I caught this short film on the Turner Classic network on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 from 7:30 - 8:00 P.M.
Coming out in 1952, I was figuring out that it would be far from positive about the Soviet Union or it's policies. This turned out to be quite true, but it's attack is a fair one. The opportunism of the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s and 1940s into the 1950s is an open historical record. Each switch of policy (mirrored in the Communist Parties of the United States and Europe and Asia as well) is called a "round" (like in a boxing match. Round four is pro-Western, as Stalin tries (supposedly) to link up with the United States, England, and France against Nazi aggression. Round five is the Soviet about face in their aligning with the Nazis in the Non-Aggression Pact of 1939. Round six is when Russia is attacked by Germany and reaches out to Britain and America again. Round seven is when the Second World War ends, and Russia becomes a threat to Western democracy. It turned out that of the first 48 vetoes of the Security Council of the U.N. from 1945 to 1953, 47 were from the Soviet Union.
No doubt someone can make a case that British and French (and to a lesser extent, American) diplomatic blundering made Stalin and Molotov swallow their bile and sign that infamous 1939 non-aggression pact with Hitler and Von Ribbentrop. But the argument about safety and buying time to rearm, while plausible to an extent, does not explain the Soviet Union's willingness to grab the eastern portion of neighboring Poland while Germany grabbed the Western portion, nor using this to eventually attack the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania, and Esthonia, and Finland.
What is curious about this is the even-handedness of the attack on enemies of democracy. The narration warns about believing "snake oil" salesmen of totalitarian ideas, of all stripes (Fascist, Nazi, Communist). But this even goes against people spreading hate towards people who are "suspect" (intellectuals, or foreign born types). This was made in 1952, the height of the McCarthy period - and yet it makes a case that might almost be aimed at the Senator himself. It never hints at the Senator, mind you, but it is an odd point of view in an age of the Hollywood blacklist.
Interestingly enough two of the narrators were Robert Taylor and George Murphy, both conservative types: Murphy eventually becoming a Republican U.S. Senator in the 1960s, and Taylor a "friendly witness" against Communist influences in the movie industry (Taylor had been in a controversial film, THE NORTH STAR, which painted Soviet Union life too positively). But neither says anything that one can actually find really far right in political position.
With narratives also by Walter Pigeon (interestingly he deals with American foreign policy - under General George Marshall (sort of anathema to McCarthyites in 1952) - and quite favorably), Barry Sullivan, Dore Schare, Howard Keel, and James Whitmore. I suspect that Schare may have been behind the project, but I really don't know. It was actually quite well worth watching
Coming out in 1952, I was figuring out that it would be far from positive about the Soviet Union or it's policies. This turned out to be quite true, but it's attack is a fair one. The opportunism of the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s and 1940s into the 1950s is an open historical record. Each switch of policy (mirrored in the Communist Parties of the United States and Europe and Asia as well) is called a "round" (like in a boxing match. Round four is pro-Western, as Stalin tries (supposedly) to link up with the United States, England, and France against Nazi aggression. Round five is the Soviet about face in their aligning with the Nazis in the Non-Aggression Pact of 1939. Round six is when Russia is attacked by Germany and reaches out to Britain and America again. Round seven is when the Second World War ends, and Russia becomes a threat to Western democracy. It turned out that of the first 48 vetoes of the Security Council of the U.N. from 1945 to 1953, 47 were from the Soviet Union.
No doubt someone can make a case that British and French (and to a lesser extent, American) diplomatic blundering made Stalin and Molotov swallow their bile and sign that infamous 1939 non-aggression pact with Hitler and Von Ribbentrop. But the argument about safety and buying time to rearm, while plausible to an extent, does not explain the Soviet Union's willingness to grab the eastern portion of neighboring Poland while Germany grabbed the Western portion, nor using this to eventually attack the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania, and Esthonia, and Finland.
What is curious about this is the even-handedness of the attack on enemies of democracy. The narration warns about believing "snake oil" salesmen of totalitarian ideas, of all stripes (Fascist, Nazi, Communist). But this even goes against people spreading hate towards people who are "suspect" (intellectuals, or foreign born types). This was made in 1952, the height of the McCarthy period - and yet it makes a case that might almost be aimed at the Senator himself. It never hints at the Senator, mind you, but it is an odd point of view in an age of the Hollywood blacklist.
Interestingly enough two of the narrators were Robert Taylor and George Murphy, both conservative types: Murphy eventually becoming a Republican U.S. Senator in the 1960s, and Taylor a "friendly witness" against Communist influences in the movie industry (Taylor had been in a controversial film, THE NORTH STAR, which painted Soviet Union life too positively). But neither says anything that one can actually find really far right in political position.
With narratives also by Walter Pigeon (interestingly he deals with American foreign policy - under General George Marshall (sort of anathema to McCarthyites in 1952) - and quite favorably), Barry Sullivan, Dore Schare, Howard Keel, and James Whitmore. I suspect that Schare may have been behind the project, but I really don't know. It was actually quite well worth watching