Hess and Acuff analyze the importance and effects of radio transmitted propaganda. Contrary to popular belief in the 1960s communist radio broadcasting, which consisted of Chinese and Soviet sources, had significantly overtaken U.S. radio broadcasting. Primary targets of the Chinese Peiping broadcasts included the Republic of China, Korea, Thailand, and Japan. This document analyzes the effects of the radio propaganda on each of the countries, as well as any strategies behind the broadcasts. A common theme found universally in all of the broadcasts is portrayal of America as the evil businessman helping in the short term only to reap benefits later.
From the mid-1950s and through the 1960s, China’s radio propaganda grew in quantity and strength. Hess and Acuff attempt to analyze the effectiveness of the propaganda. Drawing certain key events in time, they are able to connect propaganda to some of the outcomes of those events.
“…countless hours of Peiping air time are, at this moment, being devoted to bludgeoning home the idea that the United States cannot possibly win the war in Vietnam. Here short-term objectives are being served; an attempt to reduce international support for U.S. policy in Vietnam and to get the U.S. out of the conflict altogether.” [p. 13]
This report was released to the Nautilus Institute under the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).