THE ASSASSINATION OF JOHN F. KENNEDY IN EAST EUROPEAN PROPAGANDA R-220-63 (S) DECEMBER 12, 1963

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80B01676R002900180002-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 14, 2002
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: December 12, 1963
• Content Type: REPORT

State Pept. review frompleted ~-
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EXeCUt;v~ ~~~iscry
FZesearch and Reference Service
THE ASSASSINATI(QN OF JOHN F. KENNEDY
IN EAST EUROPEAN PROPAGANDA
R,-220-63 (S)
December 12, 1963
This is a research report, not a statement of Agency policy
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SUMMARY
.Soviet and -East European propagandists were ~,~irtually
unanimous in their assessment of the motivating factors behind
President Kennedy's .assassination.
Communist propagandists quickly accused right-wing extremists
of plotting or abetting the Dallas murders.
They summarily rejected claims of Communist involvement in
the assassination.
They. asserted that President Kennedy's civil rights. stand and
ha.s negotiations. with the Soviet Union were primarily responsible
-for his murder by conspiratorial forces which hope to reverse the
detente spirit in America.
Soviet propagandists, in particular, worked hard to expose
purported American shortcomings which lead to political murder,
and. foremost among them the existence of uncurbed right -wing
sentiment. Western democracy's weakness, they argued, is that
it "generally. countenances. and virtually. encourages fascist ele-
ments who afterward turn against it." Even the famed American
system of justice, they charged, was revealed as a "travesty" by
the events in Dallas.
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THE ASSASSINATION OF JOHN F, KENNEDY
IN EAST EUROPEAN PROPAGANDA
President John F, Kennedy was a victim of right-wing
terrorists who hope to establish an "ultra-conservative dictator-
ship'-' in America and to reverse completely the peaceful trend
in East-West relations. Such has been the main thrust of Soviet
and East European comment and analysis on the recent events i.ri
Dallas..
In its broader applications, Soviet propaganda in particular
blamed the slaying on the crumbling moral fabric of American
.democracy -- a system which, it charged, "countenances and
virtually encourages fascist elements." Hence the assassination
is frequently viewed as one with the murder of Medgar -Evers in
Mississippi, the fatal church bombing in Birmingham, the acts of
defiance against federal authority in many areas, and similar
"extremist outrages. "
Soviet Union
The Soviet propaganda version of President Kennedy's
assassination emerges from voluminous attention to the Dallas
events .and their aftermath.. In the process, Moscow dissected
America, its political life,-and its complex human fabric. In
general, Soviet propagandists portray a sick American society
beset by the cancerous growth of right-wing political extremism.
Summing up theSoviet position on the assassination, the weekly
1Vew Tunes has stressed that the murder sprang from anultra-
rightwing plot; that the plotters sought political influence through
the assassination in order to carry ot~~ their anti-Soviet, anti-peace
policies; and that the Soviets hope that the American people will
have seen "how heavy is the price of giving fascist elements a free
hand.."
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Moscow media constantly insist that the murder was plotted
and carried out with the collusion of extremist groups which
abound in the U. ~. Soviet propaganda has never identified any
specific groups or organizations as the "real" plotters, but has
used .insinuation and innuendo to weave a "web of guilt" tightly
around those American farces which Moscow has consistently
accused also in the past of hating everything that is "progressive"
.and that might bring peace nearer.
Much of what Moscow has to say about the "conspiracy" and
assassination is aimed at domestic audiences. .Europeans and
Latin Americans are another favorite radio target. Soviet readers
and listeners receive full doses of "exposes" about American right-
vving .movements, as well as sensational photos and shrill suggestive
headlines: "Racism, Anti-Communism, War Hysteria -- Fertile
Soil for Crime"; "Democracy is a Lying Phrase"; or, "The Rule of
Capital .Leans on the Geography of Terror. "
Moscow foreign output attempted occasionally to bring the
assassination closer to home through historic comparisons of
extremism or political murder in a given target country. Soviet
propaganda also relied extensively on foreign sources , which either
echo Soviet arguments or at least show that others too have grave
doubts about the causes for the Dallas events and about the subse-
quent handling of the affair.
