Cover art from Propaganda Review

PSYOP HISTORY

The 7721st Radio Broadcasting and Leaflet Group

By Jared M. Tracy, PhD

From Veritas, Vol. 11, No. 1, 2015

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The May 1953 de-federalization of the reserve 301st Radio Broadcasting and Leaflet (RB&L) Group in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) forced U.S. Army, Europe (USAREUR) to resolve the issue of remaining 301st soldiers and equipment. On 14 May 1953, USAREUR Headquarters, Area Command (HACOM) issued General Order #22. That order set 20 May as the activation date for the 7721st RB&L, the strategic psychological warfare (Psywar) replacement for the 301st.1 However, the 7721st was just a short-lived holding detachment that was deactivated in September 1953, closing out the Army strategic Psywar presence in Europe for years.

Upon activation, the 7721st RB&L was to organize according to the USAREUR-created Table of Distribution (T/D) 77-7721, which was modeled on existing T/Ds for RB&L Groups. Because the 301st had that structure, the 7721st did not have to re-organize. The ‘newly formed’ 7721st would occupy the former barracks of the 301st (Sullivan Barracks), with the exception of one MRB detachment situated at the Vogelweh Cantonment in Kaiserslautern that was relaying American Forces Network broadcasts to soldiers under Western Area Command.2

COL Frank A. McCulloch
COL Frank A. McCulloch

On 1 June 1953, formal assignment of 301st personnel and property to the 7721st happened “smoothly and efficiently.”3 COL Frank A. McCulloch, 301st RB&L commander from September 1952 to May 1953 who then became the 7721st RB&L commander, told his subordinates that only the Group number had changed. “Personnel, equipment, and the mission remain the same, and it is my earnest hope that the new Group will carry on in the old tradition, in spite of the change in designation.”4 Soldiers noticed no difference in their day-to-day routines.

One soldier who served in both the 301st and 7721st RB&Ls was native Lithuanian Private First Class (PFC) Vytenis Telycenas. Drafted in 1952 while residing in Cleveland, Ohio, Telycenas took basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky, before specializing in signal and radio communications. In late 1952, he reported to the 525th Military Intelligence Service Group at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He soon received orders to the 301st RB&L Monitoring Section. When the 301st ‘became’ the 7721st, Telycenas recalled that nothing changed: “Everybody kept doing the same jobs.”5

The 7721st maintained the same research and training focus as the 301st, continuing some of the latter’s projects. The Group printed Propaganda Review, a product initiated by the 301st months prior thatoffered a daily summary of broadcasts by Radios Moscow, Warsaw (Poland), Prague (Czechoslovakia), (East) Berlin, Brasov (Romania), and Bucharest (Romania). In addition, it produced Propanol, a monthly analysis of broadcasts intercepted from the Communist bloc. According to the unit newsletter, Psyche, the purpose of Propanol was “obtaining intelligence to oppose [Communist] propaganda.” Monitors tuned in twenty-four hours a day to broadcasts from behind the Iron Curtain, recorded relevant broadcasts, and forwarded them to linguists for translation. Translated tapes then went for transcription and finally to the S-2 for a “strategic analysis and forecast.”6

In June, the 7721st carried out other tasks besides Propaganda Review and Propanol. In coordination with the 5th Loudspeaker and Leaflet (L&L) Company, Seventh U.S. Army tactical Psywar asset in the FRG, the RB&L assembled a Psywar exhibition in Paris, France. The Group developed and printed a “Welcome to Europe” pamphlet. And it established internal German language and Psywar-specific courses. Meanwhile, the Group continued tracking the political environment in Europe. For example, the Italian desk monitored and reported on that country’s June 7 national election in which the Christian Democracy Party emerged victorious over leftist parties and other factions in parliament.7

