Yankee Go Home - Communist Propaganda (1950)

[Music] gentlemen as you know Mr Allen has been in the thick of the Cold War since its very beginning you're familiar with his very distinguished record as a career Diplomat and troubleshooter but just for the record let me recall a few of its high spots four times in critical periods he was assigned to Frontline ambassadorial posts in Iran Yugoslavia India and Greece he has been assistant Secretary of State for the near east south Asia and Africa in 1948 when Congress decided we ought to have an overseas information program on a more or less permanent basis Mr Allen was put in charge last fall the president decided that this important activity needed Mr Allen again he brought him home from overseas and made him director of the United States information agency Mr Allen attends the meetings at the cabinet and the National Security Council Mr Allen why is it that everything the other side says is propaganda while we call what we say information Lenley the word propaganda has taken on a very bad connotation it was originally a perfectly good word but it brings to people's minds now the idea of uh twisting or distorting the truth or even manufacturing complete falsehoods whereas we try in our service our output to give as St the fact a factual presentation as we can and we feel that that is information and should be labeled as not uh called propaganda I wonder if you could give us an example of Soviet propaganda particularly is applied to the armed services which please gentlemen represent well I had today with me um a a book that the Soviet government puts out in its for its train tring course of the armed services of the Soviet Union the book is called Marxist leninism on War and the Army I'll just read you one description of the way it talks about American Army office it's that us us armed service officers are corrupt weak run by Wall Street and quote professional robbers in quot well I call that pop again well Mr Allen that applies to all officers of the Armed Forces do you have a comparable piece of Soviet propaganda that applies specifically to the Army well I'd like to show you on that a film of the the meeting of the American uh uh and the Soviet Armed Forces at the elb uh the river elb during the at the end of the last war and and you'll see how the Soviet government and their information service presents this meeting of the two armies could we have the film let's see what really happened to the ELA before we view scenes from the Soviet film we are outside of Tau Germany on the 26th of April 1945 at the first official meeting of the American and Russian army the film you are seeing was made by signal Corps photographers of the United States Army you will see a glimpse of the Elba River Bridge in the background the meeting took place to arrange a meeting of core commanders on the following day prior to this time only patrols of the two armies had contacted each other here are Major General imilf Reinhardt Commanding General of the 69th division fifth core United States Army and Major General russakov commanding the 58th guard division Red Army General Reinhardt said and I quote I crossed the river and waited for a short time as the Russians thought the meeting was later than 1600 hours rusakov and I discussed the details for meeting of the two core commanders the next day I was impressed most with The Cordial attitude of the Russians unquote now to the Soviet version complete with Korean dialogue foree [Music] foree [Music] foree [Music] foree [Music] foree the [Music] [Music] oh made in Germany made in Russia now for the Soviet proof that our army officers are corrupt as we see our play acting General B on the doorstep of decadence Fleet with lady friend and stock ticker in his office this is a literal translation of what they're saying General what's this what this girlfriend what's the market doing General my stocks are going up girlfriend sell for the profit General get me my broker yes Wall Street I'm making money like [Music] crazy Mr Allan what do the Communist have to say concerning our Air Force I'd like you to listen to a broadcast from Moscow on that subject which talks about the psychon neurotic American Pilots could we have that soundtrack you are tuned to Radio Moscow broadcasting in the 16 19 and 25 M bands in the shortwave and in the medium on 26.6 M an Associated Press dispatch tells us that an American saber jet accidentally dropped some Rockets over Florida the population has been alerted and warned of the serious danger this brought to mind a secret report of Dr Frank Berry medical assistant of the Secretary of Defense which made me doubt that the rocket fall was the result of an accident this report gives us every ground for questioning the possibility of accidents in general since it claims that approximately 70% of the officers and enlisted men of the Air Force are psychon neurotic what is more checks have shown that the State of Affairs is especially critical among the Airmen doing steady nuclear Patrol what are they saying about the United States Navy and the Marine Corps I've got a copy here of the Soviet newspaper that's published called their Navy called the sovietsky float Soviet Fleet May 18th of this year speaks about what's going on in the Mediterranean says referring to the United States over Lebanon hangs the real threat of military intervention by the imperialist states led by the United States he says the American command has doubled The Landing forces attached to the six Fleet that's the Marine compliment with the ships the imperialists are openly brandishing weapons threatening Lebanon but no matter how much the colonizers try they cannot intimidate the people of the near and Middle East and in particular the Lebanese people who have set on the road of defending the freedom and Independence of their country that's typical of the type of statement that the Soviets are making about the United States Navy and the Marine Corp tools of imperialists colonizers Wall Street so Mr Allen don't the Soviets in their propaganda attempt to show also that Americans are opposed to all the colored