Suchergebnisse

In the 1940s and 1950s, Western governments turned to radio as the most effective means of countering the Soviet information monopoly. U.S. and West European radio stations attempted to provide listeners with the kind of programs they might expect from their own radio stations if the latter were free of censorship. For most of these listeners in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, the broadcasts were their only contact with the outside world. The importance of the foreign radio programs was confirmed not only by audience estimates, but also by the considerable efforts the Communist regimes made to jam the transmissions. Given the importance of foreign broadcasting for the political life of the Soviet bloc, it is remarkable that these broadcasts have received scant scholarly attention in the Western countries that sponsored them. The three books reviewed here help to fill that gap.

Western scholars have long disagreed about the role that ideology played in the Cold War. The release of crucial documentation from the former East-bloc archives has shed new light on this question, but no consensus is likely to emerge. Even if all the archives are eventually opened, the new evidence will not—and cannot—provide full vindication for either realism or an ideology-based approach. A key task for scholars will be to reexamine the broad and often unspoken assumptions on which specific US and Soviet policies were based.

THIS ARTICLE EXAMINES THE ACTIVITIES OF DEYSI CHEYNE, A ONE-TIME LEFTIST REBEL WHO NOW HEADS A NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION DESIGNED TO IMPROVE THE WELFARE OF WOMEN IN EL SALVADOR. IT FINDS THAT WHILE CHEYNE AND HER COHORTS ARE DOING GOOD WORK, HER ATTITUDE TOWARD POLITICS AND THE STATE ILLUSTRATES HOW MANY "ON THE LEFT" IN LATIN AMERICA HAVE GONE FROM A CONSUMING PASSION FOR SEIZING THE STATE TO A VIRTUAL ABANDONMENT OF INTEREST IN GOVERNMENT. SUCH A TREND IS DISTURBING BECAUSE THE FLEDGLING DEMOCRACY IN EL SALVADOR NEEDS DEMOCRATS. THOSE WHOSE COMMITMENT TO SOCIAL WELFARE PREVIOUSLY LED THEM TO SEEK REVOLUTION NOW NEED, LIKE EVERYONE ELSE, TO PARTICIPATE EN MASSE IN DEMOCRATIC POLITICS.