◆ SpookStack

THE TECHNIQUES OF SOVIET PROPAGANDA 21 munity (EDC),” “for cessation of nuclear testing,” and “against German rearmament,” all concealed behind a screen of political neutrality. Among a thousand others, the “day of solidarity with the peop ¢ of Cameroon,” organized in 1959 in the Palace of Culture in] oscow, might be mentioned. the a F in organizing major campaigns apparatus gives its all. Fors “Universal Peoples’ Co: 78 “World Youth ally,” or an “Inter- national Writers’ Meeting,” it pays travel and hotel expenses for numerous pundits and delegates, arranges radio and television cover- age, hires bands and troupes of entertainers, and organizes elaborate parades. A classic and well-remembered example of a “big affair’ was the campaign for the “Stockholm Appeal,” conducted by the para-Com- munist ‘Fighters for Peace Association.” By the expenditure of tens of millions of dollars for propaganda, 50 million signatures were obtained in the free world, many of them affixed in faith. The fronts and committees swell to a veritable food when 4 par- ticularly pressing threat appears in Moscow’s path. During the French parliamentary debates on EDC, and the subsequent Paris agreements between the Western Allies and Germany, the flood be- came a deluge. Crypto Communist committees sprang up in facto- Ties, hospitals, and laboratories under the widest variety of titles, from the most explicit, as ‘against German rearmament” to the extremely euphemistic, as “for the independence of French culture.” Through- out the debate in Parliament and the Senate, first on EDC and then on the Paris agreements, representatives and senators were daily deluged by hundreds of communications from these committees containing appeals, warnings, and even threats of reprisals on the great day of the revolution. Some warned the peoples’ representatives that approval of EDC would result in their pictures being exposed to public obloquy in every wall in France. Others threatened boycotts of the representatives’ private businesses. It has een estimated that there were over 15 million such letters. Morning, noon, and night, delegations came knocking on the doors to deliver petitions to Members of Parliament, to indoctrinate and in- timidate them. Their telephones rang incessantly. This staging the Illiad of Communist Polwar-cunique in the annals of political con- spiracy and a classic of proto-Soviet propaganda, was intended to create the impression among Members of Parliament that the Prospect of a European Army had generated a profound indignation throughout eve strata of French society. Actually, an old theater ruse was emulated whereby the very same “extras’’ reappeared a dozen times in different costumes to create the impression of a crowd. But the staging succeeded. Its terrible pressure resulted in more than one negative vote and EDC was rejected—a turning point in postwar history, and a major Soviet victory achieved almost entirely by propaganda. POPULAR FRONTS While technically an occasional front, the popular front warrants a somewhat more extensive discussion, This has been one of the most effective techniques used by the Soviets in expanding their of imperialism. Taking advantage of the fact that Many uninformed democrats regard the Communist Party as ‘‘to the left,” the party