In the late 1940s, a group of prominent Americans, united in their commitment to defeat the threat of Communism and financed secretly by the Central Intelligence Agency, set forth to change the country’s political landscape at the grass-roots level. Their efforts resulted in a Crusade for Freedom, a decade-long public relations and media campaign in the United States designed not only to arouse the American public against Communism but also to morally, politically, and publicly support Radio Free Europe.
For over 50 years, a Freedom Bell, based on the Liberty Bell, housed in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was the logo or symbol for the Crusade for Freedom and for Radio Free Europe (later to be known as RFE/RL). Below is a summary history of the Freedom Bell, which rang out for the first time in Berlin before a crowd of 400,000 on October 24, 1950.
New York industrial designer Walter Dorwin Teague designed the ten-ton bell, which had a laurel wreath symbolizing peace encircling the top and a frieze of five figures representing the five races of humankind passing the torch of freedom. Teague decided on the inscription in classic Roman letters, based on a statement by Abraham Lincoln, “That this world Under God shall have a new birth of freedom.”
On May 1, 1950, the Crusade for Freedom’s Campaign Letter Number One was sent to the regional and state Chairmen in the United States, under General Clay’s name, with details of the bell symbol:
Compelling symbol of the Crusade will be a great new Freedom Bell … Throughout history the struggle toward human freedom has been one of the noblest achievements of man. The Freedom Bell will become a permanent memorial to all the men and women, of all periods, who gave their lives to the cause of freedom.
The first clap of the Freedom Bell will be carried to the peoples of the earth by the most extensive network of radio power ever assembled -- spearheaded by Radio Free Europe. Simultaneously, bells will ring out all over America: Church bells, city hall bells, school bells.
The bell was cast on July 27, 1950, at the British foundry of Gillett and Johnston in Croydon, England. On September 6, 1950, it arrived in New York City and two days later it was the centerpiece of a large parade in the Manhattan. During the First Crusade for Freedom’s publicity trip, the Freedom Bell was placed on a large flatbed truck and transported by truck and a “Freedom Train” to 26 major cities in the United States.
On September 16, 1950, two thousand persons in Denver, Colorado, went to see the Freedom Bell that had arrived on a flat bed truck from Kansas City, Missouri. The Freedom Bell was on display for two hours before heading off to Salt Lake City, Utah. One of the speakers during the short stop-over in Denver was future United States President Dwight Eisenhower, who in his remarks said, “Since the beginning of our republic, a bell has been a symbol of liberty and freedom. The Freedom Bell is designed to spread the truth about America. Every time the bell tolls, we hope new facts and new understandings will go out to the world.”
More than I6 million Americans eventually joined the Crusade for Freedom by signing the Freedom Scroll, which read:
I believe in the sacredness and dignity of the individual.
I believe that all men derive the right to freedom equally from God.
I pledge to resist aggression and tyranny wherever they appear on earth.
I am proud to enlist in the Crusade for Freedom.
I am proud to help make the freedom Bell possible, to be a signer of this Declaration of Freedom, to have my name included as a permanent part of the Freedom Shrine in Berlin, and to join with the millions of men and women throughout the world who hold the cause of freedom sacred
The Freedom Bell was then delivered to the Schöneberg Town Hall in Berlin’s American-controlled Sector, where it arrived on October 21, 1950. General Clay arrived the next day.
It was officially dedicated with extensive media coverage at the Schöneberg Town Hall (site of John F. Kenndy’s famous Berlin speech) before hundreds of thousands of Berliners on October 24, 1950. General Clay dedicated the Freedom Bell as it rang out for the first time shortly after noon. His speech was broadcast around the world, including into East Europe over Radio Free Europe. Prominently situated in front of Clay as he spoke with microphones from the radio stations RIAS (Radio in the American Sector) and Radio Free Europe. Clay said, in part:
It is in the spirit of deep reverence, that we dedicate the world freedom bell today. We dedicate the world freedom bell today. We dedicate it to the eternal honor of all those who have given their lives in the cause of freedom.
From this day forward as it rings may it strike a note or warning to all oppressors, a sound of confidence and courage to those called upon to defend their freedom, a message of hope and sympathy to those who are enslaved.
Clay pushed the button that was supposed to electronically ring the bell, but a fuse blew and it had to be started by physically pushing it.
Every Sunday at 11:59am, the pealing of the bell is still heard throughout Germany via radio stations of the Deutschlandradio Kultur network, with a German translation of the first three sentences of the Freedom Scroll.
Listen to the Freedom Bell and the German text here:
Click on the green arrow to play.
On March 31, 2005, in keeping with its new broadcasting system, the RFE/RL logo was changed from the Freedom Bell to a flaming torch in orange and grey colors.
Author of Cold War Radio: The Dangerous History of American Broadcasting in Europe, 1950-1989 and the soon-to-be published Radio Free Europe's 'Crusade for Freedom': Rallying Americans Behind Cold War Broadcasting, 1950-1960, Richard H Cummings has, to say the least an interesting background - for example he served as West European Director of Security and gives presentations at numerous international academic conferences such as the 2009 Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty: Successful CIA Covert Operations in the Cold War CIA & US Foreign Policy Conference, UCD Clinton Institute for American Studies in Dublin, Ireland.
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Author of Cold War Radio: The Dangerous History of American Broadcasting in Europe, 1950-1989 and the soon-to-be published Radio Free Europe's 'Crusade for Freedom': Rallying Americans Behind Cold War Broadcasting, 1950-1960, Richard H Cummings has, to say the least an interesting background - for example he served as West European Director of Security and gives presentations at numerous international academic conferences such as the 2009 Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty: Successful CIA Covert Operations in the Cold War CIA & US Foreign Policy Conference, UCD Clinton Institute for American Studies in Dublin, Ireland.
In the late 1940s, a group of prominent Americans, united in their commitment to defeat the threat of Communism and financed secretly by the Central Intelligence Agency, set forth to change the country’s political landscape at the grass-roots level. Their efforts resulted in a Crusade for Freedom, a decade-long public relations and media campaign in the United States designed not only to arouse the American public against Communism but also to morally, politically, and publicly support Radio Free Europe.