Soviet propagandists have attached particular significance to the
fact that the murder was..committed in Texas, the center of "American
n,eo-fascism"' and a "stronghold of the arrant reactionaries." The
plot, they claim, was abetted by the John Birch Society, the
"Goldwater group," and "henchmen of would - be dictator General
Ed;.~in -Walker. "' And their support comes from the Texas oil
millionaires, "America's ignorant, illiterate parvenus" who
''readily finance any fascist organization", "the rich white
supremacist Southern planters and armament monopolies, interested
in. r ~:~:. aggressive foreign policy, in the cold war, in colonial ex-
p~cai.tation, and in preparations for aggression against Cuba. "
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It is in the nature of democracy itself, Moscow contends, to
permit the, use of political extremism. "Bourgeois democracy
generally countenances and virtually encourages fascist elements
which afterward turn against it, " it claims. Is it not "strange, "
the Soviet propagandist argue, that even after the experience of
World War II "racialist tirades, eulogies of Hitler, and .denunciations
of the 'liberals in the White! House' still fill the American air."
Taking advantage of Soviet Constitution day, Izvestiya and
Literaturnaya Gazeta pursued the relationship between the assassi-
nation and American democracy further, Izvestiya scoffed at such
an example of a free society and resolutely rejected a democracy
in which "ultras" and racists shoot their presidents. _Literaturnaya
Gazeta argued that American extremists, these "accomplices in
Kennedy's-murder, " hope to do away with the Constitution .and
bourgeois democracy, and to replace them with a "dictatorship
of strongmen.. "
Moscow notes especially that about" 2, 000"rightist organizations
exist in the U. S, and that last year a coordinating committee was
set up to centralize their activities.. Silver Shirts and other "semi-
military fascist-racialist organizations" are said to be taught how
to shoot, and Moscow unequivocally brands as "gangs of political
bandits" such other organizations as the White Citizens Councils,
the National States Rights Party, the National Renaissance Party,
and the Minutemen.
In characterizing the policies of the extremists, Moscow stated
that the "rampant Right has no positive program, foreign or domestic,
Its 'line' is to attack peaceful coexistence, to abuse the Soviet Union
and all the socialist countries, to urge being 'tough' with communism,"
Of particular concern to the reactionary groups, it said, was Kennedy's
staid on civil rights which "infuriated the diehards." The ".ultras"
were also said to be aroused by the signing of the test-ban treaty
and by a continuing move toward a detente which they considered
'"grovelling before the communists, " and "betraying America. "
This was compounded by Kennedy's "pro-peace utterances" and his
pledge not to invade Cuba.
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Moscow hoped that '-'this time the political gangsters mis-
calculated," that America is "so horrified and outraged that it
may compel whose duty it is to really clear up the affair. "
The Soviet treatment of the assassination and its possible
political implications is consonant with recent Moscow pronounce -
rx~ent^ on U, ~. -:Soviet relations and on international problems in
general. It conforms to the general Soviet effort to expose
American right-wing tactics. And it emphasizes the comparatively
favorable Soviet response to President Kennedy and his policies
which has characterized Moscow propaganda since the President's
June speech at American University, In this .respect, the Soviet
Union has :continued to project its thesis of "hawks" and "doves" in
American politics.. Cuba, Berlin, and South Vietnam .have been
attributed to pressure from the right wing, particularly in the
Pentagon and in Congress, while the "positive" Kennedy policies
yuere said to be the result of a "realistic appraisal" of the inter-
national. situation by the late President.
Soviet concern over the future course of American foreign
.policy has. been reflected in Soviet propaganda, which makes clear
that it sees the influence of the radical Right as a definite threat to
TJ,'S -Soviet relations and to a possible general detente with the West.
while Moscow waits to see how President Johnson will conduct his
.foreign policy, its propaganda line emphasizes. the particular threat
of the Right, refraining from any general attack on the American
way. of life, but casting doubts on the U. S. form of democracy.
Ferhaps most significantly, Moscow does not now suggest that the
possibilities .for a genuine East-West detente have died with
President .Kennedy.
