The Information Research Department of the British Foreign Office and the Korean War, 1950–53
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1 For academic analysis of the IRD's work see L. Smith, ‘Covert British Propaganda: the Information Research Department, 1947–77’, Millennium, 9, 1 (Spring 1980), 67–83; W.S. Lucas and C.J. Morris, ‘A very British Crusade: the Information Research Department and the Beginning of the Cold War’ in R. Aldrich (ed.), British Intelligence, Strategy and the Cold War (London 1992), 85–110; R. Fletcher, ‘British Propaganda since World War Two — A Case Study’, Media, Culture and Society, 4, 2 (April 1982), 97–109; W. Wark, ‘Coming in from the Cold: British Propaganda and the Red Army Defectors, 1945–52’, The International History Review, 9, 1 (February 1987), 48–72; S.L. Carruthers, ‘A Red under every Bed? Anti-communist Propaganda and Britain's Response to Colonial Insurgency’, Contemporary Record, 9, 2 (Autumn 1995), 294–318; and P. Weiler, British Labour and the Cold War (Stanford, CA 1988), chap. 6.
2 As part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's commitment to Open Government, some archive material on the IRD has been released in the last few years. This has largely been confined to the late 1940s. See FCO Library and Records Department, IRD: Origins and Establishment of the Foreign Office Information Research Department, 1946–48 (August 1995).
3 Even privately, many Foreign Office officials and ministers were reluctant to admit to their use of ‘propaganda’ during the Cold War owing to its connotations of totalitarianism and falsehood. In reality, the distinctions between ‘propaganda’, ‘publicity’ and ‘information’ always have been extremely blurred. This was particularly the case during the Cold War and the words are therefore used interchangeably in the article. For a discussion of this linguistic puzzle see J.A.C. Brown, Techniques of Persuasion: from Propaganda to Brainwashing (London 1963).
4 Ibid., 7; Lucas and Morris, op. cit., 87. ‘Offensive’ propaganda attacked and exposed communist methods and policy; ‘defensive’ replied to Soviet and communist attacks and hostile propaganda; ‘subversive’ sought to loosen the Soviet hold on areas outside its borders.
5 FCO Library and Records Department, op. cit., 7.
6 Carruthers, op. cit.; David Miller, Don't Mention the War: Northern Ireland, Propaganda and the Media (London 1994), 78, 125, 308.
7 ‘Overt’ relates to those information departments of which, unlike the IRD, parliament was aware. Even the material they disseminated was often unattributable, however, and consequently shrouded in secrecy. See FCO Library and Records Department, op. cit., 13–20 for the IRD's liaison arrangements with these departments.
8 Chiefs of Staff Joint Planning Staff Paper on ‘The Spread of Russian Communism’, 14 July 1950, DEFE 6/14 JP(50)90 Final Annex, Public Record Office, London (hereafter all such citations refer to Public Record Office, London).
9 Jong-yil Ra, ‘Political Settlement in Korea: British Views and Policies, Autumn 1950’ in J. Cotton and I. Neary (eds), The Korean War in History (Manchester 1989), 53–5; C. MacDonald, Britain and the Korean War (Oxford 1990), 1; Anthony Farrar-Hockley, The British Part in the Korean War, Volume 1 (London 1990), 1.
10 Chiefs of Staff paper, 5 July 1950, DEFE 6/13 JP(50)82(0); Farrar-Hockley, op. cit., 204.
11 MacDonald, op. cit., 21; The Listener, 3 August 1950, 147–8.
12 Cabinet minutes, 3 July 1950, CAB 128/18 41 (50) 4; 4 July 1950, CAB 128/18 42 (50) 3.
13 Kenneth Harris, Attlee (London 1982), 454.
14 Cabinet minutes, 27 June 1950, CAB 128/17 39 (50) 4; FO to Washington, 27 June 1950, FO 371/84057 FK1015/40, FK 1015/50; Robert Pearce (ed.), Patrick Gordon-Walker: Political Diaries, 1932–71 (London 1991), 189–90.
15 Russia Committee memorandum on ‘Western measures to counter Soviet expansion’, 14 July 1950, FO 371/86757 NS1052/72/G; Strang to Bevin, 8 August 1950, FO 371/86757 NS1052/79/G.
16 A British Gallup poll on 3 July 1950 asked ‘Do you approve or disapprove of the action that has been taken by the British and American Governments?’. 69 per cent registered approval, 14 per cent disapproval, with 17 per cent not knowing. See Brian Porter, Britain and the Rise of Communist China: A Study of British Attitudes, 1945–1954 (London 1967), 96–7. See also FO memorandum, 26 June 1950, FO 371/84058 FK1015/62.
17 Trade union opposition, June to July 1950, can be found in FO 371/84060 FK1015/107; Healey to Ernest Davies, 12 October 1950, FO 371/84070 FK1015/260; IPD guidance telegram, 21 July 1950, FO 953/643 P1018/18; Attlee's 30 July broadcast, The Listener, op. cit.
