The BBC in the Early Days

War makes for strange bed fellows and the last war was no exception. Collaborating with Joe Stalin is a reminder that you need a long spoon to sup with the Devil. See the early days

"We know the methods of rule employed by the Bolshevik dictator in Russia itself from, for example, the writing and speeches of the Prime Minister himself during the last twenty years. We know how the Red Army behaved in Poland in 1920 and in Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Galicia and Bessarabia only recently.

We must, therefore, take into account how the Red Army will certainly behave in when it overruns Central Europe. Unless precautions are taken, the obviously inevitable horrors which will result will throw an undue strain on public opinion in this country.

We cannot reform the Bolsheviks but we can do our best to save them - and ourselves - from the consequences of their acts. The disclosures of the past quarter century will render mere denials unconvincing. The only alternative to denial is to distract public attention from the whole subject.

Experience has shown that the best distraction is atrocity propaganda directed against the enemy ... your cooperation is therefore earnestly sought to distract public attention from the doings of the Red Army by your whole-hearted support of various charges against the Germans and Japanese which have been and will be put into circulation by the Ministry."

 

Extract from the infamous letter, sent February 29, 1944, to the BBC by the British Ministry of Information (nice Orwellian touch). Reproduced from "Allied Wartime Diplomacy", by Edward J. Rozek