U.S. Urged to Seek Bogged-Down Nazi-Soviet War And Ouster of Wide GPU Apparatus Here
LUNDBERG, FERDINAND
U.S. Urged to Seek Bogged-Down Nazi-Soviet War And Ouster of Wide GPU Apparatus Here By Ferdinand Lundberg Author of America's 60 Fcmlffa rf order for the pro-democratic forces of tie j*pr\d to...
...All sorts of devices are used to attract listeners...
...German listening posts evidently picked it up and transcribed it, for the following evening the German radio carried portions of the speech, interlarded with German analysis and comments...
...If Hitler can demonstrate at an early stage that the Rusarian army is no match for the German, a negotiated peace between Russia and Germany might be quickly forthcoming, giviBg to Germany the Ukraine and the Caucasus and easy access to the oil fields of Persia and the waters of the Persian Gulf...
...it will mean future uprisings in nhot unions under Communist leadership in the diffi-cult days after the war...
...The moment Stalin decided to make another of his treacherous deals they would once again start shouting for "peace...
...ASCAP music was available on the short waves throughout the period when favorite ASCAP tunes could be heard on few American stations...
...Germany has Fritz and Fred, an "ersatz" version of Lum 'n' Abner or Amos 'n' Andy...
...Tw ' before the Committee on Communications, America* W Association, May 23, 1941.J...
...In sifting the grain from the chaff, trends are often important than specific statements...
...attempt by Germany to paint the French government as independent of German domination, in order to procure for Vichy a more favorable treatment from the United States...
...Urged to Seek Bogged-Down Nazi-Soviet War And Ouster of Wide GPU Apparatus Here By Ferdinand Lundberg Author of America's 60 Fcmlffa rf order for the pro-democratic forces of tie j*pr\d to derive significant benefit from the Nazi-Soviet war it will be necessary for a state of" military deadlock to be established quickly between the Russian and German armies not too-.deep in the interior of Russia...
...Today, listeners on short-wave can hear Somerset Maugham, a novelist popular with the American public, or Leslie Howard, an actor well-known to American movie audiences...
...It wjh mean, in short, the re-estahlishment within the ranks of democracy of some of its most im-p'.acable...
...This syphilis of Stalinism had much to do with the enfeeblement of French morale and the ultimate collapse of France...
...The Rome radio has a musical request program for American listeners...
...Japan's North- American service now runs to about four and one-half hours daily...
...With a typed script beM you, you can analyze, criticize and deduce...
...But if an increahtal proportion of German radio time were to be devoted to ft" vasion stories, ijr an increasing proportion of British rsi...
...But if the Russian front hold...
...If the Communists should now be accepted as full-fledged allies it will be a dark day for the American people and for democrats and progressives in general...
...The Federal Communications Commission has had the aid and advice of these pioneers in establishing its own Foreign Broadcast Monitoring Service...
...Various newspapers, news gathering agencies, and the news divisions of our broadcasting networks set up listening posts during 1939, as a supplement to their routines...
...I doubt it...
...I Bhould say that the British broadcasts aimed at the appealing primarily to American ministers' of the gospel, while a simultaneous German program was appealing primarily to tenant farmers, share croppers, and the Oalries portrayed in "The Grapes of Wrath...
...2. But merely because Russia is now fighting Germany it would be a mistake to accept her as a full-fledged loyal ally...
...Should Russia unexpectedly be able to withstand the onslaught of the German technological juggernaut, but without decisively prevailing over it, the democratic effort throughout the world would be enormously benefited...
...But more dynamic danger lies in the possibilities of a quick German victory...
...Never in modern times has there been a war for greater human stakes than the pretest struggle of the democracies against totalitarian, ism...
...or else a move to prepare American listeners for some new action by the French...
...1. That Hitler at last has turned his legions loose against the citadel of Bolshevism should be no cause for relaxing military pressure on Germany...
...they know that relatives and friends of soldiers at-the front will listen for familiar names...
...Both England an\l Germany announce lists of prisoners taken, in order to build up audiences on the other side...
...Frequently American listeners are given varying treatment of the same theme from different sources almost simultaneously...
...The real significance of such programs is seldom visible upon their face...
...its bearing on the domestic labor situation, where it should liquidate the Communist sabotage of the defense effort...
...Unless the German army bogs down somewhere in the vastness of Russia as the Japanese army has bogged down in China, with the Russian army holding intact and launching continuous harrassing thrusts, not much good can accrue from the situation for the democratic cause...
...The infection of totalitarianism now spread over a large "part of the world was spawned in Russia, and is a logical development out of, Czarism and Bolshevism...
