Dulles drafts a suggestion for establishing “Freedom Radios” that would merge RFE and RL, expand broadcasts to other parts of the world, and become truly private enterprises free of CIA involvement

USIA Director George Allen sympathizes with State Department questioning the value of RFE and RL in a meeting with Allen Dulles and others

Policy guidelines for Radio Free Europe broadcasts to Poland as approved by the Committee on Radio Broadcasting Policy.

Voice of America (VOA) country policy guidelines for Czechoslovakia, endorsed by the Committee on Radio Broadcasting Policy (CRBP), one of a series of East European country guidelines for VOA complementing country guidelines for Radio Free Europe (RFE).

CIA and Free Europe Committee (FEC) restate policy for Radio Free Europe in the context of the 1956 upheaval in the Communist world.

Senior officials discuss US policy at a National Security Council (NSC) principals' meeting on July 12. Notwithstanding less cautionary views expressed by Vice President Nixon at the NSC discussion, on July 18 President Eisenhower approved a minor modification of the draft (NSC 5608 and the annex) as NSC 5608/1 to serve as a basic statement of U.S. policy (published as redacted document 80, FRUS, 1955-57, XXV ; unredacted document 17, Békés, Byrne, and Rainer, The 1956 Hungarian Revolution).

Staff draft of NSC 5608, concluding that ferment in the Communist world provides new opportunities to challenge Soviet control. A draft annex called for “encouraging evolutionary change” and defined as tasks of RFE and RL (and other USG-funded media) “avoiding any incitement to premature revolt” while “seeking to maintain faith in the eventual restoration of freedom.” Redacted document 76, FRUS, 1955-1957, XXV, unredacted document 12, Csaba Békés, Malcolm Byrne, and János M. Rainer, The 1956 Hungarian Revolution: A History in Documents (Budapest: Central European University Press, 2002.)

An annex to the Operations Coordinating Board (OCB) “169 Study” on U.S. international communications reviews the goals and effectiveness of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty.

A CIA memorandum reviews Radio Liberty policy guidance to date and outlines how it differs from the Voice of America.

CIA official Tracey Barnes, reacting to C.D. Jackson’s memorandum of November 16, 1953 ("Fomenting Unrest in the Communist World"), cautions against encouraging active resistance in Eastern Europe.