This note describes a conference of important governmental leaders that gathered on Dec. 21, 1961 to hear Gosnjak speak. He spoke about the power of socialism and the importance of a united Soviet bloc against adversity.

Text of speech given by Churchill at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri in which he first used the phrase "iron curtain."

English translation of Stalin's 1946 "election" speech.

George F. Kennan writes to the Secretary of State with a lengthy analysis of Soviet policy in an attempt to explain their recent uncooperative behavior. This message would later become famous as the "long telegram."

In a secret speech before a closed plenum of the 20th Congress of the CPSU, Khrushchev denounced Stalin’s cult of the personality. In addition, he revealed that Stalin had rounded up thousands of people and sent them into a huge system of political work camps (Gulags). This revelation was met with astonishment by many present for the speech, but helped to break the power that Stalin still held over the country.

CIA reviews RL history in a briefing book (extract)

Panel commissioned by the White House and comprised of Zbigniew Brzezinski, William E. Griffith, John S. Hays, and Richard S. Salant recommends continuation of RFE and RL as covertly funded objective news services, along with VOA and RIAS, discontinuation of public solicitation of private financial donations to RFE, and (Hays dissenting) establishing a Radio Free China

Revised guidelines (updating previous Gray Broadcasting policy) for RL broadcasting policy approved by the Committee for Radio Broadcasting Policy.

Dulles drafts a suggestion for establishing “Freedom Radios” that would merge RFE and RL, expand broadcasts to other parts of the world, and become truly private enterprises free of CIA involvement

USIA Director George Allen sympathizes with State Department questioning the value of RFE and RL in a meeting with Allen Dulles and others