Supporters of yesterday’s successful Senate attempt to restore the United States Information Agency’s full 1972-73 budget request of $194 million declared among numerous arguments that the USIA’s Voice of America gives hope to Soviet Jews. The Senate voted 57-15 in overruling the Foreign Relations Committee and its chairman, J. William Fulbright (D.Ark.), who wanted a 25 percent cut. The Nixon administration backed the full sum.
Sen. James L. Buckley (R-C.N.Y.), pointing out that "the Kremlin is not insensitive (to) internal and external pressures which have been generated by USIA," said: "I think we saw that most spectacularly at the trial in Leningrad of a group of Jews who were accused of the ‘hideous crime’ of wanting to escape to Israel." He was referring to the commutation of death sentences following international appeals. Sen., William E. Brock III (R. Tenn.) said the VOA was valuable if it helped effect "even token immigration of Soviet Jews to Israel."
Supporters of the full sum noted that the VOA’s current schedule of 780 broadcast hours weekly would be cut to 454 under the Fulbright plan, fewer than Albania’s 480. By comparison, the Soviet Union broadcasts 1903 hours weekly in 84 languages, China 1304 hours, and Egypt 1022 hours in 33 languages.
Fulbright’s backers included Sen. Frank Church (D.Ida.). Alan Cranston (D.Calif.). Harold E. Hughes (D.Ia.). Edward M. Kennedy (D.Mass.). William Proxmire (D.Wis.). Adlai E. Stevenson III (D.Ill), and Stuart Symington (D.Mo.).
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
