---
title: Invest a "Truth Dollar" in Radio Free Europe
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/truth-dollar-1954/
description: A Crusade for Freedom advertisement asks Americans to 'Invest a "Truth Dollar" in Radio Free Europe', with George Washington's portrait framed like a…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![Invest a "Truth Dollar" in Radio Free Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/truth-dollar-1954.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/truth-dollar-1954.jpg)

# Invest a "Truth Dollar" in Radio Free Europe

A Crusade for Freedom advertisement asks Americans to 'Invest a "Truth Dollar" in Radio Free Europe', with George Washington's portrait framed like a banknote and ringed with dollar signs. The word 'Truth' stands in for any statement of who funded the station, which until 1971 was mainly the U.S. government through the CIA; Washington lends the founding era's prestige to the appeal.

- **Date:** 1954
- **Period:** [Cold War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=cold-war)
- **Made by:** Crusade for Freedom / National Committee for a Free Europe (covertly funded by the CIA)
- **Region:** [North America](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=north-america)
- **Country:** [United States](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=united-states)
- **Medium:** [Banknotes and coins](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=banknote-coin)
- **Issuer type:** [Mixed](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=mixed)
- **Regime:** [Eisenhower Administration](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=eisenhower-administration)
- **Leader:** [Dwight D. Eisenhower](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=dwight-d-eisenhower)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Fundraise](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=fundraise)
- **Themes:** [Media and information](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=media-information), [Economy and finance](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=economy-finance)
- **Event:** [Cold War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=cold-war)
- **Techniques:** [Narrative laundering](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/narrative-laundering/) [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/) [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)
- **Source:** Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
- **Source:** [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Truth_Dollar.jpg), retrieved September 27, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (U.S. government work) Crusade for Freedom (1954); via Cold War Radios / Wikimedia Commons.

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
Invest a
"TRUTH
DOLLAR"

in Radio Free Europe
```

[← May Day parade satire: dollar-throne figure and 'US'-helmeted puppets, Budapest](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/budapest-mayday-dollar-throne-1953/) [A Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/frank-statement-1954/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Himmler-head forgery of the 6-pfennig Deutsches Reich stamp](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/himmler-stamp-forgery-1943/) (1943 · Transfer, Narrative laundering)
- [Freedom-Gram: Help Truth Fight Communism](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/freedom-gram-1952/) (1952 · Narrative laundering, Transfer)
- [He needs a mind of his own ... he needs Radio Free Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/rfe-mind-of-his-own-1970/) (1970 · Transfer, Narrative laundering)
- [Gold solidus of Constantine I, reverse RESTITVTORI LIBERTATIS](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-constantine-i-restitutori-libertatis-0313/) (0313 · Glittering generalities)
- [Gold solidus of Justinian I, reverse VICTORIA AVGGG with Victory holding a Christogram staff](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-justinian-i-victoria-avggg-0538/) (0538 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Frontispiece to Eikon Basilike, The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in his Solitudes and Sufferings (Hollar, 1649)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eikon-basilike-frontispiece-hollar-1649/) (1649 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Trois Tetes sous l'meme bonnet (three heads under the same cap)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/trois-tetes-sous-le-meme-bonnet-1789/) (1789 · Plain folks, Glittering generalities)
- [Proclamation by the Queen in Council, to the Princes, Chiefs, and People of India (printed sheet, Allahabad, 1 November 1858)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/queens-proclamation-to-the-people-of-india-1858/) (Nov 1, 1858 · Glittering generalities, Scapegoating)