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    "label": "Report by the Department of State, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs",
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    "id": "294549972",
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    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Report by the Department of State, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/294549972",
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        "President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)",
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    "productionDates": [
        {
            "day": 11,
            "logicalDate": "1951-04-11",
            "month": 4,
            "year": 1951
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{
    "seq": 10,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602191/750373/750373-01-010.tif",
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    "ocrText": "RESTRICTED\nvictory over the Nazis in his toast to them at the end of the war. Continued references to\nthem as \"the elder brother\" show that Soviet leaders have not changed their evaluation of\nthem as the strongest force in the USSR.\nIt is clear that every effort should be made to show that the rule of Stalin and the\nPolitburo is against and not in the best interests of Russia and the Russian people. That\nwhile the free world will resist aggression, it has no animosity toward the Russian people\nand is, in fact, more sympathetic toward their interests than are the Soviet leaders. The\nexploitation of Russian and the Russian people for purposes of international Communist\npropaganda, intrigue, and aggression can be emphasized to gain the first of these ob-\njectives. (In doing this, however, care should be taken not to build up a picture of a\ngenuinely revolutionary international proletariat.) To gain the second, concepts common\nto Russia and to the free world, in particular the U.S., can be established and it can then\nbe shown that they are what lead the free world to resist Communist aggression and are\nalso what make it understand and sympathize with the plight of the Russian people.\nThe inordinate sensitivity of the Russians to criticism of Russia's backwardness\ncoming from foreigners and their suspiciousness of foreigners in general make Russian\nnationalism an extremely difficult force for Americans to handle. In view of this it might\nbe advisable for U.S. propaganda to mix points demonstrating our understanding and\nrespect for the Russians with points that might be construed as critical of them in a\nproportion of at least one to one. In addition, in touching on the sorest spots, it might\nbe wise to imply the final point, so clearly that the Russian cannot fail to draw the de-\nsired conclusion, and to refrain from stating it explicitly. Since the less educated Russian\nlikes to regard himself as khitri (clever-sly-hard to dupe), it might be a useful technique\nin exposing Soviet propaganda lies to imply that we understand that the listener was too\nsmart to have been taken in by the trick.\nf. Interdicting Other Soviet Strengths\nWhile U.S. propaganda has made an effort to show that conditions are improving in\nthe free world, thus implying that there is no need for revolution and that there is no\nworld proletariat waiting for Soviet \"liberation\", there is a further self-justification\nof\nwhich Soviet leaders should be stripped. The Nazi attack on the USSR is taken to prove\ntheir point about the aggressiveness of the capitalist world and to justify all their\ndraconian measures to build up the military strength of the USSR. Since the war Soviet\npropagandists have, of course, been assiduous in attributing all the evils of the Nazis to\nthe United States. The striking similarity between the Nazi and Soviet systems could be\npointed out or at least implied. It could be emphasized that Nazi Germany was aggressive\nbecause she was totalitarian and not because she was capitalistic. (See Section I (d) \"At-\ntacking Soviet Ideology\"). A further and also important source of Soviet strength is the\nslight but undeniable rise in the standard of living in the USSR during the past two years.\nOne way of neutralizing the psychological effects of this Soviet asset might be to say that\nthe relatively slight proportion of the total Soviet economy that was involved had been\ndevoted to this purpose not out of solicitude for the welfare of the people but so that if\nthe Soviet leaders decide to embark on general war, the blame for the subsequent drop\nin the Soviet standard of living will seemingly fall on the U.S., the alledged aggressors,\nand not on the regime, the actual aggressors.\n- 8 -\nRESTRICTED"
}