...Will ft be the totalitarian values, which discount individual integrity and Stress the materialistic triumtt of group automatons, or will it be...
...Britain has its "equivalent of our March of Time on the Air...
...Shortly thereafter, political science and journalism departments in our universities took an interest...
...Whether the German assault on Russia constitutes good news depends, then, on the course of actual events...
...Beyond that^ Russia under her present blackguard regime has no role to play as far as world progress is concerned...
...The 'contents of these broadcasts range from dance music to learned discourses on economics or anthropology, with regular news the standard fare for stations in almost every country...
...Bolshevism, of course, is the spiritual forebear of both •'German and Italian Fascism, and there...
...Czarist pogroms and GPU repression are ever-present concomitants of modern totalitarianism...
...Probably not...
...security," the development would be disastrous to American morale because it would lead many Americans inevitably to question the..good faith of its government as a professed foe of totalitarianism...
...John G. Winant, spoke at a luncheon in London some days ago, the British transcribed his address and broadcast portions of it that Very evening...
...Berlin bpends much radio time reading and replying to cables and letters from the United States...
...It is probably about to be proven, in other words, that the Stalin regime has succeeded only in keeping Russia weak, relatively weaker than she was under the Czar, and has played the role merely of a temporary and inept receiver in bankruptcy against the day when...
...To this must be added various programs directed at American audiences by radio stations in Australia,, the Soviet Union, and fifteen or twenty other nations...
...It had much to do with the internal dissolution of Germany that prepared the way for Hitlerism...
...It would be folly...
...ing in over the short-wave band of my own radio, and tbea turning back to the domestic breadcast band...
...If Russia turns out to be an easy prey to Hitler, concrete military assistance ought to be sent to the Soviet government to check the Nazis...
...Similarly each major American speech or diplomatic move is variously interpreted from London and Berlin...
...As far as democracy and social progress are concerned, then, on the Eastern (front two diseases are fighting each other...
...A discussion of tha'V' vasion of England from a German station, for example, 9...
...Frequently these programs are in a foreign language, and it is interesting to contrast the news broadcast to the United States in English with the news broadcast immediately before or after by the same foreign station in its own language...
...For then the German war-machine will gain completely free access to Russian raw materials and already regimented Soviet slave-labor in abundance...
...In general, the reactions to the newest phase of Nazi aggression are replete with potentialities for good and evil...
...A second type of program is aimed at particular groups, of Americans...
...Such a peace, which Stalin in the light of his past performances would have no compunction about agreeing to, provided it preserved for him some measure of personal power, would enable Germany to outflank 'Britain in the Near East and would make the Suez region untenable...
...Germany should claim what she once took under the treaty of Brest-Litovsk...
...From here onward, in short, one must.distinguish between those who favored fighting Hitler'"before the Russian-German war and those who favored entering the struggle only after Russia was attacked...
...time to the Far East, we might safely infer the preparatiW of some move in these directions...
...and the German radio nearly eleven...
...Another is the driving of a wedge between Jews and non-Jews in the United States...
...they are chiefly the old devices of exaggeration, suppression, distortion, appeals to vanity, pride and self-interest, and exploitation of previously existing^ jealousies and hatreds...
...Other examples can be given of how motives^ and United States-have vastly improved in effectiveness during recent months...
...For that will only mean future mutinies led by Comma, nists in the armed forces of the United State* as Russian policy takes some new unexpected turn...
...against Get...
...The Communist Party, U.S.A., has already executed its latest about-face...
...A negotiated peace between Germany and the democracies would be worth nothing...
...And should the Communist Party and its unprincipled followers once more become partially acceptable in Washington, as they undoubtedly were during the Popular Front period when they shouted for "collective...
...It should never be forgotten that Stalin is completely unprincipled, apparently committed to no ideal higher than his personal welfare and the immediate welfare of his regime...
...Careful analysis of foreign short-wave broadcasts keep the United States informed of the objectives wWi other countries are pursuing, and of their attitude to**** the United States...
...To increase the possibilities of good reception, programs are usually broadcast on three, and often as many as five frequencies...
...in general^ the democratic values, with all their shortcomings and all their great virtues...
...listening posts were established at Princeton, Leland, Stanford, a/id elsewhere...
...the British Broadcasting Company (BBC), about six and one-half...
...few if any listeners will be misled by partisan propsfaa* from abroad...
...The American people would unquestionably approve giving assistance to Russia in fighting Hitler and the simultaneous dissolution of the Communist Party, U.S.A., .a mischief-making apparatus of impressive proportions that is able to function only because it is subsidized from abroad...
...Whoever wins this war win, he reason of the mastery that must be establish^ by the victor in the air as well as on the get...
