561.00/8–2551: Circular airgram
The Secretary of State to Diplomatic and Consular Offices 1
Airgram Series on Soviet Economic Propaganda No. I
general economic conference of the world peace council
The Department is currently in process of furnishing to the field short analyses, of potential value as background information and of potential use in United States information operations, on various topics connected with the Soviet-Communist economic propaganda attack upon United States trade policy and economic objectives. This Communist attack is also directed against other free nations, NATO, etc.
The following is unclassified information on the General Economic Conference of the World Peace Council scheduled for October in Moscow:
The General Economic Conference, scheduled for Moscow in October, is one of the numerous regional and special-interest meetings suggested by the World Peace Council at its Berlin meeting, February 21–26, 1951.2 As a part of its program for popularizing the peace movement and establishing new contacts, the Council is seeking to secure the participation of economists, scientists, industrialists, businessmen and trade unionists of all countries. The meeting, which has been envisaged by M. Marinin, foreign political observer of Pravda, as providing the stimulus for the development [Page 1274] of normal economic relations, has a two point agenda: (1) the prospects for improving the living conditions of the present generation; and (2) the prospects for improving international trade. Spokesmen for the peace movement have vigorously denied that the conference will take a partisan approach. Thus, Yves Farges, president of the French section of the Partisans of Peace, in a recent article in the French pro-Communist newspaper, Liberation, rejected a suggestion that it would try to separate the European countries economically from the United States and asserted that “only trade exchanges on a reciprocity basis will be discussed at Moscow.” Similarly, an editorial in the second issue of the Soviet magazine News3 stated that the conferees would come together “not for political argument, not in order to impose their own particular views regarding social and political systems on one another, but to discuss economic developments in their own countries and to devise practical measures.”
Despite such pious pronouncements, however, an editorial in the Soviet magazine News, entitled “A Step in the Right Direction,” clearly indicates that the Conference will serve as the usual type of Communist propaganda forum. After stating that the problems of improving the standard of living and trade relations between countries require the preservation of peace, the article went on to charge that normal trade relations have been “undermined by unilateral actions of those who are working to precipitate a third World War … [and] by the selfish and egoistic policy of a small clique of monopolies interested in encouraging rearmament and eager to gain control of the world’s supply of raw materials … “— referring, of course, to the United States. On the other hand, the editorial states “We think it right and proper that an international economic conference is to meet in the Soviet Union. The USSR is a country whose economic policy is entirely designed to promote the welfare of people and subdue the forces of nature in the interests of man.”
With this as a cue, some of the now-familiar arguments which will be aired at the Conference will probably include:
(1) The thesis that the absence of normal economic relations contributes to international tensions; (2) the charge that the rupture of international trade is part of the “aggressive course adopted by the US monopolists and directed toward preparing a new world war”; (3) the charge that the economic difficulties of the Western community are aggravated by the “aggressive and disruptive policies of the US ruling circles”; (4) the argument that the trade relations between the US and the “Marshallized countries” are similar to the [Page 1275] “relations between a metropolis and a colony”; (5) the charge that the Western “arms drive” brings inflation and a lower standard of living to the workers, impedes technical progress, and ruins small and medium businessmen in Western Europe; (6) the charge that the countries of Western Europe, Latin America, the Near and Middle East are being subjugated economically and politically to the interests of “Wall Street”; and (7) the conclusion that an extension of trade with the USSR and the People’s Democracies would help these countries to overcome their economic difficulties. It is interesting to note that Soviet broadcasts have paid increasing attention to international economic strains, particularly as they affect Great Britain, probably as a build-up to the Conference.
It is accordingly obvious that the Conference is aimed especially at purveying the Communist peace propaganda among a group that hitherto has remained outside its influence, attacking the Western economic policies—particularly those of the United States—and impressing the business audience with the desirability of trade with the Communist orbit and with the “peaceful” policies of the USSR. In addition, News has used the project as method of highlighting what it calls the “impotency” of UN agencies to cope with international economic difficulties and to attribute their failure to “the fact that the United Nations is being subjected to the pressure of the same group of monopolies and is being used by them to further their own political ends.” Whatever program emerges from the Conference—and Yves Farges has stated that the proposals of the USSR and Chinese delegates would be “really sensational”—it is clear that the Conference should be considered as another sortie in the Kremlin’s psychological warfare.
- Drafted by Evans (OIR/IFI) and Holder (EUR/EE), concurred in by Oram (P/POL) and Wright (EDS), and signed for the Secretary of State by Truesdell (EUR/EE).↩
- Regarding the meeting under reference, see footnote 4, Document 625. At its Berlin session, the World Peace Council issued a resolution calling for a General Economic Conference to be held in Moscow during the summer of 1951. At a meeting of the World Peace Council Bureau in Helsinki in July 1951 it was announced that the General Economic Conference would be held in Moscow before the end of 1951. Subsequent information indicated that the conference would be convened on October 1 and later December. A meeting of the initiating committee for the projected conference was scheduled for Zurich in October but was postponed and later held in Copenhagen, October 27–28. Telegram 749 from Moscow, reported that a communique issued at the Copenhagen meeting stated that the General Economic Conference would be held in Moscow, April 3–10, 1952. The communiqúe further stated that the conference would discuss “means of improving living conditions through peaceful economic cooperation of the different countries and systems while avoiding discussion of the merits of such economic and social systems.” The Embassy commented that the several postponements of the projected conference seemed to indicate that the World Peace Council was encountering more difficulties than expected in organizing the conference. (561.00/10–3051)↩
- Regarding the Soviet publication News, see telegram 74 from Moscow, Document 790.↩