Anatomy of the Big Lie

In the Big Lie there is always a certain force of credibility. . . . In the primitive simplicity of their minds [the masse] more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie since they themselves . . . would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. . . .

--Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf

In his remarkable London speech, Vyacheslav Molotov made a number of assertions. Many of them were of a more or less technical nature with which the average German, for instance, was not acquainted. They bore examination.

Molotov said: "Under the Potsdam Agreement, reparation deliveries of equipment from the Western zones of Germany are provided for in respect to 20 Allied countries . . . including the U.S.S.R. [So far they have] received such equipment to the amount of $33 million only. ... Is it not a mockery? . . ."

The Truth: The Potsdam Agreement did not say how many dollars' worth of reparations anyone was to get; it allotted Russia 25% of the plants that would be removed from the Western zones, on condition that the Russians ship a certain amount of raw materials from their own zone to the West. Russia has received more than 50% of all the plants removed, but has delivered no raw materials so far. She also consistently blocked Germany's economic unification, which, in the U.S. view of the Potsdam Agreement, was a condition for reparations shipments from the West.

Molotov: "The main attack is now being launched against reparations on deliveries from so-called current production. . . . There are no current reparations deliveries from the Western zones while the level of industry in the Anglo-American zone reaches only to 35% of the 1938 level. From the Soviet zone of Germany, current reparations deliveries are taking place and the level of industry there has already reached 52% of the 1938 level . . . although conditions there for the rehabilitation of industry are more difficult. ... It follows that reparations deliveries, far from hindering the rehabilitation of industry, facilitate this rehabilitation."

The Truth: 1) the Russians have a food surplus in their zone, while the U.S., Britain and France have in their zones an annual grain deficit of 6,400,000 tons on their hands; 2) the Russians use "administrative pressure," sometimes called slave labor, to make their Germans work; 3) Western Germany's complex, highly interdependent and heavily bombed industries are harder to revive than the simpler Eastern industries.

Molotov: "Another [U.S.] policy is to retard the rehabilitation of German industry. . . . This cannot go on much longer."

The Truth: Molotov and his colleagues have denounced the U.S., ad nauseam, not for hindering German industry but for rebuilding it too well. Molotov has fiercely opposed U.S. proposals to raise the ceiling on Germany's industrial output.

Molotov: "The hidden reparations and economic privileges which the British, American and French authorities receive in the Western zones . . . are usually passed over in silence.... Coal was bought at cheap rates from the Ruhr . . . and exported to other countries. The British authorities . . . received enormous profits."

The Truth: All proceeds from sales of Ruhr coal and other German products are poured back into Germany.

Molotov: "Whole concerns are being bought up from German industrialists at low prices. American and British capital is penetrating into German industry. . . ."

The Truth: Not a single German business property has been acquired by U.S. interests since the war. Many U.S. businessmen have complained that they cannot make commercial contacts in Germany. There are no legal means whereby Anglo-Americans can buy anything larger than an automobile in Germany. The U.S.S.R., on the other hand, now owns one third of the industry in its zone through Russian-controlled corporations.

Paragraph after paragraph, Molotov's assertions could be disproved by some simple digging for recorded facts. Why did Molotov lay himself open to such complete refutation? Expert Hitler knew the reason:

The grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying.

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