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{
    "localId": "470155240",
    "label": "Report, Soviet and Satellite Radio Comment on Lifting of the Berlin Blockade and the Approaching Council of Foreign Ministers Conference",
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    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Report, Soviet and Satellite Radio Comment on Lifting of the Berlin Blockade and the Approaching Council of Foreign Ministers Conference",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/470155240",
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        "President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)",
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    "productionDates": [
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            "logicalDate": "1949-05-13",
            "month": 5,
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    "seq": 2,
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    "type": "photo",
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    "ocrText": "RESTRICTE™\nINTRODUCTION: It is as yet too early for much Soviet or Satellite radio\ncomment on the actual lifting of the blockade. The Soviet radio, in fact, has had\nsurprisingly little to say even about the Four-Power decision on the subject. The\nbroadcast of a NEW TIMES article, Moscow's major comment to date, sees it as vindi-\ncating the previous Soviet position--and as an example of the concrete results that\ncan be obtained when the Western Powers \"renounce their old tactics\" under the in-\nfluence of the powerful world movement for peace and against aggression. Soviet-\ncontrolled German and Satellite radios, to date more vociferous than Moscow, have\nwidely hailed and publicized the decision as another great victory for the consistent\nSoviet policy of \"peace\" and for the forces of peace throughout the world. The Paris\nmeeting of the Council Meeting of Foreign Ministers has not yet received concentrated\nattention. The above-mentioned NEW TIMES article views the meeting as opening \"the\npossibility of... coordinated decisions on the German problem, giving fresh hopes to\ncommon people throughout the world.\" At the same time, however, occasional German\n(Soviet-controlled) broadcasts and press editorials, some of which Moscow quotes,\nsee the \"unheard-of haste\" with which the Bonn Constitution was approved as proof of\nthose \"divisionist\" schemes which are said to be aiming at \"creating a fait accompli\"\nbefore the Foreign Ministers Conference and at \"torpedoing\" the Conference before it\nhas started. Satellite radios in Eastern Europe look with approval and hope on the\napproaching conference; but they warn, to quote Sofia, that \"the success of future\nnegotiations (has not yet been) assured.\"\nTHE DECISION TO LIFT THE BLOCKADE: The following excerpts, taken from a Soviet radio\nbroadcast of the above-mentioned NEW TIMES article, illustrate the line of Moscow's\nmajor commentary (to date) on the significance of the Four-Power decision:\n= millions of common people understood who was in the right (on the question\nof Germany and Berlin). They drew the right conclusion from the fact that\nduring the last year the USSR attempted three times to bring about a peaceful\nsettlement of the Berlin question; but each time this initiative was met with a\nrefusal of the Anglo-American leaders. ... The publication of (the Four-\nPower communique) was received with great satisfaction by world public opinion\nwhich realized how quickly it was possible to obtain concrete results once the\nWestern Powers renounced their old tactics.\n\"The democratic press said that there is little doubt that the Western Powers\nwere influenced by the powerful protest movement against the aggressive\nAtlantic Pact and by the world-wide mass movement against imperialist military\nplans.'\nThus, Moscow implies what her Satellite radios make explicit: that the Berlin\ndecision was a victory for \"the peace-loving USSR and the forces of peace\" and a\nDECLASSIFIED\nRESTRICTED\nAuthority E.O. 10501"
}