Edmund A. Chester

As Director of Latin American Relations he collaborated with the Department of State to develop CBS's "La Cadena de Las Americas" radio network in support of Pan-Americanism during World War II.

[9] Prior to accepting William S. Paley's invitation to join the CBS network, Edmund Chester served as a journalist in Latin America for the Associated Press for twenty years.

[12][13] Popular programs such as Viva America showcased professional musical talent of the highest caliber in live concert while preserving cultural authenticity[7] and were supervised by the Department of State and the Office of Inter-American Affairs during the tenure of Nelson Rockefeller.

[29] By recruiting some of the best entertainment talent from throughout the hemisphere, Chester hoped to present an image of the American people as soulful romantics rather than mere "cogs in the national industrial machine", while also providing accurate and timely news programming.

By 1945, Chester successfully developed the network to broadcast high quality entertainment and news programming over 114 affiliated radio stations in twenty Latin American nations.

[33][34][35][36][37] In 1949, Chester also collaborated with one of the original Murrow Boys Larry LeSueur, the media advisor Lyman Bryson and Benjamin V. Cohen (United Nations Assistant Secretary General) in yet another imaginative journalistic endeavor for CBS.

[45][47] Following Fidel Castro's successful rise to power in 1959, Batista's military dictatorship of 1952-1959 collapsed, and Edmund Chester joined the ranks of thousands of other American citizens and companies whose investments on the island were abruptly seized by Cuba's new Ministry of Ill-Gotten Goods.