ref> He argued that the numbers of listeners they were getting such as 194,000 regular listeners in Sweden, and 2.1 million regular listeners in France, was an indication of a positive impact. As further evidence, he noted that the VOA received 30,000 letters a month from listeners all over the world, and hundreds of thousands of requests for broadcasting schedules.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kohler |first=Foy |date=1951 |title=Voice Of America |journal=Naval War College Information Service for Officers |volume=3 |issue=9 |pages=1–20 |jstor=44792598}}</ref> There was an analysis done of some of those letters sent in 1952 and 1953 while Kohler was still director. The study found that letter writing could be an indicator of successful, actionable persuasion. It was also found that broadcasts in different countries were having different effects. In one country, regular listeners adopted and practiced American values presented by the broadcast. Age was also a factor: younger and older audiences tended to like different types of programs, no matter the country.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Herzog |first=H. |date=1952 |title=Listener Mail to the Voice of America |journal=The Public Opinion Quarterly |volume=16 |issue=4 |pages=607–611 |doi=10.1086/266423 |jstor=2746119}}</ref> Kohler used all of this as evidence to claim that the VOA helped to grow and strengthen the free world. It also influenced the UN in their decision to condemn communist actions in Korea, and was a major factor in the decline of communism in the "free world, including key countries such as Italy and France.<ref name="Kohler-1951" /> In Italy, the VOA contributed to the decline of communism and a process of "[[Westernization]]".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Tobia |first=S |date=2013 |title=Did the RAI buy it? The role and limits of American broadcasting in Italy in the Cold War |journal=Cold War History |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=171–191 |doi=10.1080/14682745.2012.746665 |s2cid=154534690}}</ref> The VOA also had an impact behind the [[Iron Curtain]]. Practically all defectors during Kohler's time said that the VOA helped in their decision to defect.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP65B00383R000100050038-7.pdf|title=Russian Defector Gives Witness to the Effectiveness of Voice of America|accessdate=March 3, 2025}}</ref> Another indication of impact, according to Kohler, was the Soviet response. Kohler argued that the Soviets responded because the VOA was having an impact. Based on Soviet responses, it can be presumed that the most effective programs were ones that compared the lives of those behind and outside the Iron Curtain, questions on the practice of slave labor, as well as lies and errors in [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]]'s version of [[Marxism]].<ref name="Kohler-1951" />

In 1947, VOA started broadcasting to the [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] citizens in Russia under the pretext of countering "more harmful instances of [[Soviet propaganda]] directed against American leaders and policies" on the part of the internal Soviet Russian-language media, according to John B. Whitton's treatise, ''Cold War Propaganda''.<ref name="whitton">{{Cite journal |last=John B. Whitton |year=1951 |title=Cold War propaganda |journal=[[American Journal of International Law]] |volume=45 |issue=1 |pages=151–153 |doi=10.2307/2194791 |jstor=2194791 |s2cid=146989731}}</ref> The Soviet Union responded by initiating electronic [[radio jamming|jamming]] of VOA broadcasts on April 24, 1949.<ref name="whitton" />

[[Charles W. Thayer]] headed VOA in 1948–49.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Charles Thayer (1948–1949) |url=https://www.insidevoa.com/a/4488436.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220627012715/https://www.insidevoa.com/a/4488436.html |archive-date=June 27, 2022 |access-date=December 12, 2020 |website=VOA |date=July 18, 2018 |language=en}}</ref> Over the next few years, the U.S. government debated the best role of Voice of America. The decision was made to use VOA broadcasts as part of [[Foreign policy of the United States|U.S. foreign policy]] to counter the propaganda of the [[Soviet Union]] and other countries. The Arabic service resumed on January 1, 1950, with a half-hour program. This program grew to 14.5 hours daily during the [[Suez Crisis]] of 1956, and was six hours a day by 1958.<ref name="Rugh 2006, 13" /> Between 1952 and 1960, Voice of America used a converted [[United States Coast Guard|U.S. Coast Guard]] cutter ''[[USCGC Courier (WAGR-410)|Courier]]'' as a first mobile [[Offshore radio|broadcasting ship]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Andrew Glass |title=Voice of America begins broadcasts to the Soviet Union, Feb. 17, 1947 |url=https://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/voice-of-america-begins-broadcasts-to-the-soviet-union-feb-17-1947-219288 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220627012650/https://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/voice-of-america-begins-broadcasts-to-the-soviet-union-feb-17-1947-219288 |archive-date=June 27, 2022 |access-date=December 12, 2020 |website=Politico |date=February 17, 2016 |language=en}}</ref>

