In Killing Hope
van Willam Blum las ik een voorbeeld van hoe in de aanloop naar de
Vietnamoorlog leugens en propaganda hun weg vonden naar de internationale
media.
We schrijven
1954, aan de vooravond van de Conferentie van Genève, die Vietnam uiteindelijk
in twee zones zou verdelen. De VS zag Noord-Vietnam als communistisch en bijgevolg
als een bedreiging voor de hele regio en aasde op een oorlog. China werd
beschuldigd van steun aan de Noord-Vietnamese Viet Minh. Blum beschrijft* hoe de CIA een vals
nieuwsbericht in de media bracht:
“As the Geneva conference approached, a CIA
propaganda team in Singapore began to disseminate fabricated news items to
advance the idea that “the Chinese were giving full armed support to the Viet-Minh”
and to “identify” the Viet-Minh “with the world Communist movement”. The CIA
believed that such stories would strengthen the non-Communist side at the
Geneva talks.
Joseph Burkholder Smith was a CIA officer in
Singapore. His “press asset” was one Li Huan Li, an experienced local journalist.
It is instructive to note the method employed in the creation and dissemination
of one such news report about the Chinese. After Smith and Li had made up their
story, Li attended the regular press conference held by the British High
Commissioner in Singapore, Malcolm MacDonald. At the conference, Li mentioned
the report and asked the Commissioner if he had any comment. As expected,
MacDonald had nothing to say about it one way or the other. The result was the
following news item:
MORE CHINESE SUPPLIES
AND TROOPS SPOTTED EN ROUTE TO HAIPHONG. At the press conference of the British
High Commissioner for Southeast Asia today, reports of the sightings of Chinese
naval vessels and supply ships in the Tonkin Gulf en route from Hainan to
Haiphong were again mentioned.
According to these
reports, the most recent of many similar sightings occurred one week ago when a
convoy of then ships were spotted. Among them were two armed Chinse naval
vessels indicating that the convoy consisted of troops as well as arms and
supplies.
High Commissioner
Malcolm MacDonald would not elaborate further about these reports.
The story was put onto a wire service in the
morning, and by the evening had gone around the world (…).”
Deze gebeurtenissen
liggen meer dan zestig jaar achter ons, maar lijken me uiterst relevant voor de
huidige situatie in de wereld. Blums boek als geheel is in dat verband trouwens
een ‘historische eyeopener’ van formaat.
(*) Bron: William Blum,
Killing Hope, US Military and CIA Interventions since World War II, Updated
Edition, ZED Books, London, 2014, p. 124-125.)