races yes they do they I've seen that particularly when I was serving in the Far East and in India they try to make it appear that the Americans are the most race conscious people in the world actually the experience of people in that part of the world dealing with Americans is the best way to counteract that when our naval ships or our armed services units are stationed in those parts of the world the uh integration that takes place in our armed services is the most um useful way to combat that type of Soviet propaganda also last fall we had a a magnificent experience when we U Marian Anderson went out through the Far East in India making her appearances uh as an American and speaking to the people about the racial questions in the United States as an American negro was a excellent counterweight to that Soviet propaganda I believe that Soviet film meeting on the elb has a sequence charging us with racial discrimination and fact Fierce racial hatred it might be interesting to take a look at [Music] that this sign in German and Korean says this is your home away from [Music] home [Music] this scene from the Soviet film The partisan depicts another Army activity for the Oriental Theater goer it is the fate of this Korean girl to be taken up the hill for a dawn exec [Music] Fusion here is a literal translation of the conversation the officer says if you surrender even now your life can be saved and the girl says the daughter of the partisan even though captured by the Americans is certain that you will pay it pains me not to live to see you pay down the Communist propaganda system its organization uh it appears to me that this must involve quite an elaborate chain of command if I may use that term I'll draw your attention to this chart here uh the Soviet government has gone all out for propaganda that is very recently we've seen how they've written several letters Cru CH for bulganin to President Eisenhower the letters are addressed on the envelope to president of to the president of the United States but what they are really intended to are the all the world just for propaganda purposes not as a Sol a serious uh document from one government to another how the uh Soviet government is headed by the party presidium that's just a small group of people in Moscow who run the 200 million people of the Soviet Union in their hand there are two elements the government and the Party Machine those are quite separate the government is merely a bureaucracy the Party Machine really has the power they use all the means of communications and contacts with foreign people to spread their propaganda uh just take for example radio the Soviet government every week in some 50 foreign languages sends out 2,300 hours of broadcast beam towards foreign countries in foreign languages you say how can you do 2300 hours in one week it means in each language they do so many hours and if you multiply that the number of hours by the number of languages 2,300 a week in uh broadcast they have mass books and Publications which they send abroad in various foreign languages interestingly enough many of those books and Publications that they use in the near East and the far east and south Asia India and those countries are in English because that's the best language to reach the intelligent public in those countries they use films they use exchanges that is exchange of visits they bring large numbers of of uh Indians or Egyptians or Chinese or Greeks anybody else they can get to the IET Union give them tours around the Soviet Union send them to universities in the Soviet Union a great party congresses of the Communist parties in all the countries they call together and have big meetings in in Moscow going back just for a minute for exchanges the Soviet Union put on one stunt last for a summer in which they spent more money than the entire United States government does on all of its information and cultural relations work for a whole year for one month in Moscow the Soviet Union had 50,000 FS from all over the world brought to the Soviet Union for the great Youth Festival that we hear about it the 50,000 delegates for the Youth Festival are gathered in the Moscow stadium to hear about the Soviet version of peace the delegations parade around the huge Stadium waving gay to the capacity crowd the national flags of participating delegations passing in [Music] review followed by groups displaying their National [Music] dancers the word Mir is Russian for peace and there's Kev here's the delegation reported to be from the United States [Music] in keeping with the festival them the Russian hosts released hundreds of white doves the age-old symbol of feet and the daytime entertainment climaxes with a spectacular display of precision [Music] formation [Music] delegates also sightsee in the Kremlin during some of the daylight hours and this is the kissing ceremony as the boy selects the Girl by throwing a scarf around her sort of a Soviet version dropped the [Music] handkerchief some are entertained at the balloy [Music] ballet outside in the streets and parks of the city there is entertainment of all kinds hold everything it's undulating ulali the curvaceous cutie from Char zooo which is near saman if anyone cares but it's back to the stadium for the grand propaganda finale here is the symbol of Destruction the tail of the bomb looks like an American Eagle both must be eliminated bomb and the [Music] eagle the cards say peace r peace in English and peace in fren Mr Allen what percentage of the people who attend these festivals that you mentioned are communists well we don't have any exact figures on that but the best we can calculate of the 50,000 that went to the Soviet Youth Festival last summer uh we estimate that about half of them were non-communists that is perhaps 25 5,000 I was in Greece at the time myself and I know that I think there were about 200 Greek young people went to the Soviet Union for that festival and uh many of them were just going for the ride who wanted to get the trip it was a chance to go and see the Soviet Union as long as the Soviet government will pay all expenses actually in that