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‘Loyal Believers and Disloyal Sceptics’: Propaganda and Dissent in Britain during the Korean War, 1950–1953
Author(s) -
BUCHANAN TOM
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
history
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.12
H-Index - 15
eISSN - 1468-229X
pISSN - 0018-2648
DOI - 10.1111/1468-229x.12323
Subject(s) - dissent , punitive damages , china , skepticism , context (archaeology) , political science , spanish civil war , law , subject (documents) , action (physics) , history , philosophy , physics , archaeology , epistemology , quantum mechanics , politics , library science , computer science
This article looks at the small number of British subjects who visited China and North Korea during the Korean War with a view to influencing British opinion. Although none were brought to trial, all experienced some form of punitive action, whether the loss of employment, loss of passports, or damage to their reputations. The subject is placed in the context of the Cold War, and the wider concerns about disloyalty on the Left at the time, as well as the controversies surrounding the Korean War in Britain. It concludes that the actions of these individuals have to be understood in terms of their alternative loyalties (such as to the ‘new’ China, or to an alternative vision of the United Nations), which ultimately outweighed allegations of disloyalty.