FOREIGN RADIO REACTIONS TO THE PRESIDENTS BUDGET MESSAGE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-04864A000100100009-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: R
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 11, 1999
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: January 17, 1950
• Content Type: IR

Approved Pm"I R&M gam, 10 A0001001 25X1A2g?
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE A19011111lu '" REPORT NO.
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS CD NO.
COUNTRY Foreign Countries
SUBJECT
HOW
PUBLISHED Radio Broadcasts
WHERE
PUBLISHED
DATE
PUBLISHED 10 - 11 January 1
LANGUAGE Several
DATE OF
INFORMATION l(I - 11 Jan 1950
DATE DIST.;7Jen .ary 1`2)
NO. OF PAGES
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORM/!TION
SOURCE FBIB (This strictly factual report is based solely on monitored fort ga radio
broadcasts received in Washington up to 7 a.m., 11 January 19f,O. It
reproduces a report prepared in response to a special request
INTRODUCTION: The first Soviet radio comment on the president's budget miaeage
appeared surprisingly early. Usually there is a delay of several days between an
important event and Moscow's broadcast reaction to it; the budget message, howe?7er, evokes
a Soviet radio comment on the very day of its delivery to Congress, followed '.Gy another
commentary the next day. As was the case last year, Moscow concentrates on thr allegedly
inimical military character of the budget, "close to three-quarters (of Vichy will
go... for expenditures connected in one way or another with the policy of instigating
a new war." Satellite radio broadcasts on the subject pursue an identical lin). Few
comments have been received from. foreign radios outside the Soviet orbit.
"FURTHER !MILITARIZATION": The first Soviet commentary on 9 January analyzes tie budget
in terms of the overwhelming proportion allocated to what it calls "war needs" as
compared to the "miserable part" earmarked for internal social needs.. That tbis initial
broadcast may have served to lay down a basic propaganda'line is suggested by ;he
rigid adherence of subsequent Soviet and Satellite commentaries:to its "factua."
pattern. The second Soviet commentary (10 January) on the budget, however, is am-
bellished with many more explicit generalizations about America's "further mil_tarization,"
which is allegedly reflected, as from a mirror, in the president's message. Ole of
these generalizations tries to identify the present U.S. Government with Hitletite
Germany--a frequent theme in Soviet radio propaganda, but one that has not yet been used
in comments about either the President's State of the Union message or his ecovomic
report. Says the commentator:
"For the scale of war preparations in peacetime, the policy of the present
U.S. Government can only be compared with that of Hitlerite Germany during
the years preceding the Second World War."
The implication of this statement to made explicit in his later charge that tte foreign
policy of the Truman administration is one of "open preparation for a new war end the
FOREIGN RADIO REACTIONS TO THE
PR$SII)ENT'S BUDGET MESSAGE
CLASSIFICATION
STATE
ARMY
Approved For Release 1999/09/01: CIA-RDP78-04864A000100100009-0
 Approved For Release 1999/09/ :ia-04864A000100100009-0
RESTRICTED
formation of aggressive blocs." Of some interest is that whereas the first So-viet
commentary mentioned that "expenditures connected with eliminating the consequences of
past wars" made up part of the budget's "71 percent" allocated to "war needs," the second
commentary omitted this item altogether and stated baldly that "close to three quarters
will go... to militaristic purposes, for armaments, for expenditures connected in one
way or another with the policy of instigating a new war." Both of the commentaries,
however, examine the "hidden" military expenditures and in almost identical woids find
that "under the heading of 'developing natural resources' there is an item of f70
million dollars for developing atomic energy"--which, as everyone knows, bears an
exclusive military nature in the United States."*
Satellite comment has been received from. the Soviet-controlled Berlin radio ant from. the
Polish and Czechoslovak Rome Services. The only apparent deviations from.Radic Moscow's
pattern are two: (1) Warsaw claims that Truman announced a 20 percent reduction of
foreign aid funds because he realized the "bankruptcy of the Marshall Plan," ar-d that
he will divert the saving of one billion dollars to armament of the American "ratellites";
and (2) according to Berlin, "Truman's announcement that U.S. expenditures for military
and warlike preparations is to be doubled caused a great sensation."
"MISERABLE" ALLOCATIONS FOR SOCIAL NEEDS: Both Moscow and the Satellite radios commiserate
with the American working people, for whose welfare such a "negligible share" cf the
budget v&A allotted. "The children of working people will still be deprived of an
opportunity to study.... Tens of millions will still be deprived of medical atrvice. .,.
Millions of American families will go on living in slums; millions of homeless and
starving people are doomed to a miserable existence."
WORKERS TO BE B' ENBD WITH NEg TAXES*. Attributing the budget deficit to "the drop in
production and trade as well ass to the "huge sums for military expenditures," both
Moscow and the Satellite radios also predict that "the main burden of the new faxes will
fall on the shoulders of the working people; this can be seen from the fact that the
draft budget calls for a $617 million reduction in corporation taxes, (while) (n the
other hand it calls for an increase of $275 million in the taxes paid by the population."
A Prague commentary declares, without qualification, that this money is to be used
for the production of "atomic bombs."
A 9 January Soviet commentary, ostensibly devoted to the State of the Unioi message,
also talks about 7O-odd percent of the budget going for war needs; it charges l hat,
"plans for fiendish atom bombing" are one phase of the U.S. policy aimed at "winning
world supremacy for the U.S. monopolies."
BE S
Approved For Release 1999/09/01: CIA-RDP78-04864A000100100009-0