Eastern Europe
By. and large, the Satellites.' propaganda version has followed
that of Moscow. After reporting the facts of the assassination as
.they emerged, the East European media immediately expanded on
the theme of alleged rightist involvement in the murder. As soon
as pswald's .Communist involvements became known, they engaged
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in defensive attacks .against what they termed an "anti-Communist
provocation" staged to prepare the ground. for a wave of ''extremist
racist, fascist, anti-peace" reaction in the United States. In
various .instances consistency was put aside when some of the media.
.hastily., and almost simultaneously tried to promote the notions that
(a) Oswald did not kill the President, (b) Qswald acted as an instru-
ment of a rightwing reactionary racist plot in killing the President,
and (c) aswald could not have been a Communist because a
C`ornmunist would not commit such a terrorist act.
Most. Satellite commentators failed to dwell, as their Soviet
colleagues did, on the concept that the. events have shown up the
American bourgeois .democratic system as a breeding ground of
rightist political extremism, and its moral fabric as .one of
turpitude, torpor,-and decay, although some did make occasional
r?efe.renees to this effect. .Thus, a Czechoslovak commentator
remarked that the slayings were difficult to relate to "a civilized
nation that has claims to culture and calls itself a democracy. "
And a Bulgarian .radio commentator expressed doubts .about
whether American democracy can withstand the pressures of
rightwing ,reaction, But all of the :Satellites gave wide. coverage to
and commented extensively on all those aspects of the two murders
that underscored the themes of "lawlessness" and of "incredible
methods" in the investigative and judicial, as well as in the security,
features- of the episodes.
In one known instance, the Hungarian Party organ pointed out that
'ewe are witnessing here the stupendous machination of common gang-
sterism,'` thus combining the image of America as a country pene-
trated by "race haters, warmongers, and partisans of cold war"
with .that of a country where gangsterism is .common.
Albania -- by now a Chinese rather than a Soviet Satellite --
has. been the only. East European Communist country which, so far,
has .refrained from going into the details of the President's -assassi-
nation? Its position has been that nothing has changed as .far as
''taggress.ive, warmongering U. S. imperialism`1 is concerned,
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Yugoslavia
The Yugoslav press, radio and TV gave the fullest possible
coverage to the Dallas tragedy. All facts connected with the
President' ~.:,assassinationy Oswald's arrest, his background and
subsequent killing by Ruby were reported. Throughout the
Yugoslavs were noticeably disturbed by the possibility that Oswald's
reported Marxist background and his connection with the Cuba
Fair Play Committee might lead to serious .complications in U. S. -
Soviet relations, and that this in turn might affect Yugoslavia's
present standing with the West. In this context Yugoslav sources
were almost unanimous in presenting President Kennedy's assassi-
nation as a rightist plotP This treatment was intensified after
Oswald's .death, In playing up the danger of rightwing extremism,
the press insinuated that there was an analogy between Oswald's
act and the Reichstag fire.
After President Johnson's address to the Congress the sus-
picious attitude of the Yugoslav press moderated. The reports on
the circumstances of the murder became more factual and the
.President's order for a complete FBI investigation of the assassi-
nation was received with confidence. Speaking of this order,
Belgrade's largest daily Politika stated that "the genuine truth
about the murder of John Kennedy" will emerge from these investi-
gations .
As elsewhere in Eastern Europe, in Yugoslavia the murder of
President Kennedy was used as a peg to attack American lawlessness
and to raise questions about the American political mentality and
the origins of the deep hatred which, according to Yugoslav press,
was a force behind the assassin's trigger, In this connection,
Yugoslav press recalled the murder of Medgar Evers, the bombing
of Birmingham churches, the killing of foreign newsmen, the assault
on the Federal marshalls, the attack on Adlai Stevenson, as well as
reporting that Dallas school children= that had allegedly hailed the'kill-
irig of President Kennedy, Molt of such comments were taken from the
American press, Their general tone was sober, In contrast to some
Satellite comrn~nt, the Yugoslav press did not dwell on fascism in
America and did not name any specific American rightist leaders
or organizations as accomplices.
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