January 16, 2021 Share
Three years ago, the government of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban forced the well-regarded Central European University out of Budapest, largely because of who funded it Hungarian-born American financier and philanthropist George Soros, long a target of populist conspiracy theories and a critic of Orban’s championing of “illiberal democracy.”
Now the Hungarian government is pressing ahead with plans to host the first Chinese university campus in the European Union, underscoring Orban’s determination to continue to seek closer ties with Beijing, despite rising U.S. and Western anxiety about China’s deepening influence over parts of Central Europe.
The voices of America: how radio helped the West to defeat Communism in Europe
The last American station on German airwaves is gone. So ends a fascinating history of propaganda, jazz cats and revolutionary rock ’n’ roll
9 January 2021 • 9:19am
Gary Cooper and Ginger Rogers, among other stars, often performed for shows broadcast into Eastern Europe
Credit: Getty
When the English-language radio station KCRW Berlin ceased broadcasting last month – another victim of the pandemic – it ended a 75-year history of American stations on the German airwaves. That lineage began with the Allied invasion of occupied Europe, and played out throughout the Cold War: a story of propaganda, youth revolution and rock ’n’ roll DJs.