case the Soviet government took a young man from Greece took him to the Soviet Union kept him there for a month in good uh hotels accommodations food all expenses traveling around the Soviet Union took them to the very finest theatrical performances the ballet and the symphony orchestra the Opera and so forth and back to Greece all for the equivalent of $50 also they act through International fronts that is uh youth organizations college students around the world or labor organizations that don't admit that they are communists uh but are infiltrated and run by the hardcore of communist in those organizations and through those means they throw out their propaganda to the non-communist world uh as an example of the way they do in a totalitarian state such as the Soviet Union they have complete control of all their means of of communications and they can say one thing in the Soviet Union and entirely a different thing outside the Soviet Union or even to different countries outside the Soviet Union in the language of those countries as an example take recently uh when there was a threat of an attack on Syria the syrians claim that there was in a threat of an attack by turkey the Soviet Union was saying to the syrians you are being threatened by the Turks they were saying that in broadcast in the Syrian language to the syrians to the Turks though in the Turkish language they were saying to the Turkish people the Americans are in there forcing you and using you as tools to attack the syrians can tell ATI a different story in different countryes without any hesitation I've got a chart here that shows the way the Soviet Union hles out its radio broadcasting in these many languages uh in order to get as much of a varied effect as they can for example in the lower part of the chart it shows how much broadcasting the Soviet Union does overseas to foreign countries that's uh 900 hours a week this incidentally is the voice of America broadcast to 730 hours a week all together to the world this is a Soviet broadcast just to foreign countries not in the Russian language but in foreign language these are the broadcast by the European satellite states that is uh Czechoslovakia Hungary Bulgaria Romania and so forth they do about the same amount allog together as the Soviet Union does these 3177 hours are done by communist China then 125 hours each week are done by the Far East orbit that means to say North Korea and North Vietnam and then there's 108 hours now being done by various clandestine radio stations broadcasters who are situated in one place or another claiming that they are for example the South Korean broadcast they actually broadcasting from North Korea but announcing that they are a South Korean broadcast that's where the clandestine comes in so you see that the Soviet Union uses all the satellite countries to do broadcasting uh outside the Communist ofit as well as the Soviet broadcast themselves Mr Allen I wonder if you can amplify what you said about the Soviet distribution of magazines and books abroad I've seen some very stening figures on that do you happen to have them in mind well I uh have some figures about publication of the magazines they are putting out 85 periodical in 30 different languages at periodical means uh magazines and quarterly reviews and things of that sort was books of concern last year they poured 100 million books into the Free World they usually sell at very low prices usually all they give them away D I wonder if you would discuss first the main propaganda themes of the Communist today have a chart here but I'll show you on that these are just taken five sample propaganda themes of the Soviet Union one of them is that it's the United States that puts up the iron curtains while the Soviet Union seeks closer relations with everybody that we are the people who have the real Iron Curtain and they just want to embrace the world secondly they are constantly saying that it's that the United States is a war warmongering country that we want to bring about a World War whereas the Soviet Union peace seeks peace and disarm they say that United States capitalism can no longer compete with progress under Soviet socialism that they're going ahead of us and production they also say that the communist countries will surpass the United States and its allies in growth and strength and also that the United States is fighting a losing battle to maintain its colonialist hold on the new countries of Asia and Africa that we are the imperialist and we are trying to dominate those countries but they National Spiritual survive Mr Allan these are all examples of communist propaganda successes aren't there some things which they can't cover up even with their uh highly touted propaganda yes lots of them for example just very recently we've seen the the very bad effect on the Soviet public relations posture in all countries particularly in Europe and the United States by the execution of the former prime minister of Hungary n there have been tremendous demonstrations now in Paris and London and bond and other places by socialist and left-wing fellow traveler people who are terribly annoyed against the Soviet Union because of the execution of knowledge and there's nothing that their propaganda lying can do about it they just lost a great deal of support Sten aren't the Communists using film a lot in this propaganda field yes they are both documentary type of films and entertainment films and in the entertainment film field they have recently been very active as a matter of fact very recently they won an international award at at KH in France the film was called the the 41st oh yes I've heard about that film I believe it's about the girl who's a Red Army sniper and the boy who's a White Russian officer they're Shipwrecked and fall in love but they have a quarrel over communism and that proves fatal let's see what happens in this communist Love Story safe from the Shipwreck out of the sea across the ice comes the girl a Red Army sniper and her prisoner a White Russian officer she has killed 40 men with her [Music] rifle got lots of fat yes but will it burn on the vulo we