18 See Weiler, op. cit., 213ff.
19 Peter Wilkinson (IRD) to Healey, 21 August 1950, Korean War (documents and correspondence, 1950–51), Labour Party Archive in the Labour History and Archive Centre, Manchester; COI to Labour Party, 3 October 1950, ibid.; USIS daily wireless bulletins and Labour Party ‘Talking Points’, August 1950, ibid.; draft broadcast by Isaacs, 23 September 1950, CAB 130/64 GEN336/1.
20 Murray to Lord President's Office, 4 July 1950, FO 371/84061 FK1015/125. For an analysis of how the Korean War did start see Gye-Dong Kim, ‘Who initiated the Korean War?’ in Cotton and Neary, op. cit., 33–50.
21 See FCO Library and Records Department, op. cit., 6, 17–18; minute by Warner to State Department, 9 May 1950, FO 953/628 P1013/29; Murray to Lord President's Office, 4 July 1950, FO 371/84061 FK1015/125.
22 FO and ‘atrocities’, July–November 1950, FO 371/84178 file; FO to Washington, 20 November 1950, FO 371/84179 FK1661/23; FO and Soviet Weekly, 7 September 1950, FO 371/86855 NS16716/2;
23 Trevor Royle, War Report (London 1987), 189–95.
24 Cabinet minutes, 20 November, CAB 128/18 76 (50); Brook to Attlee, ‘Overseas Operations (Security of Forces) Bill’, 15 November 1950, CAB 21/2248; ‘Overseas Operations (Security of Forces) Bill’, July–November 1950, CAB 130/63 file.
25 Minute by A. Rouse, 14 September 1950, FO 371/84178 FK1661/12; IRD minute, October 1950, FO 371/84178 FK1661/14; notes to Lord Henderson, 8 November 1950, FO 371/84178 FK1661/17. Unfortunately, the files do not reveal to whom and when the film was shown.
26 Far East Department minute, 5 January 1951, FO 371/92847 FK1661/1; News Department minute, 3 April 1951, FO 371/92848 FK1661/27.
27 MacDonald, op. cit., 29–38; Gallup poll, January 1951, in George Gallup, The Gallup International Public Opinion Polls, Great Britain, 1937–1975, Volume 1 (New York 1976), 237–8.
28 FO to Rome, 5 December 1950, FO 953/681 P10143/61 and file; Peck to Gordon-Walker, 8 December 1950, FO 371/86760 NS1052/102; IRD briefing paper ‘Peace and Soviet Policy’, April 1951, FO 975/50 PR2/42/51.
29 MacDonald, op. cit., 43; A. Bullock, Ernest Bevin: Foreign Secretary, 1945–1951 (Oxford 1985), 823–4; The Listener, 21 December 1950, 769–70.
30 Minute by Gascoigne to FO, 18 January 1951, FO 371/92842 FK1451/3. Few reporters dared to write the truth as they saw it in Korea; one, the American Hal Boyle, claimed that Korea was the worst reported war of modern times. See Royle, op. cit., 177, 181.
31 Minute by A. Franklin, 11 December 1950, FO 371/92761 FK1023/7.
32 Cabinet minutes, 18 January 1951, CAB 128/19 4 (51) 5; 25 January 1951, CAB 128/19 8 (51) 1; Bouchier to MoD, January 1951, FO 371/92721 FK1001/1; Ritchie Ovendale, ‘Britain and the Cold War in Asia’ in Ritchie Ovendale (ed.), The Foreign Policy of the British Labour Governments, 1945–1951 (Leicester 1984), 137–9.
33 Kenneth O. Morgan, Labour in Power, 1945–1951 (London 1985), 433; unpublished Oxford University DPhil. thesis by Peter Truscott, ‘The Korean War in British Foreign and Domestic Policy, 1950–1952’ (1985), 15.
34 See John Campbell, Nye Bevan and the Mirage of Socialism (London 1987), 232–50; Mark Jenkins, Bevanism: Labour's High Tide (Nottingham 1979), 84ff.
35 Gordon-Walker to Morrison, 2 May 1951, FO 953/1048 P1011/17; Cabinet memorandum, 18 May 1950, CAB 129/45 CP (51) 136.
36 Cabinet memorandum, 26 June 1951, CAB 129/46 CP (51) 179; Cabinet minutes, 19 July 1951, CAB 128/20 53(51) 7.
37 See CAB 127/323 file for the work of this briefing group, whose chairman reported directly to Attlee.
38 Minutes of an ad hoc meeting chaired by Sir Pierson Dixon on ‘Foreign Policy, the Rearmament Programme and the Economic Situation’, 11 April 1951, CAB 124/79.
39 Service Ministers' Committee meeting, 18 July 1951, CAB 127/324. See also Peck's involvement in preparing a chiefs of staff planning paper on ‘Planning for Psychological Warfare’, discussed on 12 September 1951, WO 216/425.
