Baltic language broadcasting: émigré politics and American cold war radios

ENDue to policy and budget constraints, broadcasts in the Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian languages were initially excluded from the American-sponsored Radio Free Europe (RFE) and Radio Liberty (RL). From 1950 until 1976, when Baltic language RL broadcasts finally commenced, Baltic postwar exiles and émigrés began a lobbying campaign in the United States on behalf of such programs. This article examines the relationships that developed between leading Baltic organizations in exile and American politicians and officials involved in Cold War broadcasting. A central theme includes the importance of a generational change within émigré communities in the United States and how this influenced the understanding of the ties between the émigrés and their homelands.