Training activities continued throughout July. Several 7721st personnel attended an abbreviated Russian language course at the USAREUR Intelligence and Military Police School, roughly 250 miles south in Oberammergau. The Group propagandists developed a hypothetical leaflet directed at civilians in a combat zone as well as foreign language radio scripts for a field exercise. USAREUR tasked the Group to prepare scripts and assign a scriptwriter and two announcers for the Fourth of July festivities in Heidelberg. Complementing these more specialized opportunities was refresher training on such military topics as Military Security and Customs and Courtesies.8

On 22 July 1953, COL McCulloch received verbal notification of the forthcoming deactivation of the unit in September, effectively ending training. “Selected operations of the Group were discontinued pending official orders,” which came about a month later.9 On 17 August, Headquarters, Area Command published General Order #38. The order directed that on 15 September the 7721st RB&L would be relieved from assignment to G-3, USAREUR; T/D 77-7721 would be withdrawn; and personnel would report to G-1, USAREUR for new assignments. PFC Telycenas recalled, “We were told to make some phone calls and find another job, and that’s what we did.”10 “Common equipment” was to be turned in “in accordance with existing regulations,” but “equipment peculiar to [Psywar] will be prepared for disposition in accordance with special instructions to be issued by Headquarters, USAREUR.”11

General Order #38 ended 7721st RB&L operations. COL McCulloch wanted the Army to keep a strategic Psywar presence in theater. He proposed that USAREUR delegate a “panel of officers and enlisted men” to stay behind for that purpose, which was accepted. Three officers and five soldiers gathered “selected records and equipment” of the 7721st and reported to G-3, USAREUR. However, there is no indication that anything came out of their efforts. By 15 September 1953, all of the RB&L equipment was turned in and personnel were reassigned. The next day, the 7721st submitted its last Morning Report, an anticlimactic finish to the U.S. Army strategic Psywar presence in Europe in the early 1950s.12

ENDNOTES

  1. Headquarters, Area Command, “General Order #22: Organization of 7721 Radio Broadcasting and Leaflet Group,” 14 May 1953, Box 567, Record Group 338, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), College Park, MD. [return]
  2. The 7721st fell belonged to Headquarters, Area Command for administration and G-3, USAREUR, for operations. Dated 31 May 1950, T/D 250-1201 for the HHC of an RB&L authorized 8 officers, 2 warrant officers, and 71 enlisted men; T/D 250-1202 for the Reproduction Company authorized 2 officers and 31 enlisted men; and T/D 250-1203 for the Mobile Radio Broadcasting Company authorized 3 officers and 35 enlisted men.The only organizational change in the 7721st was the move of the Propaganda Section (linguists, script-writers, and artists) from the S-3 to become a special staff section in the HHC. History Card, 7721st RB&L Group, U.S. Army Center of Military History (CMH), Fort McNair, Washington, DC, hereafter History Card, 7721st RB&L. [return]
  3. 7721st RB&L, “Historical Summary of the 7721st Radio Broadcasting and Leaflet Group [for the period covering 20 May 1953 to 15 September 1953],” no date (ca. September 1953), 1, Box 567, RG 338, NARA, hereafter 7721st RB&L, “Historical Summary.” [return]
  4. COL Frank A. McCulloch, “From the desk of the Col. F.A. McCulloch,” Psyche (no date, ca. June 1953): 2, copy in USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC. [return]
  5. Vytenis Telycenas, 301st RB&L and 7721st RB&L, interview with Jared M. Tracy, 1 March 2012, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC. [return]
  6. 7721st RB&L, “Proponal: The Study of Propaganda,” Psyche (no date, ca. June 1953): 16-17. [return]
  7. 7721st RB&L, “Historical Summary,” 1-2. [return]
  8. 7721st RB&L, “Historical Summary,” 2. [return]
  9. 7721st RB&L, “Historical Summary,” 3. [return]
  10. Telycenas interview. [return]
  11. Headquarters, Area Command, General Order #38, “Discontinuation of 7721st Radio Broadcasting and Leaflet Group,” 17 August 1953, Box 567, RG 338, NARA; History Card, 7721st RB&L. [return]
  12. 7721st RB&L, “Historical Summary,” 3-4. [return]