often use it burns better than wood I couldn't the others have got through as well I be better to the Cross warn by the man is another communist identification of the enemy all right go ahead then forget I'm here you first I'll wait outside till you're ready don't be an idiot the wind's still raging you're liable to catch your death out there I was only trying to save you bment you and your high and mighty ways make me sick this is a front line not a drawing [Music] room go on what are you waiting for anybody think you were shy the Communist girl eager to fight of it all now finds her prisoner sick and discouraged a NeverEnding tide of hatred and death it's all just a gory nightmare no one likes it but it's the price of progress yes and you can have it as far as I'm concerned all I want is peace my books in other words you don't care if our enemy scheme to destroy us so long as you can read your books others can go hang I say let them damn it why should I take the world on my shoulders besides what has the world done for me as a man who opposes communism our hero becomes confused there are so many truths the Germans the Russian the muik the ruling classes the bavik I say do hell with a lot I don't care what happens leave me alone I'm out of it all and I won't spoil my hands again what you're saying is other should poke in the mud for your honor that's their own aair I don't care I'm no longer interested I see Marka don't be angry wait I don't mean to hurt you don't you understand I'm sick at heart exhausted let's get away from here go to the corses I've got a summer house in sakumi if only you'll go with me I'll help you to study I'll be good to you I promise is you you're asking me to turn my back on my conscience cast aside my obligations L around on cushions munching candy bought with the blood of my comrades don't be so melodramatic oh yes I forgot your class likes to hide thatness by pretending it doesn't exist is that all I wonder how you can blow yourself up with so much hot air and forget that you're a woman it's been thrust On Me by people like you how dare you think I could so far forget myself as to Desert my cause and lie around your house in idleness like any [ __ ] you blasted s ARS to CP that's about all I can stand stick to your damn dunk scum that you are it's lucky for you that there's such a thing as shivalry towards you're six I hate you [Music] for Mar why did I have to fall in love with you you thoughted me destroyed my piece of mind but I can't fight to I can't don't cry my Dar don't turn your back on I thought you would understand you were clever than I was I'm sorry I failed you my darling don't cry it'll work out all right I promise trust me again present let forget [Music] it I love you so much you love me too [Music] MH oh I'm sick of waiting to be rescued her loveo fish turn up in the next three days I'll commit suicide Hey where's all that courage I credited you with huh shows what a demoralizing effect you have on me I should have had more sense yeah you and your wishful thinking I can only hope I brought you down to earth a bit have I you have so you admit you were wrong yes it's all clear as day to me now thanks to you I've stopped fumbling At Last I was wrong to think I could go back to my books there's work to be done there's a life to be lived and damn me I live it I warn you AR no longer meat and Mild I'm now I'm a man with a purple you might at least tell me what that is all right as I see it my country needs me now more than ever idealism must give way to realism but it's plain that if her Destin is to be left in your hands I dread to think what a mess you'd make of [Music] it by all that's the sa the SA fisherman I love you I love you wait you idiot we've got to give them a signal what more they're coming here anyway they could be going F the East get the G and fire a shot quick hurry got it up don't be get the tree who is it who are they I'm not sure they fisherman at all you'd better fire another shot they're enough they're God in there hooray come on stop you're my prisoner you should escape again stop [Music] 41st victim of her rifle and the title of the picture Mr Allan how can we compete with this communist propaganda in view of the fact that the Communists can resort to any deceit whereas we have to stick to the truth I think first and foremost that um we should do more of what we've just been doing this afternoon that is we should recognize Soviet propaganda when we see it or hear it uh sometimes it's very subtle and sometimes it's in a disguised form but uh most Americans don't realize how much of it is being put out uh or what it is when they see it now uh secondly we must do more ourselves that is more counter propaganda and more uh presenting the story of the United States and the American way of life and the Democratic principles that we stand for we are doing a great deal this afternoon we've only considered what the Soviets are doing in this field but I haven't talked about what we are doing and don't think we've been holding our hands and doing nothing we haven't done as much as we should because we Americans are not inclined very much in the propaganda field but but we've realized that it now has to be done and uh we are doing more of it but thirdly and perhaps more important we should do everything we can to deprive the Communists of fertile ground in which to plant their propaganda now that means as far as the government is concerned that government should follow policies which uh make the United states are admired and respected and liked uh as much as we can know that there are many cases in which we can't please everybody quite true but our policy should have a public relations uh aspect to them and should win friends but more than that each of us individual Americans should behave act when we individual Americans and respect us and then these signs like Yankee go home they'll we'll have them they'll continue but they won't have fertile ground they won't catch on if all of us Americans civilian and Military behave in the way that we should thank you very much Mr Allen for this very interesting discussion h I