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On 22 February, Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Petras Vaitiekūnas transferred the tapes of the Lithuanian broadcasts of Voice of America to the Lithuanian Central State Archive. The last tape of the Lithuanian broadcasts was symbolically handed in to Minister P.Vaitiekūnas by the U.S. Ambassador to Lithuania John A.Cloud.

„Kalba „Amerikos balsas“ iš Vašingtono“ (‘This is the Voice of America from Washington’), many of us still remember well these words in Lithunian, pronounced by Romas Sakadolskis, Romas Kasparas, Virginija Vengrienė and other familiar voices. These words for us, Lithuanians on both sides of the Atlantic, used to inspire the wish for freedom, hope to re-establish the independent State,’ says Minister P.Vaitiekūnas.

The Minister was glad that today Lithuania itself could spread democratic values for the nations on the path of freedom.

Addressing the U.S. Ambassador J.A.Cloud, Minister P.Vaitiekūnas thanked the U.S.A. for the possibility to listen to the broadcasts of the Voice of America in the Lithuanian language, which promoted the freedom of thought during the Soviet period.

‘Please convey my frank gratitude to the U.S. Government and the Congress for the free speech from Washington  in our mother tongue and the possibility for the Lithuanian people to learn more than it was permitted at that time, for the support during all those long years,’ said Minister P.Vaitiekūnas.

The U.S.A. and other countries of free world supported the goal of freedom of the Eastern European nations during all of the Cold War years.

The Minister also expressed his frank gratitude to the directors and editors of the Lithuanian broadcasts of the Voice of America, thanks to whose devotion the free speech used to would reach Lithuania from the other side of the Atlantic.

‘The voices of Konstantinas Jurgėla, Povilas Labanauskas, Vytautas Dambrava, Antanas Vaičiulaitis, Leonardas Dambriūnas, Alfonsas Petrutis, Jurgis Blekaitis, Romas Kasparas, Virginija Vengrienė, Jolanta Raslavičiūtė, Jurgis Bradūnas, Linas Rimkus, Romas Sakadolskis, as well as the voices from the Radio Free Europe, helped to train the new generation of Lithuanian journalists, who spoke up freely with the Reform Movement of Lithuanian (Sąjūdis),’ indicated the head of Lithuanian diplomacy.

Minister P.Vaitiekūnas expressed hope that these tapes would help the Lithuanian historians, politicians and journalists to gain a deeper understanding of that complicated period in our history, when staying in captivity, the Lithuanian people managed to retain the spirit of freedom. 

In the end of 2007, the U.S. Government presented 776 tapes of Lithuanian audio broadcasts of Voice of America to the Lithuanian Embassy in Washington.

According to Director of the Lithuanian Central State Archive Dalius Žižys, these tapes of the Lithuanian broadcasts are a gift, which Lithuania has been waiting for long years. In the nearest time, the tapes will be digitalised and available for researchers.

During the event, Minister P.Vaitiekūnas conferred the Foreign Ministry award, ‘The Star of Lithuania’s Millennium’, to the veteran worker of the Voice of America R.Sakadolskis.

Among the participants at the event, there were: the U.S. Ambassador to Lithuania J.A.Cloud, Director-General of the Lithuanian Archives Department Vidas Grigoraitis, Director of the Lithuanian Central State Archive D.Žižys, and others.

The Voice of America is the U.S. broadcasting service, which first went on the air in 1942. From 1951 through 2004, the Voice of America also prepared broadcasts in the Lithuanian language. For 53 years, the Lithuanian Voice of America program was an important source of information and democratic ideas for Lithuania, which had found itself under the iron curtain.

According to R.Sakadolskis, the Voice of America is one of the few institutions, in which it was possible to work professionally for the sake of Lithuania and that encouraged even stronger to believe in its future.