[[file:Willis Conover 1969.jpg|thumb|180px|left|[[Willis Conover]] broadcasting with Voice of America in 1969]]
Control of VOA passed from the State Department to the [[U.S. Information Agency]] when the latter was established in 1953<ref name="Rugh 2006, 13" /> to transmit worldwide, including to the countries behind the Iron Curtain and to the People's Republic of China. From 1955 until 2003, VOA broadcast American jazz on the ''[[Voice of America Jazz Hour]]''. Hosted for most of that period by [[Willis Conover]], the program had 30 million listeners at its peak. A program aimed at [[Union of South Africa|South Africa]] in 1956 broadcast two hours nightly, and special programs such as ''The [[Newport Jazz Festival]]'' were also transmitted. This was done in association with tours by U.S. musicians, such as [[Dizzy Gillespie]], [[Louis Armstrong]], and [[Duke Ellington]], sponsored by the State Department.<ref>Appy, Christian G. Cold ''War Constructions: The Political Culture of United States Imperialism''. 2000, [[University of Massachusetts Press]]; {{ISBN|1-55849-218-6}}, p. 126.</ref> From August 1952 through May 1953, Billy Brown, a high school senior in [[Westchester County, New York]], had a Monday night program in which he shared everyday happenings in [[Yorktown Heights, New York]]. Brown's program ended due to its popularity: his "chatty narratives" attracted so much fan mail, VOA couldn't afford the $500 a month in clerical and postage costs required to respond to listeners' letters.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Folsom |first=Merrill |date=May 28, 1953 |title='Voice' to Drop Boy's Broadcasts; Can't Afford to Answer Fan Mail |work=The New York Times |volume=CII|issue=34823|page=1}}</ref> During 1953, VOA personnel were subjected to [[McCarthyism|McCarthyist]] policies, where VOA was accused by Senator Joseph McCarthy, [[Roy Cohn]], and [[G. David Schine|Gerard David Schine]] of intentionally planning to build weak transmitting stations to sabotage VOA broadcasts. However, the charges were dropped after one month of court hearings in February and March 1953.<ref name="Central European University Press-2010">{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/671648365 |title=Cold War broadcasting: impact on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe : a collection of studies and documents |date=2010 |publisher=Central European University Press |editor1=A. Ross Johnson |editor2=R. Eugene Parta |author=Timothy Garton Ash |isbn=978-1-4416-7708-2 |location=Budapest |oclc=671648365}}</ref>

Sometime around 1954, VOA's headquarters were moved from New York to Washington D.C. The arrival of cheap, low-cost transistors enabled the significant growth of shortwave radio listeners. During the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956]], VOA's broadcasts were deemed controversial, as Hungarian refugees and revolutionaries thought that VOA served as a medium and insinuated the possible arrival of the Western aid.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Uttaro |first=Ralph A. |date=1982 |title=The Voices of America in International Radio Propaganda |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1191297 |url-status=live |journal=Law and Contemporary Problems |volume=45 |issue=1 |pages=103–122 |doi=10.2307/1191297 |issn=0023-9186 |jstor=1191297 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220627133231/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1191297 |archive-date=June 27, 2022 |access-date=March 17, 2022}}</ref>

