Office of the Historian
No. 656

511.00/11–2051

Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs (Barrett)1

top secret
[Washington,] November 20, 1951.

Subject: Winds of Freedom Project

This is to confirm that at today’s Secretary’s meeting the so-called Winds of Freedom project was cleared in principle as a continuing operation.2 It is understood that:

(1)
This clearance means that it is intended to have this instrument used from time to time as part of the over-all psychological effort;
(2)
That each individual project is to be cleared with the State Department—which, internally, will mean clearance with the appropriate geographic bureau and with the public affairs area;
(3)
Projects in this field should be carried out under private auspices and, to the greatest extent possible, under international private auspices, as was nominally the case with the original Winds of Freedom undertaking.

Edward W. Barrett
  1. Copies of this memorandum were directed to Mc Williams (S/S), Joyce (S/P), Bonbright (EUR), and several officers subordinate to Assistant Secretary Barrett.↩
  2. No record of the Secretary’s meeting under reference here has been found. Apparently under consideration at the meeting in question was a paper dated October 29, presumably prepared in the Central Intelligence Agency, suggesting that the “Winds of Freedom Project” be established as a continuing operation. Regarding the “Winds of Freedom Project”, see Sargeant’s memorandum to Webb, Document 636.↩