Ukraine is today “the area of decision between Russia and the Free World” and “the one big problem” for Russia’s ex-KGB leader Vladimir Putin.

By Ted Lipien

Ukraine is today “the area of decision between Russia and the Free World” and “the one big problem” for Russia’s ex-KGB leader Vladimir Putin.

The “Communist Timetable” in the 1950s and the 1960s was largely Soviet Russia’s timetable.

Today’s Russian invasion of Ukraine is Putin’s timetable to restore Russia’s former Soviet empire.

The 1962 newspaper ad by the Radio Free Europe Fund said that Eastern Europe was “the one big problem for Communism.”

Ukraine is now “the one big problem” for Putin.

In the 1960s, individual Americans and American corporations supported Radio Free Europe, but almost all the financial support came secretly from the U.S. government, which transferred taxpayers’ money through the CIA to RFE.

This U.S. government support was an open secret; most Americans believed that Radio Free Europe was worthy of both private and U.S. government assistance.

The 1962 Radio Free Europe Fund ad said: “The fate of these people is of vital consequence to the cause of freedom…the future of our children.

Eastern Europe is the strategic area…the area of decision between Russia and the Free World.”

Tadeusz (Ted) A. Lipien is an international media executive, journalist, writer, blogger, and press freedom advocate. He was Voice of America (VOA) Polish Service chief during Solidarity trade union’s struggle for democracy, acting VOA Associate Director, and served for a short time as President of Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). His articles on international broadcasting by the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) have been published in American Diplomacy Journal, National Review, The Washington Times, The Washington Examiner, and Digital Journal. He is the author of a book on feminism and Pope John Paul II, O-Books, UK, and Świat Książki, Poland.