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VOA’s Core Was Never About America Alone People think VOA was just about promoting America. But those who knew the mission knew better: VOA told the world what was happening in America—even when it wasn’t pretty. Civil rights struggles. Vietnam protests. Watergate. Mass shootings. It didn’t hide these truths. It aired them. That’s what made … Read more

40 Languages. One Voice. At its height, VOA broadcast in more than 40 languages. Mandarin. Russian. Farsi. Swahili. Urdu. Dari. Somali. Spanish. French. Korean. It was the most ambitious global media project in the world. Not just a voice for America—but a voice from America that reflected something deeper: freedom of speech, open debate, and … Read more

VOA Journalists Risked Everything Working at VOA was never a cushy job. It was a mission. From Baghdad to Beijing, from the Congo to Caracas, VOA reporters went where the truth was buried—and they dug it out. Some were threatened. Some were followed. Some were blacklisted or killed. But they kept going. Because truth mattered. … Read more

Behind the Iron Curtain During the Cold War, VOA wasn’t just a radio signal—it was a lifeline. Beamed behind the Iron Curtain, it brought news that people in the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany couldn’t get anywhere else. VOA told people what their own governments tried to hide. It gave them hope. It … Read more

Date: February 1, 1942Title: “The News May Be Good or Bad, We Shall Tell You the Truth.” That was the line. The first words ever spoken on VOA. It was wartime. The world was breaking. And in the middle of chaos, America spoke—not with propaganda, but with principle. Broadcast in German to audiences under Nazi … Read more