"These anti-communists watched with terror the changes in American laws and government policies such as the foreign policy of "peaceful co-existence"(Containment Policy) with the USSR. The Latvian anti-communists could not comprehend the shame Americans felt about the Vietnam War, America's inability to act against Communists in Cuba as well as the desire to limit and control the work of the FBI and CIA."(ibid)
Although Baltic
exiles in the United States placed
most of their faith in the State Department and the President to
liberate their home countries, they eventually began to turn to
Congress to help push their political agenda. The status of Eastern
Europe became an important aspect of American domestic politics.
Democratic operatives were concerned about Republican plans to garner
East European Americans' votes, particularly Polish Americans, as
early as the 1944 Presidential elections .
(Exiles
and Constituents:Baltic Refugees and American Cold War Politics,
1948-1960, Jonathan
H. L'Hommedieu .)
The China Lobby and the Power of
Ultra-Nationalist Propaganda
The definition of the China Lobby below is correct and yet so minimalistic it is unhelpful on its own. Generally defined, the "China Lobby" was a broad network of people, both foreign and domestic, whose interests coalesced around the goal of overthrowing communism in China. It consisted of well-financed Nationalist Chinese officials, in collaboration with right-wing U.S. political elites who worked toward the common goal of supporting Chiang Kai-shek's recovery of mainland China from Mao Zedong and the Communist forces. Aided by the anticommunist environment of the 1950s, the lobby's loose affiliation of influential individuals from the private sector, media and politics exerted considerable pressure on U.S. foreign policy decisions concerning China. (Influences on U.S-China Foreign Policy in the Postwar Period, 1949-1954, Jeff Blackwell.)
China Lobby
Background
The working committee created in 1949 by Dean Acheson was meant to educate the American public about communism. With oversight from every aspect of society, government, political science, business, and the religious community, safeguards were to be put in place using materials that were consonant with democracy. But instead of promoting democracy, the working committees attracted early American nationalists that packaged the message of the emigre ultra nationalists/ anti communists for a very large Christian American public. In the 1950's, the Church- going public included over 50% of the US population. By 1951, this situation boomeranged against Secretary Acheson and the Truman administration who were accused of being too soft on communism.
What
is apparent is that the emigre leadership running US Cold War
propaganda was also supplying the same kind of "educational"
material on the home-front, just packaged differently, in the press
and Church sermons.
As an example
of democracy education abroad, Radio Free Europe and Voice of
America were censured by oversight committees for calling
Bandera's SS units (Galizien, Roland, Nichtengall) heroes of
democracy. Further as an example of the democracy the Eastern
Europeans should look to was the freedom Hitler gave them when the
Nazis freed them from Soviet oppression. This occurred regularly from
the 1960's until the late 1980's.
How a
Pro-Fascist Press Stole American Democracy
At
the end of WWII, China was faced with civil war. The struggle
between Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong became the fight of American
Christian democracy against Godless communism.
Henry Luce, born in China to missionary parents, founder of Time Magazine, Life Magazine, House and Home, Sports Illustrated and Fortune Magazine, became the engine that propelled this cause onto the American psyche. Luce believed America had an obligation to fulfill China's national destiny. Chiang Kai-shek was on the cover of Time Magazine 10 times in as many years. Other publications included Collier's, The Saturday Evening Post, Readers Digest, U.S. News and World Report, Washington Times-Herald, the Los Angeles Examiner, the San Francisco Examiner, and the Oakland Tribune.
According to biographer W.A. Swanberg : "Luce stood guilty of 'manipulating' 50 million people weekly." (The China Lobby: Influences on U.S.-China Foreign Polic in the Postwar Period, 1949-1954, by Jeff Blackwell.)
Imagine
the changes forty plus years of propaganda worked within our nation,
when these publications were almost all of what mainstream America
read. Luce softly pushed ultra-nationalism as the only cure for
communism.
Understanding
how anti-Communists in Congress (the China Lobby) manipulated public
opinion through the press is critical to understanding how
McCarthyism worked . Peter
Manley Baker
Numerous editorials appeared in major newspapers around the country, many of them mobilized by the American Legion and other vocally anti-Communist political groups. Staff editorials also supported the Committee. While right wing newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune and New York Daily News were unequivocal in their support, even traditionally liberal New Deal friendly publications like the New York Times and Washington Post ran supporting editorials. While right wing newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune and New York Daily News were unequivocal in their support, even traditionally liberal New Deal friendly publications like the New York Times and Washington Post ran supporting editorials.For more examples, see: "Spy Prove still 'Red Herring' to President," Washington Post, 10 Dec, 1948, 1. Bruce Craig, "Politics in the Pumpkin Patch," The Public Historian 12 (Winter, 1990), p. 12, Associated Press, "Dixie Rebel Leaders Out, Says McGrath," Chicago Daily Tribune, 10 Nov. 1948, A1; Thomas Sancton, "Second Chance for the New Deal?," The Nation, 15 Jan, 1949, 61-62. Francis Thompson, The Frustration of Politics: Congress and the Loyalty Issue, 1945-1953 (London: Associated University Press, 1979), 7-26. Associated Press, "Legion Women Take Stand: Auxiliary Approves Anti-Red Inquiry, Big Air Force," New York Times, 1 Jan, 1949, 11; Schrecker, Many are the Crimes, 66-67. - ABSTRACT UN-AMERICANISM IN THE PAPERS: ANTI-COMMUNISTS AND THEIR USE OF THE PRESS By Peter Manley Barker
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
2
2
1
