Five weeks before Dday, ABSIE (the American Broadcasting Station in Europe) made its debut to the opening bars of Yankee Doodle. Last week, to the tune of The Star-Spangled Banner, it took its leave. ABSIE, operated by OWI and SHAEF's Psychological Warfare Division, had earned an honorable discharge for valiant service, but few Americans had paid it more than passing notice.
Before the project got under way, OWI spent two years planning, hiring a multilingual staff of 250 (about half British), experimenting and entangling itself in red tape. Colonel William Paley, peacetime head of...