TheNational Committee for a Free Europe, later known asFree Europe Committee, was ananti-communistCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA)front organization,[1] founded on June 1, 1949, inNew York City, which worked for the spreading ofNATO influence inEastern Europe and to covertly destabilizeSoviet Bloc countries.
The committee was founded byAllen Dulles, later to beDirector of Central Intelligence, in conjunction withDeWitt Clinton Poole. Early board members includedDwight Eisenhower,Lucius D. Clay,Cecil B. DeMille,Henry Luce,Mark Ethridge,Charles Phelps Taft II andDeWitt Wallace.[2][3] From 1951 to 1952,Charles Douglas Jackson served as its president. The organization created and oversaw the anti-communist broadcast serviceRadio Free Europe.[4] CIA subsidies to the Free Europe Committee ended in 1971 which caused restructuring to its operations.[5]
The Free Europe Committee sent balloons with leaflets fromWest Germany to theEastern Bloc countries. Each balloon was able to drop 100,000 leaflets.[6]
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