Throughout the [[Cold War]], many of the targeted countries' governments sponsored [[radio jamming|jamming]] of VOA broadcasts, which sometimes led critics to question the broadcasts' actual impact. For example, in 1956, [[Polish People's Republic]] stopped jamming VOA transmissions,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Varis |first=Tapio |date=1970 |title=The Control of Information by Jamming Radio Broadcasts |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/45083158 |url-status=live |journal=Cooperation and Conflict |volume=5 |issue=3 |pages=168–184 |doi=10.1177/001083677000500303 |issn=0010-8367 |jstor=45083158 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220627012650/https://www.jstor.org/stable/45083158 |archive-date=June 27, 2022 |access-date=December 12, 2020 |s2cid=145418504}}</ref> but [[People's Republic of Bulgaria]] continued to jam the signal through the 1970s. [[Edward R. Murrow]] said that: "The Russians spend more money jamming the Voice of America than we have to spend for the entire program of the entire Agency. They spend about $125 million 
[${{Format price|{{Inflation|US|125000000|1966|r=-8}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US}}] a year jamming it."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6joTAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22voice+of+america%22+-voanews+russia&pg=PA942|title=Postal Rate Revision of 1962: Hearings Before the Committee on Post Office and Civil Service, United States Senate, Eighty-seventh Congress, Second Session, on H.R. 7927, an Act to Adjust Postal Rates, and for Other Purposes, March 6, 13, 22; April 3, 10, 17; May 1, 21, 28; June 26; July 3, 10, 17, 24, 31; August 2, 7, 9, 14, 16, 21, and 23, 1962|first=United States Congress Senate Committee on Post Office and Civil|last=Service|date=February 12, 1962|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|via=Google Books}}</ref> [[Chinese language|Chinese-language]] VOA broadcasts were jammed beginning in 1956 and extending through 1976.<ref>''Broadcasting Yearbook'', 1976 and 1979 editions.</ref> However, after the collapse of the [[Warsaw Pact]] and the Soviet Union, interviews with participants in anti-Soviet movements verified the effectiveness of VOA broadcasts in transmitting information to socialist societies.<ref>Conference Report, ''Cold War Impact of VOA Broadcasts,'' Hoover Institution and the Cold War International History Project of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Oct. 13–16, 2004</ref> The People's Republic of China diligently jams VOA broadcasts.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bihlmayer |first=Ulrich |date=September 12, 2006 |title=Fighting the Chinese Government "Firedragon" – Music Jammer AND "Sound of Hope" Broadcasting (SOH), Taiwan |url=http://www.iarums-r1.org/iarums/prcdragon.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080216021842/http://www.iarums-r1.org/iarums/prcdragon.pdf |archive-date=February 16, 2008 |access-date=January 15, 2008 |publisher=IARU Region 1 Monitoring System}}</ref> [[Cuba]] has also been reported to interfere with VOA satellite transmissions to [[Iran]] from its Russian-built transmission site at [[Bejucal]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=U.S.: Cuba Jamming TV Signals To Iran – Local News Story – WTVJ |url=http://www.nbc6.net/news/2334674/detail.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081224191817/http://www.nbc6.net/news/2334674/detail.html |archive-date=December 24, 2008 |access-date=January 15, 2008}}</ref> David Jackson, former director of Voice of America, noted: "The [[North Korea]]n government doesn't jam us, but they try to keep people from listening through intimidation or worse. But people figure out ways to listen despite the odds. They're very resourceful."<ref>Jackson, David. "The Future of Radio II." ''World Radio TV Handbook'', 2007 ed., Billboard Books. {{ISBN|0-8230-5997-9}}. p 38.</ref>

