Interminable Truce Talks

With the start of armistice negotiations in the summer of 1951, the Korean War entered a new phase. This chapter explores how officials formulated an information campaign during months of complex and protracted negotiations. At the armistice site, first at Kaesong then at Panmunjom, the military's public information officials had a difficult time trying to divulge enough material to keep the press happy without undermining the government's negotiating position. In Washington, senior officials faced an even more fraught task in trying to justify their stance on POWs. By 1952, the fate of prisoners was the main sticking point in the talks, mainly because Truman adhered to the principle of voluntary repatriation. Although many PR advisers fretted that Americans would not support the continuation of the war over this one esoteric issue, in the spring of 1952 the administration was able to fashion a remarkably effective public position, which helped generate a degree of support for the war, despite a year of stalemated negotiations.

Administration (probate law) · Business · Government (linguistics) · Negotiation · Political science · Position (finance) · Repatriation · Japanese History and Culture · Korean Peninsula Historical and Political Studies · Law · Public Administration · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies