740.0011 European War 1939/10018: Telegram
The Chargé in Germany (Morris) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 16—5:47 p.m.]
1453. There has been noted since the beginning of the Balkan offensive a consistent policy in the German press of assigning to the United States equal direct responsibility with that of Great Britain for the extension of the war to that area. The press has made constant use of the adjectives Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-American and there is scarcely ever a mention of Churchill71 without a coordinate reference to the President. What is called the downfall of Yugoslavia is, for example, pictured as a personal defeat of the President in his supposed policy of European intervention. Moreover, increased publicity has been given recently to the alleged warmongering role of American diplomacy in Europe ever since the Czech crisis. This type of propaganda is particularly apparent in the German-controlled press of the occupied countries. While it clearly constitutes a further stage in the preparation of the German public for any eventuality in American-German relations, there is also apparent the desire to publicize what is regarded as a clear-cut defeat of American diplomacy in order to endeavor to damage the prestige of the United States in Europe.
- Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister.↩