The Big Lie (1951 film)

Title screen of the US Army film

The Big Lie was a 1951 anti-communist propaganda film produced by the US Army. It begins with the quote by Adolf Hitler: "The great masses will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one" and likens the Communist regimes of the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, China and North Korea to the former Nazi regime.

It then exposes the creation of Kremlin-controlled puppet regimes in those countries, describing how the people were "sold out." Consistent with American thinking of the time, the People's Republic of China is also described as a Soviet puppet state, although it never was an actual Soviet puppet. Footage of marching is shown for each of the satellite states.

Imagery goes back and forth between Nazi and communist themes in an attempt to link the two ideologies and persuade the still-reeling public that communism was as dangerous as Nazism.

The final part of the film attacks peace movements linked to the Communists, contrasting their rhetoric with the realities of Communist warmongering in Greece, Indochina, Korea and China. The concluding slogan is "Beware the big lie! Beware the dove that goes BOOM!" It shows a cartoon – first used by the French anti-communist group Paix et Liberté – of a dove metamorphosing into a Soviet tank – its wings have become tank treads, and its head is a tank turret.[1][2]

References

  1. ↑ http://a6.idata.over-blog.com/499x378/0/52/17/56/colombe_boum-mieux.jpg%5Bpermanent+dead+link%5D
  2. ↑ Radio Free Europe’s “Crusade for Freedom”: Rallying Americans Behind ... 0786462078 Richard H. Cummings - 2010 - Hostile and negative reac- tions to Operation Focus by the Communist regimes in Czechoslovakia and Hungary were also ... Crusade President William A. Greene announced that a 121⁄2 minute film “The Big Lie” was being distributed to ..

Current events mention: http://goodlifetimes.com/did-you-know/why-does-the-media-in-america-not-understand-nazism


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