Word: sovietizers
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...dark days of the cold war, Soviet propaganda was predictably noisy and lurid. During Dictator Joseph Stalin's "Hate America" campaign of the early 1950s, for instance, Kremlin artists depicted U.S. soldiers as hideous, spider-like creatures, armed with spray guns and injection needles, demonically waging germ warfare. But the ad that filled three-quarters of a page in the New York Times last week was far more sophisticated. WHAT HOLDS BACK PROGRESS AT THE GENEVA TALKS? queried the headline. In four columns of dull gray type, paid for by the Soviet embassy in Washington, an editorial reprinted from Pravda...
...Soviets are relying more and more on the pitchman techniques of Madison Avenue to win Western hearts and minds, particularly those in Europe caught uneasily between the two superpowers. Once invisible Soviet officials now stage on-the-record press briefings for Western reporters. The courtly spokesman for the Soviet Foreign Ministry, Vladimir Lomeiko, laces his commentary with quotes from George Bernard Shaw and deftly cuts off other Kremlin officials when they begin to bluster...
...Soviet ministries have taken to issuing glossy pamphlets to advance the Kremlin line. One of them, Star Wars: Delusions and Dangers, appeared last week in Washington and other Western capitals. The 56-page booklet charged the U.S. with trying to "blackmail" and "fleece" its NATO allies with a costly weapons system that would only enhance the risks of nuclear war. More than 70,000 copies have been printed in English, Spanish, German, Italian, French and Japanese...
...Soviet p.r. offensive was actually launched by the late leader Leonid Brezhnev. But his heavy-handed attempts to scare Europe into abandoning deployment of American intermediate-range missiles only succeeded in fostering greater NATO coherence and determination. The new Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, has shown a lighter touch. He has skillfully postured as peacemaker and portrayed the Americans as warmongers. His appointments also reflect a preoccupation with p.r.: new Propaganda Chief Alexander Yakovlev became thoroughly familiar with Western ways during ten years as Ambassador to Canada, and new Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze is an ebullient backslapper...
...response to the Soviet ad blaming the U.S. for blocking arms control, State Department Spokesman Charles Redman made light of the ploy, cracking, "We've not had similar success in placing ads in Pravda." In fact, the U.S. has found itself on the defensive in the game of public diplomacy. When the Soviets proposed a moratorium on nuclear testing last month, the U.S. awkwardly demurred, insisting that the ban would not be verifiable without on-site inspection. Gorbachev promptly retorted that the ban could be verified with existing satellites and seismic devices. White House Spokesman Larry Speakes huffed last week...