Radio & TV: Le Pick-Up Americain

Like a man hopefully shooting arrows into the empty air, the wartime "Voice of America" beamed 2,500 broadcasts a week into the heart of Europe and Asia. Nobody knew, or could prove, whether it did any good or not. But the idea was to encourage resistance forces and combat Axis propaganda. When the war ended, the "Voice" died to a whisper. It was cut down by a budget-minded Congress to a scanty $8,000,000 a year (less than the U.S. spent last year on its wildlife care), and most of its overseas programs were farmed out to private networks.

Last summer the...

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