Pro-Stalin Hollywood Film: "Mission to Moscow"

by Liberty and Power

In this short clip from the notorious, pro-Stalin film from 1943, "Mission to Moscow," Walter Huston, playing the American ambassador, Joseph E. Davies, smears pre-war non-interventionists, defends the Soviet invasion of Finland, and depicts the Soviets as peace-loving.

Apparently, Davies was not a typical fellow traveler. According to Soviet archives, he purchased art at discount prices that had been confiscated from purge victims.

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Tim Sydney - 9/21/2008

Had a major isolationist spokesman been discovered to be receiving stolen goods from, say, Holocaust victims, we would have the incident dug up every time the isolationist campaign was mentioned.

Look at the comparative treatment of Lindbergh and the medal he was awarded by Goering before the war. An award made without notice and made d to Lindbergh whilst he was in the company of a US ambassador who advised him to take it. And Lindbergh was actually in Germany as part of a fact finding mission supported and endorsed by the US Army Air Force. The USAAF top brass wanted to exploit the USAAF Reservist Colonel's fame to get access to Germany's aircraft industry.

The problem was of course much worse than the Ambassador's art collection. Thomas Flemming in his 'The New Dealers War' shows how Soviet requests to purge the State Department of a list of specialists they considered 'anti-Soviet' was actually complied with. (They weren't sacked but shifted out of the East European desks.)