Battling the Big Lie

Abstract

This chapter examines the characterization of Eastern Europe in the American media, concentrating on the role of East European émigrés in shaping American perceptions of their homeland. It focuses on the role of American-sponsored radio stations, such as the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe These radio stations broadcast an anticommunist perspective to Eastern Europe and played key roles in creating American knowledge about the region. The annual Crusade for Freedom, designed to raise money for RFE, sought to mobilize Americans against totalitarian regimes in Eastern Europe. In the American media, East Europeans were often referred to as “the captive peoples.” This chapter tells the history of this discourse of East European captivity and examines how it circulated back and forth across the Iron Curtain, moving from émigré publications into the American media and back into Eastern Europe.