Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- INTRODUCTION
- PART I STRENGTHENING THE TIES: THE EFFORT AND THE PROBLEMS
- PART II FOREIGN CRISES THAT DEMONSTRATE GREAT BRITAIN'S PROBLEMS
- INTRODUCTION
- 5 Background and build-up
- 6 Involvement of Great Britain and the United States
- 7 Yalta and after
- 8 Truman: the new factor
- 9 The gathering for the San Francisco Conference
- 10 Between San Francisco and Potsdam
- 11 Concluding thoughts on the Polish crisis
- 12 Background of the crisis
- 13 1944, the critical year
- 14 The role of the press
- 15 The crisis peaks
- 16 America dives in
- CONCLUSION
- NOTES
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- INDEX
14 - The role of the press
from PART II - FOREIGN CRISES THAT DEMONSTRATE GREAT BRITAIN'S PROBLEMS
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- INTRODUCTION
- PART I STRENGTHENING THE TIES: THE EFFORT AND THE PROBLEMS
- PART II FOREIGN CRISES THAT DEMONSTRATE GREAT BRITAIN'S PROBLEMS
- INTRODUCTION
- 5 Background and build-up
- 6 Involvement of Great Britain and the United States
- 7 Yalta and after
- 8 Truman: the new factor
- 9 The gathering for the San Francisco Conference
- 10 Between San Francisco and Potsdam
- 11 Concluding thoughts on the Polish crisis
- 12 Background of the crisis
- 13 1944, the critical year
- 14 The role of the press
- 15 The crisis peaks
- 16 America dives in
- CONCLUSION
- NOTES
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- INDEX
Summary
Before discussing the height of the crisis, it may be useful to discontinue briefly our review of diplomatic events and consider the very important role of the press on both sides of the Atlantic, but especially in America. The diplomacy of the period is surely more easily understood if one is first aware of the atmosphere created largely by the communications media. Generally speaking, American journalists considered the British occupation of Greece and subsequent efforts to put down a rebellion led by the EAM as efforts to squelch legitimate Greek aspirations for a democracy without a monarch. Media criticism peaked within days of 3 December 1944, when fighting first broke out. Although Roosevelt's Administration for the most part maintained rather low-keyed support for British policy in Greece, it was put under considerable pressure by the strident criticism of American media. Consequently, on 5 December, the American Secretary of State criticised British policy in a statement to the press, a clear effort to distance the American Government from Britain's undertaking in Greece. Stettinius's statement is discussed in greater detail in the next chapter, so it is sufficient here to say that it added fuel to the blaze of media criticism, helping it reach a high point and simultaneously sinking Anglo-American relations to one of the lowest levels of the war.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Vision of Anglo-AmericaThe US-UK Alliance and the Emerging Cold War, 1943–1946, pp. 139 - 145Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1987