Propaganda

Transcript

Anchor: Successfully completing a mission and reaching an objective is of capital importance, of course, but staying alive while doing it is often challenging.

In Korea, surviving means more than just living through battles... it also means trying not to go insane while being constantly exposed to propaganda aimed at convincing all UN soldiers that they are fighting an unjust war!

Arthur Lortie: They did a lot of propaganda. China and North Korea are great propagandists.

Guy Édouard Gauthier: They spoke English very well, and sometimes they spoke in French. We think that they probably came in twos, carrying a speaker and wire, and set up near the barbed wire to talk to us.

Raymond Tremblay: "What are you doing here, Canadians? Why are you here? Go home! We've got no beef with you, it's the Americans we're fighting with."

Guy Édouard Gauthier: They would ask us what we were doing there and tell us that our wives were having fun in Canada, while we were there freezing. It was an everyday occurrence.

Paul-Émile Pomerleau: They'd fly a plane, broadcasting music and saying, "Canadians, go home! You have no business here."

Jean-Émile Paillé: They put up posts with tin cans, and they would put letters in them. They called them post offices. There were some below all our positions.
(Soldiers holding signs)

Guy Édouard Gauthier: There was a picture... you could see a pool, with two guys and two girls, having a drink or something like that.

Raymond Tremblay: Or they would send over bombs with messages in them.

Jean-Émile Paillé: The Chinese ones were red. They said, "Give up!" and "Don't fight for the Americans."

Charles Trudeau: There was a woman dressed in white parading on a white horse. They were never able to catch her. She kept saying, "Your mom and dad are waiting for you. Go back home. Christmas is coming." You know, stuff like that.

Herbert Pitts: We spent Christmas there singing Christmas carols to each other over the phone lines, watching the Chinese put up some signs about Merry Christmas and "let's have peace" and "no more war" and "why fight the Americans' battles."

Paul-Émile Pomerleau: There was music, and they put holiday cards in the barbed wire.

Arthur Lortie: On one side there was a black and white picture of us hiding in the trenches, while on the other side there was a color picture of Americans celebrating Christmas.

Paul-Émile Pomerleau: With a great big turkey, just out of the oven!

Raymond Tremblay: When you're sitting there, eating canned soup, and you see this beautiful turkey dinner... it really makes you think.

Arthur Lortie: Stuff like that aimed at bringing down morale, but we were aware of their tactics. Our superiors told us what to expect. So we knew, and we didn't let it bother us.