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Tuesday, September 11, 2012

U.S. Government Suppressed Knowledge of Katyn Forest Massacre

Well, this isn't exactly news, but the National Archives are releasing lots of documents showing that first the FDR Administration, and many subsequent ones, chose to keep our knowledge of the Soviets role in the murder of 22,000 Polish Army officers a secret.  During World War II, because Stalin was our ally, and during the Cold War...because we didn't want to upset them.  What?

The September 10, 2012 Washington Post points out the more likely explanation:
1952: The Congressional committee concludes there is no question that the Soviets bear blame for the massacre. It faults Roosevelt’s administration for suppressing public knowledge of the truth. The report also says it suspects pro-Soviet sympathizers within government agencies buried knowledge about Katyn. It expresses anger at the disappearance of the first Van Vliet report and says: “This committee believes that had the Van Vliet report been made immediately available to the Dept. of State and to the American public, the course of our governmental policy toward Soviet Russia might have been more realistic with more fortunate post-war results.”
Unfortunately, wild enthusiasm for the murderous thugs of the Soviet Union was and remains strong among intellectuals in the U.S. and throughout the West. After all, their hearts were in the right place: socialism.
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6 comments:

  1. dmurraySeptember 11, 2012 at 5:01 PM

    There it is: Two wrongs don't make a right.

    Thanks, Clayton.

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  2. AnonymousSeptember 12, 2012 at 6:18 AM

    The Congressional committee admits that there were "pro-Soviet sympathizers within government agencies". In 1952 Congress was controlled by democrats. So they knew that McCarthy was right way back in 1952!

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  3. PaulSeptember 12, 2012 at 8:59 AM

    "Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus"

    What else are they lying about?

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  4. Dennis NugentSeptember 12, 2012 at 9:33 AM

    It's starting to become more and more known that FDR's administration had real pinkos in high or important places. The tragedy of WWII was that the Russian blood and ruthlessness and disregard for human life was necessary to grind Hitler's forces to a level manageable for the democracies to handle. If the Eastern Front forces and their vast materiel needs had been able to be used elsewhere(Italy, France, the North Atlantic), who knows what would've happened?

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  5. John MooreSeptember 13, 2012 at 10:20 PM



    A friend of mine's father was a Polish officer who was taken to the Katyn forest. He spoke Russian like a native and was able to convince the Soviets he was one of them. He spent the rest of the war in the USSR and then escaped to the West.

    A lucky man.

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  6. Dennis NugentSeptember 14, 2012 at 7:38 AM

    I live in Poland, married to a Polish woman. The Russians did perhaps more permanent damage to the country and the people's psyche than the Germans wished they could have. The atrocities of the Germans depended on where you lived, who you were and when. The Germans actually released most of their POWs in a reasonable time after capitulation. In the villages of some of the students I teach English to, there are stories of the Wehrmacht sharing rations. Another story I heard was about a Polish family hiding a German deserter. The Russian's oppression was widespread, systematic and thorough. The country truly has a sad history, even before the events of the 20th century. It IS a shame that the West either couldn't or didn't do better to help Poland when it counted.

    ReplyDelete