Who Can Be Neutral?

Abstract

This chapter looks at the ways in which the Cold War battle for hearts and minds was fought in the Middle East, examining the methods and tactics employed by British and American propagandists in their bid to strengthen anti-communist attitudes in the area. In particular, it questions whether the high priority afforded to anti-communist and anti-Soviet themes was a suitable strategy for Middle Eastern audiences and explores the reasons for the unreceptive attitude of much of the Arab world to Western Cold War propaganda. To that end, the chapter is divided into four major sections. It looks first at Anglo-American perceptions of the Soviet and communist threat to the region and considers why, given the low level of that threat for so much of the period, Cold War themes were so prominent in propaganda output. A second section examines the politics of Cold War propaganda in the Middle East, throwing light on the nature of Western collaboration with regional leadership groups and investigating the bid to present Western models of reform and development as alternatives to communism in the Middle East. The third and fourth sections look at two Cold War propaganda campaigns prosecuted with particular vigour in the region. The first was the bid to discredit neutralism as a viable foreign policy for Middle Eastern governments.

‘So let’s get Mother Russia to teach us how to share! It will share with us:

Secret police!

Slave labour camps!

Anti-Muslim falsification campaigns!

Indoctrination of children against parents!

Indoctrination of children against God!

Indoctrination of brother against brother!

Mass Killings!

Won’t life be wonderful?’

‘Suppose the Russian Communists Were Here’ (USIA pamphlet distributed in Syria and Jordan in 1957)