748.00/9–2352: Telegram

No. 14
The Secretary of State to the Embassy in Poland 1

secret

44. After careful consideration Dept does not think time appropriate démarche suggested urtel 148.2 Formal protests against charges in propaganda trials and also against attacking leading Amer personalities by Pol press and govt leaders were made repeatedly by Emb and Dept 1946–1948 period and were without any lasting effect.

Factor in Dept’s conclusion is that gen tone and intensity these attacks, if not in every case their specific content, are set in Moscow, and problem therefore is orbit-wide. In absence any outward and visible signs moderation Sov propaganda fol Amb Kennan’s recent protest doubt Pol commie leaders cld afford to get out of step with rest of bloc.

Additional factor this case is Cyrankiewicz personal vulnerability as pre-war anti-Stalinist. Formal US protest fol closely on his remarks wld very possibly serve as encouragement to him rather than deterrent, since he probably feels necessity to out Kremlin the Kremlin in anti-Amer propaganda.

Dept agrees these scurrilous attacks shld not pass unnoticed, but in present situation considers best vehicle for answering these propaganda excesses is VOA.

Acheson
  1. Drafted by Dillon and cleared with Barbour, Pratt, and Vedeler.
  2. Supra .