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    "localId": "470155236",
    "label": "Report, Foreign Radio Reactions to Churchill's Boston Speech",
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    "id": "470155236",
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    "title": "Report, Foreign Radio Reactions to Churchill's Boston Speech",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/470155236",
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        "President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)",
        "Intelligence Files"
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            "logicalDate": "1949-04-05",
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    "seq": 2,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
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    "ocrText": "INTRODUCTION: While the non-Soviet radios no longer comment on Churchill's speech,\nthere are two monitored reactions from the Soviet sphere. Both consist of the most\nvitriolic denunciation. Churchill is described as a \"senile man, mad with rage,\"\nand so thoroughly discredited that President Truman stayed away in order not to\n\"demonstrate in public his solidarity with Churchill.\"\n\"He Regrets Not Having Drowned You as a Baby\": A Leipzig (Soviet-controlled)\nbroadcast by Erika Rowald comments on Churchill's reference to \"strangling\nBolshevism at its birth\": \"Would you, my listeners, believe in the peaceful in-\ntentions of a man who tells you that he regrets not having drowned you as a baby\nin your bath?\" (in Gorman, 2 April)\n\"President Truman Failed to Appear\": Zaslavsky presents on 4 April the first\nand as yet the only extended Soviet radio commentary on the speech. In spite of its\nlength, however, the commentary does not attempt to substantiate, by analysis of\nactual quotations from the speech, its accusation that Churchill \"demanded\" a war\nagainst the Soviet Union; nor is there any reference to Churchill's discussion of\nthe time factor, or of \"the death of the Great Khan.\" The speech itself is dis-\nmissed as \"not very interesting.\" While at the time of the Fulton speech \"warlike\ncynicism was something now and original,\" now \"nobody is amazed or surprised.\"\n\"The interesting point lies elsewhere. President Truman was present at\nthe Fulton speech, but he failed to appear at Boston. The President's\nabsence could be explained by various important reasons. Maybe among\nthem is also the fact that Truman did not want to demonstrate in public\nhis solidarity with Churchill. Does it mean that he does not agree with\nChurchill? Nothing of the kind. He agrees, if Churchill can be believed\nin this respect. And yet the U.S. Government is trying to persuade the\nwhole world that the Atlantic Pact is only of a defensive nature and\nthat it is being concluded only in the interests of peace.\" (in Polish,\n4 April)\nTherefore, the broadcast implies, Truman did not want to associate himself\ntoo closely with this \"universally hated clown\" who is \"generally despised\" and\nwhose \"own nation repudiates his political leadership.\""
}