121. Memorandum From the Assistant Director, Soviet Bloc, United States Information Agency (Brady) to the Director (Murrow)1
SUBJECT
- Embassy Press Release Gets Through to Soviets and Under Their Skin
At least one recent Moscow Embassy Press Release—a release explaining the nature of the herbicides used by us in Vietnam2—has apparently reached Soviet readers and has touched a raw nerve of Komsomolkskaya Pravda,3 the party’s daily youth newspaper.
Under the headline, “Advocates of Poison—Soviet Information for the Staff of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow,” the Soviet newspaper published on April 27 a four column spread attacking U.S. use of herbicides in Vietnam. The article is accompanied by a highly retouched photo or drawing of a Vietnamese peasant allegedly poisoned and surrounded by weeping women.
Embassy Moscow reports that the crux of the Komsomolskaya Pravda article is the Embassy press release, based on materials provided by IPS Wireless File. A major part of the release is quoted textually and accurately (incidentally providing the widest distribution any Embassy press release has ever received).
After insertion of a major part of the Embassy press release, the newspaper states: “We do not intend to argue whether herbicides are harmless or not. But let’s get the facts.” These “facts” are quotes from the March issue of the New Republic4 which carried an article on U.S. use of chemicals in South Vietnam. The paper also refers to an article in the York, Pennsylvania, Gazette and Daily in which a person named Robert Smythe criticizes U.S. use of herbicides and questions whether [Page 317] they may not in fact be causing death. The newspaper concludes by stating that the Embassy has taken on itself an unworkable and thankless task of attempting to whitewash the actions of the Pentagon’s brass hats in South Vietnam. “But,” the newspaper says, “the executioners will not be saved by American bayonets, nor chemical warfare, nor . . . by American propaganda.”
The news release in question was sent to 8,300 addressees. The Embassy and we are pleased at this evidence that at least some of our Embassy press releases are delivered. Komsomolskaya Pravda in its extremely critical article, incidentally, does not deny the Embassy’s right to engage in this activity.
Would this type of information be useful for Congressman Rooney as evidence of the fact that some of our materials do get through—and disturb—the Soviets?
- Source: National Archives, RG 306, DIRCTR Sub Files, 1963–69, Bx 6–29 63–69: Acc: #72A5121, Entry UD WW 257, Box 8, FIELD—Far East (IAF) 1963. Limited Official Use. In the upper right-hand corner of the memorandum, Murrow wrote, “no action,” as well as his initials, “ERM.” Above Murrow’s initials, Harris wrote his initials, “RH,” and the date, “5/1.”↩
- See Document 63. The press release was not found. For further information on the use of herbicides by the United States in Vietnam between 1961 and 1963, see Foreign Relations, 1961–1963, vol. III, Vietnam, January–August 1963, Document 96.↩
- The official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Komsomol (All-Union Leninist Communist League of Youth) of the Soviet Union, which began publication in May 1925. This newspaper is not the same as Pravda, which was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.↩
- Presumable reference to William H. Hunter’s article in the March 23 issue of The New Republic entitled “The War in Vietnam, Luce Version.” (Vol. 148, Issue 12, pp. 15–17)↩
- Brady wrote his initials “LSB” above his typed signature.↩