A Preliminary Report to the Voice of America

Arthur Vidich, kneeling in the second row on left, and Virginia Vidich, in foreground wearing a plaid blouse, posing
 for a photo with Art's relatives from Kropa Slovenia some of whom were interviewed for the Voice of America study.

In 1951, Arthur and Virginia Vidich collaborated to prepare a confidential report on  the listening habits of Yugoslavs with respect to the Voice of America.  With Tito in power,  Yugoslavia had become a communist nation with few of the liberties or economic advantages Americans took for granted.  While World War II had ended some five years before Art and Virginia conducted their undercover interviews, they both sensed the economic desperation that remained in Yugoslavia  - a nation bereft of many of the essential goods of life. 

After over sixty five years the Vidich's classic study of the radio listening habits of Yugoslavs has finally surfaced from the New School archives and is now available for online reading. The study was of singular importance to the United States State Department in the early 1950s as the Truman administration sought to use the Voice of America to counter the influence of communism and determine how best to reach the citizens of this communist regime.  While the online study is merely a copy of the preliminary report and therefore contains many handwritten edits and typographical errors, it paints a stark portrait of the pressures the Yugoslavs faced in transitioning from a quasi feudal world of parochial politics to a communist controlled political state. 

Those interested in Arthur Vidich's lifetime interest in the fate of the Balkan nations will find how this study influenced all of his future research on Yugoslavia and the eventual "balkanizaton" of the Yugoslav empire. You can link to the Preliminary Report to the Voice of America at the New School for Social Research Archives.