[[File:Martin Luther King Jr. addresses a crowd from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial (cropped).jpg|thumb|200px|[[Martin Luther King Jr.]] addresses a crowd from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial where he delivered his “[[I Have a Dream]]” speech.|left]]
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Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, VOA covered some of the era's most important news, including [[Martin Luther King Jr.]]'s 1963 "[[I Have a Dream]]" speech,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Heil |first=Alan L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vofsaBdqxWEC&pg=PA71 |title=Voice of America: A History |year=2003 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0231126748}}</ref> the [[Assassination of John F. Kennedy]], and [[Neil Armstrong]]'s 1969 [[Apollo 11#Lunar surface operations|first walk on the Moon]], which drew an audience estimated at between 615 and 750 million people. In 1973, due to the détente policies in the Cold War, Soviet jamming of the VOA ceased; it restarted in 1979.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://repository.law.umich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1841&context=mjil|title=Jamming and the Law of International Communications|accessdate=March 3, 2025}}</ref>[[file:Aldrin Apollo 11 original.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Buzz Aldrin]] on the moon, in a photograph taken by [[Neil Armstrong]], who can be seen in the visor reflection along with Earth<ref name="Byrne. 2019">{{cite web | last=Byrne. | first=Dave | title=Apollo 11 Image Library | website=hq.nasa.gov | date=2019-07-08 | url=https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/images11.html#Mag37 | access-date=2021-06-10 | archive-date=February 24, 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200224163200/https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/images11.html#Mag37 | url-status=live }}</ref>]]In the early 1980s, VOA began a $1.3 billion rebuilding program to improve broadcast with better technical capabilities. During the implementation of the [[Martial law in Poland]] between 1981 and 1983, VOA's Polish broadcasts expanded to seven hours daily. Throughout the 1980s, VOA focused on covering events from the "American hinterland", such as 150th anniversary of the [[Oregon Trail]].<ref name="Central European University Press-2010" /> Also in the 1980s, VOA also added a television service, as well as special regional programs to Cuba, [[Radio Martí]] and [[TV Martí]]. Cuba has consistently attempted to jam such broadcasts and has vociferously protested U.S. broadcasts directed at Cuba. In September 1980, VOA started broadcasting to [[Afghanistan]] in [[Dari language|Dari]] and in [[Pashto language|Pashto]] in 1982.<ref>{{Cite web |title=VOA Broadcasting to Afghanistan |url=https://www.insidevoa.com/p/6455.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220515235847/https://www.insidevoa.com/p/6455.html |archive-date=May 15, 2022 |access-date=December 12, 2020 |website=VOA |language=en}}</ref> In 1981, VOA opened a bureau in Beijing, China.<ref name=":Li">{{Cite book |last=Li |first=Hongshan |title=Fighting on the Cultural Front: U.S.-China Relations in the Cold War |date=2024 |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |isbn=9780231207058 |location=New York, NY |pages=326 |doi=10.7312/li--20704 |jstor=10.7312/li--20704}}</ref> The next year, it began regular exchanges with [[China Radio International|Radio Peking]].<ref name=":Li" />

In 1985, VOA Europe was created as a special service in English that was relayed via satellite to AM, FM, and cable affiliates throughout Europe. With a contemporary format including live disc jockeys, the network presented top musical hits as well as VOA news and features of local interest (such as "EuroFax") 24 hours a day. VOA Europe was closed down without advance public notice in January 1997 as a cost-cutting measure.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Holland |first=Bill |date=March 8, 1997 |title=VOA Europe: A Victim of Bureaucracy? |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qQ4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA61 |magazine=Billboard |volume=109 |issue=10 |access-date=June 3, 2020 |archive-date=February 1, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240201161336/https://books.google.com/books?id=qQ4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA61#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> It was followed by VOA Express, which from July 4, 1999, revamped into VOA Music Mix.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Heil |first=Alan L. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/heil12674 |title=Voice of America: A History |date=2003 |publisher=Columbia University Press |page=299 |jstor=10.7312/heil12674 |access-date=December 12, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220627020703/https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/heil12674 |archive-date=June 27, 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref> Since November 1, 2014, stations are offered VOA1 (which is a rebranding of VOA Music Mix).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://zeno.fm/radio/voa1thehits/|title=Listen to VOA1|website=Zeno.FM}}</ref>

In 1989, Voice of America expanded its [[Mandarin Chinese|Mandarin]] and [[Cantonese Chinese|Cantonese]] programming to reach the millions of Chinese and inform the country about the pro-democracy movement within the country, including the demonstration in Tiananmen Square.<ref>{{Cite book |last=United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Foreign Relations. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/27408482 |title=The Radio Free China Act, S. 2985 : hearing before the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, One Hundred Second Congress, second session, September 15, 1992 |date=1992 |publisher=U.S. G.P.O. |isbn=0-16-039614-X |location=Washington |oclc=27408482 |access-date=December 12, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220509045840/http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/27408482 |archive-date=May 9, 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref> Starting in 1990, the U.S. consolidated its international broadcasting efforts, with the establishment of the Bureau of Broadcasting.<ref>{{Cite web |title=USAGM |url=https://www.usagm.gov/who-we-are/history/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220702010128/https://www.usagm.gov/who-we-are/history/ |archive-date=July 2, 2022 |access-date=December 12, 2020 |website=USAGM |language=en-US}}</ref>