Truman, Palestine, and the Press: Shaping Conventional Wisdom at the Beginning of the Cold War

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Bloomsbury Academic, Feb 20, 1992 - History - 248 pages

In this absorbing book, Bruce J. Evensen analyzes the role of the mass media, public opinion, and the Zionists in the evolution of America's Palestine policy during the Truman administration. Taking issue with recent revisionist historians who argue that Truman had little difficulty manipulating public opinion, Evensen claims that the press and an aroused public opinion successfully frustrated the President's course on Palestine and elicited his support of the United Nations' partition of Jewish and Arab states and Truman's early recognition of Israel.

Evensen emphasizes the development of a conventional wisdom that placed the Middle East at the center of U.S. strategic planning and saw limiting Soviet penetration as a primary goal. Within this context, he shows a divided Truman administration, which was uncertain how to act on the Jewish state. Reluctantly, the administration initially supported the UN's vote to partition the region; then, as Palestine erupted into violence, it attempted to abandon this decision. Interpreting the President's action as a gutless appeasement of the Arabs and an indication of his fear of the Soviets, the media, reflecting the public's Cold War fears, confronted the administration's policy in the Middle East and frustrated the President's effort to abandon the partition scheme. The media's role in reflecting and shaping competing visions of reality, which became the conventional wisdom of policy making, is a key part of this study.

From inside the book

 

Contents

Reporter as Spectator and Participant in
1
Riding the Tiger
7
Palestine and the Coming of the Cold War January 1947
23
Copyright

8 other sections not shown

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Truman, Palestine, and the Press: Shaping Conventional Wisdom at the ...
Bruce Evensen
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Common terms and phrases

Abba Hillel Silver administration's Affairs American Foreign Policy American Jewish American Zionist Emergency April Arab Archives Arthur Krock August AZEC Files AZEC's Ben-Gurion Bevin Boston British Cecil Brown Chaim Weizmann Chicago Clark Clifford Clifford Clifton Utley Cold Cold War Congress correspondent David December decision Department department's diary Diplomacy Diplomatic History editors Elsey Exodus February Folder Foreign Relations Forrestal FRUS George Grauel H. V. Kaltenborn Harry immigration Israel January Jerusalem Jewish Agency Jewish Chronicle Jewish press Jews July Krock leaders Lester Markel letter London majority report March Markel mass media Memoirs Middle East newspapers November Oral History Interview Palestine policy partition Palestine policymaking polled President Truman Presidential Princeton problems of Palestine public opinion Radio Script refugees Reston Robert Roosevelt Rusk Secretary September Soviet Union story Sulzberger told Truman administration Truman Library trusteeship United Nations University Volume vote warned White House Wisconsin York Herald-Tribune Zionist Emergency Council

References to this book

About the author (1992)

BRUCE J. EVENSEN is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at DePaul University. He has covered the Middle East as a reporter and is the author of several articles that have appeared in scholarly journals.

Bibliographic information

TitleTruman, Palestine, and the Press: Shaping Conventional Wisdom at the Beginning of the Cold War
Contributions in American History
AuthorBruce Evensen
Editionillustrated
PublisherBloomsbury Academic, 1992
Original fromthe University of Michigan
DigitizedAug 27, 2008
ISBN0313277737, 9780313277733
Length248 pages
Subjects ›  › 

History / Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies)
History / United States / 20th Century
  
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