mr. hirschberg. i do think it's, as we look at this issue, there isn't any question but that during the cold war we were particularly effective during a period of time. i remember i was in east germany for a while and saw the impact of these broadcasts. and saw how you did them wrong and how you did them right. the old bombastic west german broadcasts, people weren't interested in that. but when we recruited east german stringers and began to put those young reporters on the line, people were fixated on those, on what they had to hear. over the years we, i think, learned certain lessons. the state department wanted us out of yugoslavia on the broadcasting. i remember a young croatian with tears in his eyes telling me that the hate radio dominated all over the former yugoslavia, and it was one of the reasons the fact that we had never really had effective broadcasting in there. i had legislation to try to do that, and i believe we finally got that through, and it got it up and running the day before w

mr. hirschberg -- >> yes. when i'm done. >> sure. >> i don't share enders view of having it go to the n.s.c. i do share -- i do believe that you should have an independent agency and entity no matter what you call it and if you have to rebrand something, which is clearly needed here, it ought to be rebranded. the b.b.g. really needs to be rebranded. but i think that there is enough connectivity to our strategic interests as a country now if you want to change that legislatively, you can always do it. but i don't share the view that this is broken. somehow it is not the foreign policy community. its goals are a little different. its objectives are a little different. they are complemently to everything else. why add v.o.a. to it? >> thank you. dr. yoho is recognized. thank you. thank you. >> thank you guys for being here today. i would like to thank you all or being here today. i have a healthy respect for the voice of the history of americans in related programs from world war ii to the fall of communism. you

mr. hirschberg >> yes.when i'm done. >> sure. >> i don't share enders view of having it go to the n.s.c. i do share -- i do believe that you should have an independent agency and entity no matter what you call it and if you have to rebrand something, which is clearly needed here, it ought to be rebranded. the b.b.g. really needs to be rebranded. but i think that there is enough connectivity to our strategic interests as a country now if you want to change that legislatively, you can always do it. but i don't share the view that this is broken. somehow it is not the foreign policy community. its goals are a little different. its objectives are a little different. they are complementary to everything else. why add v.o.a. to it? >> thank you. dr. yoho is recognized. thank you. thank you. >> thank you guys for being here today. i would like to thank you all for being here today. i have a healthy respect for the voice of the history of americans in related programs from world war ii to the fall of communism. you