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United States. Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service miscellaneous records
58011
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Title: United States. Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service miscellaneous records
Date (inclusive): 1941-1946
Collection Number: 58011
Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Language of Material: In English, Japanese, and unidentified languages
Physical Description:
1 manuscript box, 1,077 sound discs
(108.1 Linear Feet)
Abstract: Sound recordings of radio broadcasts, and translations of transcripts of Chinese communist broadcasts from Yenan, China. Digital
copies of select records also available at
https://digitalcollections.hoover.org.
Creator:
United States. Foreign Broadcast Information Service
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives
The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual
or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 1958.
[Identification of item], United States. Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service miscellaneous records, [Box no., Folder no.
or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Digital copies of select records also available at
https://digitalcollections.hoover.org
This service was established by the U.S. government as the Foreign Broadcast Monitoring Service, a unit within the Federal
Communications Commission, in February 1941. It recorded, translated, analyzed, and reported to other agencies of the U.S.
government on broadcasts of foreign origin. It set up listening posts at Silver Hill, Maryland; London; San Francisco; Portland,
Oregon; Kingsville, Texas; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and other places to intercept broadcasts of foreign news, intelligence,
or propaganda emanating from authorized stations and clandestine transmitters in belligerent, occupied, and neutral countries.
At the listening posts, translations of the intercepted broadcasts were made and immediately teletyped or cabled to Washington
headquarters. Some broadcasts were also recorded on discs. At Washington, incoming wires and transcriptions were edited and
the more significant parts, or the full texts, were teletyped to the government agencies that were waging war on the military,
diplomatic, and propaganda fronts. Special interpretations and daily and weekly summaries were prepared at headquarters and
distributed to appropriate government agencies and officials.
Through cooperative arrangements with the Office of War Information, the British Ministry of Information, and the British
Broadcasting Corporation, editors of the service were assigned to overseas posts maintained by those agencies to select material
valuable for transmission to Washington. Editors and monitors of the service acted as part of the Army Psychological Warfare
Branch in North Africa when Allied troops were landed there in 1943.
On December 30, 1945, the service was transferred to the War Department, and in 1946 the functions of the service were transferred
to the Central Intelligence Agency.
Source: National Archives and Records Service.
Federal Records of World War II. Vol. 1,
Civilian Agencies. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1950.
Scope and Content of Collection
Sound recordings of radio broadcasts, and translations of transcripts of Chinese communist broadcasts from Yenan, China.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Sound recordings
World War, 1939-1945 -- Propaganda
World War, 1939-1945 -- China
Radio broadcasting
Propaganda, Communist -- China