TRANSCRIPT:
So, I can recall listening to Voice of America back in 1979 on my shortwave radio when I was posted at the American Embassy in Warsaw. When I was in Moscow in the second part of the 1980s, you could tell that the Soviets did not like Voice of America because all around Moscow there were these jamming towers. So, it was very hard to get it.
And what I worry about now is that with the silencing of Voice of America, the United States is losing a very important element of soft power. And when you look at our competitors, for example Russia, RT is not shutting down. The Chinese aren’t shutting down. We are, in effect, ceding the innovation environment to the other side. And that will, I think, undermine American diplomacy and undermine American interests.
Published
Pifer served as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from 1998–2000 during the Clinton administration. A career Foreign Service officer, he later became a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution focusing on Ukraine, Russia and arms control.