Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950, Central and Eastern Europe; The Soviet Union, Volume IV

561.00/10–250: Telegram

The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Kirk) to the Secretary of State ¹

confidential

Moscow, October 2, 1950—6 p. m.

806. Re Embdesp 130, October l.² For possible use combatting Soviet charges US warmongering Embassy passes on Vyshinsky 1948 definition warmongering:

“It is not only direct appeal to war which is dangerous to cause of peace, but also systematic dissemination of sundry mendacious or alarming information capable of creating a war psychosis, which is in itself a source of threat to peace.

There are disseminated in various countries form of incitement to war which cannot be qualified as an appeal for it but which play same role indirectly.

Interests of peace and security of peoples require a struggle against war propaganda not only when this propaganda is expressed in systematic dissemination of views and ideas aimed at inciting war, or in direct appeals for war, but also in connection with any other forms of incitement which, directly or indirectly, systematically or episodically, may be source of arousing of hostile feelings towards another people and of persuading of others of necessity, expedience or advantageousness of war”. Sovetskoye Gosudarstvo I Pravo No. 6, 1948.³

Kirk

1. This telegram was relayed to the U.S. Mission at the United Nations at 2:00 p. m. on October 2.
2. Not printed.
3. Sovetskoye Gosudarstvo i Pravo (Soviet State and Law) was the foremost legal journal in the Soviet Union, of which Vyshinsky was the editor for many years.