40 Minutes of Russia Committee meeting at which Peck's pamphlet was discussed, 16 May 1951, FO 371/94844 NS 1053/26/G. For final version see CAB 127/322. Gordon-Walker thought it ‘admirable’, new Foreign Secretary Morrison ‘snappy and convincing’.
41 IRD papers, both undated, FO 975/56 and FO 975/61.
42 Gallup, op. cit., 238, 263, 269, 276–7, 310, 324–6.
43 C. MacDonald, ‘“Heroes behind barbed wire” — The US, Britain and the POW issue in the Korean War’ in Cotton and Neary (eds), op. cit., 135–50.
44 Ra Jong-yil, op. cit., 52; Younger, Minister of State at FO, to Bevin, 11 July 1950, FO 371/84091 FK1022/215/G.
45 FO meeting on South-East Asian propaganda, 11 October 1951, FO 371/84681 FK1681/2/G; Russia Committee minutes, 15 August 1950, FO 371/86762 NS1053/24/G; report on information work in Korea, 16 May 1951, FO 953/1138 PG1811/1.
46 Minute by Warner to State Department, 9 May 1950, FO 953/628 P1013/29; circular from Younger on ‘Cooperation with USIS’, 7 July 1950, FO 953/629 P1013/33/G.
47 Burrows from Washington to FO, 9 August 1950, FO 953/635 P1013/10/G; S.L. Carruthers, Winning Hearts and Minds: British Governments, the Media and Colonial Counter-Insurgency, 1944–1960 (Leicester 1995).
48 Tokyo embassy to FO, February 1951, FO 371/92729 FK1015/53; US Army Military Intelligence report on ‘North Korean Political Friction’, dated 13 February 1951, FO 371/92731 FK1015/75; Franks to FO, 16 April 1951, FO 371/92736 FK1015/122.
49 Exchange of information between USIS and IPD, 1950–51, in FO 371/1062 P10122/11; J. Moberly's report on ‘Anglo-American cooperation in information work’, 18 December 1950, FO 953/640 P1013/198/G.
50 Circular from Morrison on Overseas Information Services, 14 August 1951, FO 371/1063 P10122/32; Adam Watson telegram to IPD, 21 March 1951, FO 371/1063 P10122/22.
51 Minute by R. Milward, 29 August 1950, FO 37184183 FK1681/1.
52 Mark Clark, From the Danube to the Yalu (London 1954), 196–202.
53 See Carruthers, Winning Hearts and Minds, op. cit., for an analysis of this theme in relation to Malaya, Kenya and Cyprus in the 1940s and 1950s.
54 Report on information work in Korea, 16 May 1951, FO 953/1138 PG1811/1; J. Shattock of China and Korean Department to FO, 24 May 1951 and subsequent correspondence, FO 371/92803 FK1074/1.
55 Pakistan High Commission to FO, 20 December 1950, FO 371/92847 FK1661/1; UN (Political) Department minute on WIDF, 5 July 1951, FO 371/92848 FK1661/37; Malcolm MacEwen, The Greening of a Red (London 1991), 171; FO minute on Spectator article, 11 April 1952, FO 371/99622 FK11910/4.
56 IPD to Adam Watson, 13 March 1951, FO 953/1064 P10133/10; Sawbridge (Korea) to FO, 29 July 1950, FO 371/84064 FK1015/159.
57 Singapore Regional Information Office to FO, 28 September 1950, FO 371/83014 FK1022/42; New China News Agency report, November 1951, FO 371/92844 FK1551/38; Churchill to Alexander, August 1950, PREM 11/115.
58 See FO 371/92832 for FO's monitoring of germ warfare propaganda, March to May 1951; See FO 371/99604 for similar material, early 1952; Russia Committee minutes, 7 August 1952, FO 371/100842 NS1052/28/G.
59 IRD minute on germ warfare, March 1952, FO 371/99604 FK1095/15; Russia Committee minutes, 7 August 1952, FO 371/100842 NS1052/28/G; Franks to FO, 23 November 1951, FO 371/92844 FK1551/33; IRD background paper, ‘The Communist Germ Warfare Campaign’, June 1952, FO 975/62; John Clews, Communist Propaganda Techniques (London 1964).
60 See, for example, MacDonald, Britain and the Korean War, op. cit., 95–6.
61 FO draft memorandum on ‘Propaganda, Information and the “Cold War”’, 17 November 1951, for Cabinet Overseas Information Services (Official) Committee, FO 953/1051 P1011/94.
62 See Summary of the Report of the Independent Committee of Inquiry into the Overseas Information Services, Cmnd. 9138 (1954).
63 FO draft memorandum on ‘Propaganda, Information and the “Cold War”’, 17 November 1951, for Cabinet Overseas Information Services (Official) Committee, FO 953/1051 P1011/94; Smith, op. cit., 69; J. Bloch and P. Fitzgerald, British Intelligence and Covert Action (London 1983), 90–101.
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