Wilfred Burchett and the UN command's media relations during the Korean War, 1951-52

Abstract

Wilfred A. Burchett was perhaps the most controversial foreign correspondent of the Cold War era. An Australian by birth, he wrote for British and French newspapers, but spent much of his career reporting from the other side of the "bamboo curtain." Although his dispatches often had a propagandist purpose, his account of the U.S. Army's media relations during the protracted Korean armistice negotiations continues to exert a significant influence over the academic literature. This article looks at the reasons for this influence and critically examines Burchett's claim that the U.S. military engaged in a concerted effort to mislead the public by lying about, and sometimes suppressing, what was really happening in the truce talk