Ask the Scholar

{
    "localId": "470155495",
    "label": "Report, Soviet Radio Reactions to the Situation in Korea",
    "core": "doc",
    "dtoType": "document",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/470155495"
}

{
    "id": "470155495",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/470155495",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Report, Soviet Radio Reactions to the Situation in Korea",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/470155495",
    "collections": [
        "President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)",
        "Intelligence Files"
    ],
    "subjects": [
        "Korean War, 1950-1953"
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602196/875445/875445-13-001.tif",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602196/875445/875445-13-001.tif",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602196/875445/875445-13-001.tif",
    "imageCount": 3,
    "hasImages": true,
    "source": "import",
    "hasTranscription": false
}

{
    "url": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/470155495",
    "naId": 470155495,
    "levelOfDescription": "item",
    "productionDates": [
        {
            "day": 14,
            "logicalDate": "1950-08-14",
            "month": 8,
            "year": 1950
        }
    ],
    "recordType": "description",
    "ocrSource": "nara-archive"
}

{
    "seq": 2,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602196/875445/875445-13-002.tif",
    "mediaId": "b0f254d6f624229d",
    "ocrText": "RESTRICTED\nINTRODUCTION: Soviet radio propaganda concerning Korea currently emphasizes three\npoints:\n(1) The legalistic argument presented by Delegate Malik, which, by reference to\nauthoritative sources, demonstrates that America is guilty of an act of\naggression by reason of its intervention in the Korean civil war.\n(2) The emotionally-charged claim that Americans are barbarians, cannibals,\nbestial perpetrators of monstrous crimes against the Korean people and\nagainst the peoples they hope to use as cannonfodder. American capitalists'\nheedless lust for profits is cited and the atom bomb is described in terms\nof its terroristic rather than its tactical or strategic uses.\n(3) The claim, which has been a keynote of Soviet propaganda since 25 June,\nthat the peoples of the world oppose America's aggression in Korea. The\npeople of the U.S. are now included in this category.\nAll three arguments are premised on the charge, fundamental to Soviet propaganda,\nthat America's path is one of militarism and aggression. One commentary views this\nmilitarism as both cause and effect of the Korean war. It claims that President\nTruman's request for ten and a half billion dollars for aid \"makes it clear that the\nU.S. Korean adventure was used by the ruling circles as an excuse to introduce ever\nmore militarization of the country. Were it not for the Korean adventure... the\nTruman administration would have found it hard to get Congress to agree to spend more\non war aims than was spent in the years of the Second World War.\" The President's\ncall for curbs on subversives is similarly treated as an opportunistic drive against\nprogressives.\nAll three charges against the U.S. are contrasted with the widely-exploited claim\nthat the Soviet Union's course of action is directed toward world peace and toward\nliberation of colonial peoples. There is no monitored exposition of Malik's claim that\nNorth Korean forces are using Soviet supplies purchased in 1948, nor is there any\nmonitored reaction to Austin's characterization of North Korea as a \"zombie\" regime.\nILLEGAL AGGRESSION AND STATE DEPARTMENT IGNORANCE: Echoing the argument put forth\nby Delegate Malik, Soviet periodicals, Academicians and jurists vigorously pursue the\nclaim that American intervention in the Korean civil war constitutes an act of aggres-\nsion. They cite international protocols and historical events which document the\ncharge that intervention in a civil war is aggression, but they do not elaborate on\nthe claim that events in Korea are a civil war.\nThere is also an attempt to belittle the State Department by magnifying its\n\"churlish incivility\" and alleged ignorance of international law. These character-\nRESTRICTED."
}