The Korean War: Propsaganda and the Press

Figure 1.-- This photograph shows a Navy doctor with a Korean mother and baby and her injured son. Notice the boy is dressed up in American clothes. The doctor sent this explanation home. "I WISH I HAD MORE PICTURES, BUT WILL SEND THEM LATER. THIS IS OF A BOY NAMED YONG YUNG SICK. THE WOMAN IS HIS MOTHER, THE BABY HIS LITTLE BROTHER. THE MAN IS A NAVY DOCTOR NAMED CATLETT WHO IS ATTACHED TO OUR MARINE DISPENSARY HERE. YONG FOUND A DYNAMITE CAP SOMEWHERE AND THREW IT IN A FIRE. IT EXPLODED, BLINDING HIM AND SEVERELY BURNING HIS FACE. HE WAS BROUGHT TO OUR DISPENSARY, WHERE DR. CATLETT TOOK OVER. HE TOOK YONG TO A DANISH HOSPITAL SHIP VIA PLANE AND HELICOPTER. THERE AN EYE SPECIALIST SAVED HIS EYES, AND HIS FACE WAS HEALED. HE WAS TRANSFERRED TO AN AMERICAN HOSPITAL SHIP WHERE HE WAS FURTHER HEALED. YOU'LL PROBABLY BE READING ABOUT IT SOON IN THE PAPERS. IT'S SORT OF A NICE STORE, AND I THOUGHT YOU ENJOY IT." It was signed "Jack".

Communist propagada depicted the United States as an agressor country. The Chinese charged that the United States was not only the aggrssor, but was using germ warfare. The Japanese had used both germ and chemical weapons against the Chinese in World War II. The charges against America were false, but picked by the leftist press in Europe. The North Korean invaion occurred only 5 years after World War II in which the United States had both liberted Western Europe from NAZI occupation, but also ended Japanese agression in China. As a result of this imense graditude in Europe toward the United States as well as the the outrageous Communist charges, Communist proopaganda achieved little traction in the European media, except among the Communit faithfull. At the time there were very strong Communist parties in both France and Italy. The American press gave great support to General MacArthur, a hugely popular figure. After the statemate developed, the continuing mounting casualties became a major issue in America. The Chinese hoped that America could not tolerate the casualyies bnd would chose to make peace. The Americam use of fire power to stop Chinese superority in numbers resulted in civilan casualties. Poorly reported were civilan casualties resulting from Communist actions. Civilian casualties, however, did not become an issue in the U.S. media.

Communist Propaganda

Communist propagada depicted the United States as an agressor country. The aggression charge was absurd given it was udeniably the North Koreans that had invaded the South. The Chinese charged that the United States was not only the aggrssor, but was using germ warfare. The Japanese had used both germ and chemical weapons against the Chinese in World War II. Chinese propaganda gave no credit to America for conming to the aid of China amd made a major issue out of the germ warfare charges. The Soviet Union suported the allegations. The charges were first raised (1951). The charges were picked uop by he international press. The cgarges led to well publicized international investigation (1952). U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson and other U.S. and allied government officials denounced the Communist allegations as an ansurd hoax. While the Chinese made ye charges in 1951, actual disse out breaks do seem to have occurred (1952). We are not sure to what extent the Chinese charges were a pure hoax or if the duseas out breaks really led the Chinese to suspect that the Unted States was pursuing germ warfare. [Zang, pp. 181-82.] The International Red Cross and the World Health Organization found no evidence of biological warfare. The Soviet-affiliated World Peace Councilorganized set up the International Scientific Commission for the Facts Concerning Bacterial Warfare in China and Korea. This Commission included highly polticized scientists like sinologist Joseph Needham. Tey opredictably that the allegatiins were true. The finding for the most part have only been found creditable by politicized authors like Australian historian Gavan McCormack. One aspect of the whole affair was that the Chinese and North Koreans deployed health and disease prevention measures both in the battlefiel and on the homefront. Gas masks were distributed and there was mass innoculations along the Chinese-Korean border. The Chinese Givernment ordere its people to kill possiuble fisease carriers (flies, mosquitos, and fleas). We also begin to see surgical face masks. [Zhang, p. 184.]

European Media

The charges against America were false, but picked by the leftist press in Europe. The North Korean invaion occurred only 5 years after World War II in which the United States had both liberted Western Europe from NAZI occupation, but also ended Japanese agression in China. As a result of this imense graditude in Europe toward the United States as well as the the outrageous Communist charges, Communist proopaganda achieved little traction in the European media, except among the Communit faithfull. At the time there were very strong Communist parties in both France and Italy. And they simoply ignored negative information about the Siobiet Union or Communist China. Before World War II, Stalin managed to prevent negatuive informatin about the Sobiet Inion from lealing out. This was no longer the case after Stalin died (1953) and the Destalinization process (1956). Still it dis not seem to make a difference to Western European Communists.

American Press

Sources

Zhang, Shu Guang. Mao's Military Romanticism: China and the Korean War, 1950-1953 (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1995.

Created: 6:38 AM 2/23/2010
Last updated: 3:07 AM 8/17/2018