...m \IO significant changes in foreign policy by *~ the United States or England would seem to be called for by the new developments, except possibly intensified blows against the debilitating apparatus both of Stalinism and Nazism within the democratic spheres of influence...
...But the Soviet should never be given sufficient military aid to perpetuate itself into the future as one of the blackest products ever to come out of the womb of capitalism...
...The German radio, for example, hinted not long ago at certain frictions between the French government at Vichy and the German government, and portraying the French government as taking a firm stand...
...Such recommendations shduld be implacably resisted...
...IN general, programs beamed at the United States ar^of * three types...
...For this conflict of the democracies against Nazism will decide .to which set of values the future belongs...
...But the struggle against Hitlerism, which must go on, will be seriously and perhaps fatally compromised if the Communists are now to be taken by officialdom as "loyal" supporters of American and democratic foreign policy, for they are anything but loyal...
...Lord Haw-Haw was Germany's chief drawing card, but his popularity has declined...
...Thus, while the Nazi broado* aimed at Britain and North America in the summer oi 1W dealt menacingly and often with invasion of England domestic German broadcasts seldom alluded to the subja* The obvious deduction was that early invasion was not act* ally contemplated since the German home front was hsar ing little or rtothing about it and was not being W expect it...
...The last war, | should never be forgotten .saw the dethrone, ment of the Romanoffs, the Hapsburgs and the Hohenzollerns...
...Once scripts are reduced* to writing, and those in forth* languages translated into English, the task is to eonden»-The British alone broadcast each week more words fhii are contained in the Bible sr in the works of ShakespeWC this flood of material must be reduced to manageable JW\ portions...
...a discussion of Far Eastern developments from GttA Britain, may have little significance...
...the attitude toward it of the Vatican...
...These summaries will be made avafr able for the information of various government departta*'1...
...In such an eventuality democrats would be able to contemplate with satisfaction the futile involvement of itler in the echoing spaces of the . East and at the same time the weakening of Stalinism in its own citadel, from which vantage point it has already succeeded in infecting with its own peculiar form of political syphilis many parts of the world, including the United States...
...The democracies* should pursue with respect to Russia, if time permits, a coolly "realistic" policy, a Machiavellian policy if you please, such as Stalin himself would employ were the roles reversed...
...If the government should accept at face value the new turn of the Communists here it would be preparing itself lor new, and perhaps disastrous, difficulties in the future...
...A third type of propaganda program is aimed specifically at Americans of foreign descent...
...By James Lawrence Fly CHAIRMAN, FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION Nazis Use Ascap Music, Amos and Andy Ersatz, it Futile Effort to Influence U. S. Radio Listeners THE* amount of short-wave propaganda aimed by various countries at the United States_^isN amazing...
...Principled liberals and radicals, and the general run of the American people, will not be able to avoid feeling disheartened and even cynical if this incidental turn of affairs should be witnessed...
...It would prove no more durable than the Nazi-Soviet treaty of 1939...
...This article is based apen remarks delivered by Mr...
...If, on the other hand, the Russians should unexpectedly defeat the Nazis and begin an invasion of Europe from the East, thus spreading the Soviet blight into regions that until the rise of Hitler enjoyed a relatively high degree of civilization, the outlook for world democracy would be as black.*" The strengthening of Stalinism at the expense of Germany would be just about as bad in the long run as the strengthening of Hitlerism at the expense of Russia...
...The Communists will be in favor of fighting Hitler only as long as Stalin holds out...
...One night, recently, for example, BBC broadcast to the United States a program hence probably future actions, can be inferred from propaganda by radio...
...It played its role in Spain...
...Fear has been expressed in some quarters that fondl* ' piopaganda aimed at the United States by short-wave,,*?* corrupt the American listening public...
...One of the chief dnotifs of German broadcasts today seems < to be {he attempt to drive a wedge between the American people and what the German radio now calls "Washington politicians...
...It is now interventionist, and may now be counted on to argue, for example, against labor demanding anything at all during the crisis as vociferously as_ it argued a week ago for the full right to strike under any and all circumstances, even if the Axis should be invading the United States...
...Thus, the Germans point to the period of the American Revolution and the War of 1812j^the English point to the century of good feeling which hBsisioSwi^jKe...
...ing to reply upon broadcasts from abroad so long as Aw*" ican broadcasting stations adhere to high standard* of *" partiality and compLeterjess in their news and discttJSI* programs...
...i^HE United States government, incidentally, * is now in-an excellent position to demand of Russia the complete dissolution of the Communist Party, U.S.A., as the price of military and technical assistance against Hitler...
...The British Broadcasting Company once sent us leNjned but dull discourses by university professors about the niceties of international law, or descriptions of Buddhism by retired army officers...
