| Transcript |
P ^crmon student prepares to launch a huge
°"oon filled with messages to residents of
, v'et-controllcd Czechoslovakia from o secluded
orm close to the Czech border in the RFE-
Wnsored project, "Winds of Freedom."
_n. °-e second requirement (individual
?0f*) was met by aiming the content
".broadcasts and leaflets at goals
^"ch, by the nature of New Course
accessions, tended to be attainable
fougb techniques of opposition al-
ady successfully employed within
ch country as described in regime
y/ydaints or refugee reports. Tims
sv rr? and FOCUS were designed to
ynthesize and formulate evolutionary
. Srams of peoples-in-opposition and
ach
coordinate individual efforts to
"eVe limited objectives.
°Perafion Veto
pr^PeraHon VETO followed three
p]a/r'ary objectives: First, it was
c-0nfnct' as an intensive efforMo create
e|e l!s'°n with regard to a series of
Val!; • s<-'llt'<lll,''(I by (1|<' Czcchoslo
of e8>me with tlie announced ain
Statev,tai'zing and consolidating the
Soij-ianc' party machinery. Second, it
''On f° l'stabhsh a positive opposi-
*ttai ??rarn based on ten specific and
ulshn; ' demands. Third, by shaping
lim
rZh''I)('<l popular opposition, VETO
lorfg to achieve the first step in a
<jsiyrange program to return politi-
the ""'"live to the people and to lay
Opr, °."ndations of an active political
Vft"" movement-
'''mm "rst aim, i.e., frustrating the at-
Was . °f the regime at consolidation,
UtirJ"Chieved in part bv the very cre-
stea(j °'fvETO's counter-offensive. In-
0\vn °» being able to promote their
eY" 'l'niS' the Communists were com-
*Dd . U,' ;lt'cept the VETO challenge
t0 Bght a defensive battle. Even
.^^^ PORt:M \EWSj l/„r(./, Um
the regime's timing of the scheduled
election campaign was thrown out of
gear; shop and committee and parliamentary elections, advertised for
\ larch and May, were postponed until
November.
The second and third objectives of
Operation VETO are closely connected. During the first stage, in May,
19.54, broadcasts and leaflets attempted to answer the question WHAT is
the "action program" of the Czechoslovak People's Opposition. During
this stage stickers, sent in by balloons
with the number 10 and with references to forthcoming demands,
coupled with special Radio Free
Europe spot announcements, built up
suspense and created the conditions
for subsequent sending of the actual
text of the "Ten Demands — the Freedom Ballot."
Briefly, these demands were:
1. Trade Unions for Trade Unionists;
2. Better Pay - Less Talk; 3. Workers
Must Not Be Chained; 4. No Meddling with Workers' Free Time; 5. No
More Farmers' Bondage; 6. Smaller
Quotas — Larger Crops; 7. Local
Autonomy Instead of Bureaucracy;
8. Goods for the People, Not for the
Soviets; 9. Back to Serving the Customer; 10. Housing for Familes, Not
for the State.
Shortly thereafter the scripts and
leaflets explained WHY Operation
VETO was being launched at this
time. . . . The last stage aimed at
showing HOW the People's Opposition could achieve its objectives; i.e..
fulfillment of the Ten Demands, and
capturing of initiative from the regime. The method used was to quote
from the Communist press and radio
examples of the successful pressures
which the people had applied to the
regime and to show examples of the
concessions which the regime had had
to grant. This stage was still in progress in December, 1954. [Ed. note: A
complete report of the 1955 activities
of RFE and Operations VETO and
FOCUS were not yet available as this
went to press.]
In addition to paying constant attention to the fate of all ten demands,
Operation VETO concentrated on two
major campaigns: (1) The Farmers'
Campaign, which reported how farmers were in fact keeping crops out of
the hands of the State; (2) The Trade
Union Campaign, which reminded the
workers of existing legal ways of using
shop committees in the interest of the
workers rather than the State. . . .
Refugee reports indicated a favorable reaction By the people of Czechoslovakia to Operation VETO. That
VETO attached itself to the hearts of
the people is apparent from the refugees who passed on suggestions for
additional "Demands" — for the armed
forces, for pensioners, for youth.
There is evidence that, internally,
leaflets were circulated to trusted
friends, and mailed to high party functionaries, and turned into the police
and government offices, thus making
certain that those functionaries would
be sure to read them. Leaflets also
appeared mysteriously tacked to factory walls, apartment houses, and gymnasiums. . . .
Operation Focus
Operation FOCUS . . . followed the
general lines laid down by VETO five
months earlier. There were, however,
a number of significant differences —
though chiefly of emphasis and degree
WORLD PHOTO
This is a physical manifestation of the Iron Curtain on the Hungarian
side of the Austria-Hungary border near Guessing. Barbed-wire fences,
camouflaged observation towers manned by Hungarian border police with
binoculars, searchlights, submochine guns, mine-warning signboards, and
grass-covered railroad tracks—these characterize the difficulty of escape.
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