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New Usis Director Not Expected to Alter Voa Broadcasts to USSR

December 14, 1972
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President Nixon’s nomination of James Keogh, a Presidential assistant, as director of the United States Information Service succeeding Frank J. Shakespeare, will not alter the current programming by the Votes of America to the Soviet Union, a VOA official told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today. Keogh, a former executive editor of Time Magazine is a native of Nebraska and a graduate of Creighton University.

The VOA began broadcasting news of Jewish interest about a year ago on its weekly religious program beamed to the Soviet Union in the Russian and Ukrainian languages. A recent VOA broadcast to the USSR contained Hebrew and Yiddish inserts and traditional music associated with the Chanuka festival.

A position of importance in State Department policy-shaping with regard to Soviet Jewry has been made vacant by President Nixon’s nomination of Richard Davies, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs, as the new U.S. Ambassador to Poland. Davies is known to have played a central role in State Department efforts to relieve the plight of Soviet Jews. He was the author of a Department statement last year which declared that Congress was correct in demanding relief for Soviet Jews.

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