...The Italian radio sends us more than four hoursV)f broadcasts a day...
...THE state of affairs precipitated by the Nazi-* Soviet war is so complicated that public and government should be warned on several counts...
...Democratic policy obviously should call for intensified efforts, greatly intensified efforts, while he is involved with Russia, driving him from one desperate expedient to another...
...THERE are many other phases of the Nazi* Soviet war that cannot be discussed in limited space: its effect on the situation in the Far East...
...is no escaping this conclusion...
...jUfJ...
...It may turn out to have been disastrous for England if it swiftly yields to Germany a source of unlimited supply to offset (approximately) American supplies to England...
...The Report Section of the FOC'i »«* Foreign Broadcast Monitoring Service will prepare e0*" fider.tial daily summaries, both factual and interpret«tf«i of foreign broadcasts...
...It might even open Alaska to German attacks...
...Such pressure, on the contrary, should be infinitely multiplied, because Germany is the greater totalitarian danger simply because she is the stronger...
...The first step in this monitoring is to record its progM picked up on phonograph records, a task, performed by tfcl regular FCC National Defense Operations Section, and th» to transcribe the records to paper...
...conspiratorial and ruthless foes...
...Right-wing anti-Communists, embittered anti-Stalinist left-wingers, appeas-ers, capitulators and black reactionaries will unquestionably take the line, however (indeed, they already done so), that the two totalitarian powers should now be allowed to fight it out undisturbed, with England negotiating a separate peace with Germany...
...Other devicagiare used to attract American listeners...
...This German short-wave anti-Semitism appears to "be "aimed less at "injuring the Jews of the United States than at attempting to stir up American disunity and domestic strife...
...This transfer of thi programs to paper is essential, for as repeated psychologies studies havs shown, human beings accept spoken wordi le* critically than written words...
...When liitenhf to spoken words, the tempo is such that you can only aeaft or reject...
...many at least as long, relatively, as the Clara* front held (and whether it can the Soviet wl have to demonstrate or see its theories of social organization discredited to the vanishing point), there is the happy prospect that both theStaan and the Hitler regimes may crumble as did the Romanoff, and Hohenzollern...
...the further discredit it brings to left-wing Machiavellianism and self-defeating opportunism...
...Few of the propaganda devices used in broadcasting are new...
...This means that England and the United States will have to redouble their efforts to bring the Nazis down before they can consolidate positions in Russia...
...Some are intended to appeal to Americans in-general...
...If the Nazis should score a quick victory by knocking out the Russian army, England and the United States will obviously be in greater danger than ever before...
...Thus, when our ambassador to England, Mr...
...Likewise, much is to-1* learned from a comparison of daily broadcasts sent to different parts of the world...
...It would be scrapped as soon as Hitler had prevailed over Stalin, and would serve only to give the Nazis respite in the West while Russia was being brought under .the swastika...
...They would not hesitate under such circumstances to stab the country in the back...
...Did this indicate actual friction between the two...
...News broadcasts and talks on current-issues are of this type...
...be able to dictate at least what set of geneni values shall guide the human race...
...THE first American agencies to engage in systematic rather * than casual listening to foreign short-wave broadcasts were probably the newspapers...
...INFORMATION at hand seems to make it safer * to predict an easy German success irj Russia than a setback...
...The underlying significance was presumably either an...
...And while ail those regimes look retrospectively desirable in comparison with what has succeeded them, the point is that win of modern character destroy political regime) as though they were autumn leaves in a bonfire...
...The sole aim of the democracies should he to see that Russia merely held the Nazis and caused them enormous losses of men and materials...
...Owing to its efficient technology (the creation, by.the way, of pre-Nazi capitalist democracy), Germany will then be able to launch intensified onslaughts against the democratic world with the armies released from the Russian front...
...I do not bf lieve that any appreciable proportion of Americans are...
...The latter, unless they publicly je-nounce Russia and the Communist doctrines as keystones in their political thinking, w,ill always be found unreliable\allies, utilizing every situation only to entrench themselves in strategic positions of power as during the Popular Front period...
...But so long as the public trust i»* impartiality of domestic news and discussion is maintai...
...the exceedingly remote possibility of a Russian triumph holds only a long-term threat...
...In general, the BBC -seems to concentrate upon American groups which are in a position to influence public opinion, while Germany caters %Q larger but less articulate sections of the American public...
...In a country where neither the press BOT radio is free, propaganda broadcasts from abroad may considerable influence...
...it will mean the tOfc tinued confusion of the public mind by mean, of ever-shifting Stalinist propaganda...
Vol. 24 • June 1941 • No. 26
