ABSTRACT
Cooperation with like-minded people to provide a coordinated response to communist propaganda was a primary objective of Britain’s new propaganda policy. Although the policy was conceived as a distinctly British social democratic response to communist propaganda, it was not solely concerned with the defence of Britain and the colonies against communist propaganda and subversion. The threat of communist subversion in Europe and the Middle East, coupled with Bevin’s strategy for Western Union defence, meant that, in addition to responding to communist propaganda attacks on Britain, the new propaganda policy also sought to consolidate the forces of anti-communism in the free world. Moreover, as Mayhew suggested, in seeking to build a concerted counteroffensive, British policy-makers had little faith in the ability of the rest of the free world to provide an effective response to communist propaganda. It was, therefore, up to Britain to ‘give a moral lead to the forces of anti-communism in Europe and Asia.’2 In addition to defending Britain against communist propaganda, the Cabinet paper which set out Britain’s ‘Future Foreign Publicity Policy’, stated that Britain should provide an arsenal of anti-communist propaganda for its allies: ‘[W]e must see to it that our friends in Europe and elsewhere are armed with the facts and the answers to Russian propaganda. If we do not provide this ammunition they will not get it from any other source.’3
