Wilfred Burchett
Encyclopedia
Wilfred Graham Burchett (16 September 191127 September 1983) was an Australian journalist known for his reporting of conflicts in Asia and his Communist sympathies. He was the first foreign correspondent to enter Hiroshima after the atomic bomb was dropped and attracted controversy for his activities during the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
in 1911 to George and Mary Burchett. He spent his youth in the south Gippsland
town of Poowong. Poverty forced him to drop out of school at an early age and work at various odd jobs, including as a vacuum cleaner salesman and an agricultural labourer. In his free time he studied foreign languages.
In 1936 Burchett left Australia for London
. There he found work in travel agency which resettled Jews from Nazi Germany
in British Palestine and the United States
. It was in this job that he met his first wife Erna Hammer, a German Jewish refugee
, in 1938.
Burchett was the uncle of chef and cookbook writer Stephanie Alexander
.
in the south-Pacific colony of New Caledonia
helped him gain accreditation with the Daily Express
newspaper. He spent the remainder of the war in China and Burma and also covered General Douglas MacArthur
's island-hopping campaign.
He was the first journalist to visit Hiroshima
after the atom bomb was dropped, arriving alone by train from Tokyo on 2 September, the day of the formal surrender aboard the . His Morse code
dispatch was printed by the Daily Express
newspaper in London on 5 September 1945, entitled "The Atomic Plague", the first public report to mention the effects of radiation
and nuclear fallout
. His report is more fully recorded in his book, Shadow of Hiroshima.
Burchett's reporting was unpopular with the U.S. military. U.S. censors killed a supporting story submitted by George Weller
of the Chicago Daily News
, and accused Burchett of being under the sway of Japanese propaganda. William L. Laurence
of The New York Times
dismissed the reports on radiation sickness as Japanese efforts to undermine American morale, ignoring his own account of Hiroshima's radiation sickness published one week earlier. During the U.S. occupation of Japan, and under General MacArthur's orders, Burchett was for a time barred entrance to Japan. In addition, his camera mysteriously disappeared while he was documenting the persisting illness at a Tokyo hospital.
in Eastern Europe. He covered the Stalinist show trials, including that of Cardinal Mindszenty of Hungary
. During the trial of László Rajk
, Burchett wrote that the accused was a "Titoist spy" and a "tool of American and British intelligence". Burchett also praised the postwar Stalinist purges in Bulgaria, writing that the "Bulgarian conspirators were the left arm of the Hungarian reactionary right arm". In his autobiography he later admitted he began to have doubts about the trials when one of the Bulgarian accused repudiated his signed confession. Hungarian Tibor Méray has accused Burchett of dishonesty regarding the trials and the subsequent Hungarian Revolution of 1956 which he opposed.
as a foreign correspondent for the French Communist newspaper L'Humanité
. After six months in China he wrote China's Feet Unbound, which supported the new Chinese government of Mao Zedong
. In July 1951, he and British journalist Alan Winnington made their way to North Korea
to cover the Panmunjon Peace Talks.
Subsequently Burchett was accused of concocting the allegation that the USA was engaging in "germ warfare", perhaps inspired by a science fiction story by Jack London
. However, this has been decisively refuted by his former colleague and veteran anti-Communist, Tibor Méray, in his critical memoir On Burchett.
Burchett visited several POW
camps in North Korea, comparing one to a "luxury resort", a "holiday resort in Switzerland", which angered POWs who had been held under conditions that violated the Geneva Convention. Historian Gavan McCormack writes that Burchett regretted this analogy, but argues that the factual basis of the description was confirmed by POW Walker Mahurin.
Similarly, Tibor Méray reports a "Peace Fighter Camp" which had no fences.
Burchett achieved a major scoop by interviewing the most senior United Nations POW, U.S. General William F. Dean
, previously believed dead. In his autobiography Dean entitled a chapter "My Friend Wilfred Burchett" and wrote "I like Burchett and am grateful to him". He expressed thanks for Burchett's "special kindness" in improving his conditions, communicating with his family, and giving him an "accurate" briefing on the state of the war.
In his study of war correspondents, The First Casualty, Phillip Knightley
wrote that "in Korea, the truth was that Burchett and Winnington were a better source of news than the UN information officers, and if the allied reporters did not see them they risked being beaten on stories".
. Burchett wrote in a dispatch that "a new humanism is at work in the Soviet Union which makes that peddled in the West look shabby; its all-embracing sweep leaves behind no underprivileged". His work in the Soviet Union also gained him notoriety in Britain, with many of his stories being reprinted in the Daily Express and Financial Times
.
, he travelled hundreds of miles, huddling in tunnels with NVA and Viet Cong soldiers while being attacked by US forces.
In 1975 and 1976, Burchett believed his friend, former prince Norodom Sihanouk
, was part of the leadership group. As relations between Cambodia and Vietnam deteriorated, and after visiting refugee camps in 1978, he realised the true situation and condemned the Khmer Rouge
. He was subsequently placed on a Khmer Rouge death list.
testified before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security that Burchett had been his agent when he worked as a KGB controller. Other agents he named included Jean-Paul Sartre
and John Kenneth Galbraith
. He claimed that Burchett had proposed a "special relationship" with the Soviets at their first meeting in Berlin
in 1947. Krotkov also reported that Burchett had worked as an agent for both Vietnam and China and was a secret member of the Communist Party of Australia. For his part, Burchett critic Tibor Méray alleged that he was an undercover party member but not a KGB agent.
politician Jack Kane
. The one-million-dollar suit was filed, in part, over an article Kane had written in his political newsletter detailing Yuri Krotkov's testimony.
During the trial, Kane's defence team not only presented the testimony Krotkov gave in the United States in 1969, but also gathered thirty former Korean-War
POWs to testify during the trial. The former prisoners testified that Burchett had used threatening and insulting language against them and in some cases had been involved in their interrogations. Historian Gavan McCormack has argued in Burchett's defence that his only dealings with Australian POWs were "trivial incidents" in which he "helped" them. With regard to other POWs, McCormack has shown that their allegations were at variance with earlier statements which either explicitly cleared Burchett or blamed someone else.
North Vietnamese defectors, Bui Cong Tuong and To Ming Trung, also testified at the trial, claiming that Burchett was so highly regarded in Hanoi he was known as "Comrade Soldier", a title he shared with Lenin and Ho Chi Minh.
Burchett denied all the allegations, and Krotkov's testimony was exposed as supposition. Though the jury found Burchett had been defamed, it considered the article a fair report of a 1971 Senate speech by DLP leader Vince Gair
and therefore protected by parliamentary privilege
. Costs were awarded against Burchett, who appealed but lost.
the following year, aged 72.
His legacy has continued to excite controversy to the present day. Journalist Denis Warner remarked: "he will be remembered by many as one of the more remarkable agents of influence of the times but by his Australian and other admirers as a folk hero".
In 1981 David Bradbury made a documentary entitled Public Enemy Number One. It showed how Burchett was vilified in Australia for his coverage of "the other side" in the Korean and Vietnam Wars and asked the questions: "Can a democracy tolerate opinions it considers subversive to its national interest? How far can freedom of the press be extended in wartime?"
In 2011 Vietnam celebrated Burchett's 100th birthday with an exhibition in the Ho Chi Minh Museum
in Hanoi
.
Early life
Burchett was born in MelbourneMelbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
in 1911 to George and Mary Burchett. He spent his youth in the south Gippsland
Gippsland
Gippsland is a large rural region in Victoria, Australia. It begins immediately east of the suburbs of Melbourne and stretches to the New South Wales border, lying between the Great Dividing Range to the north and Bass Strait to the south...
town of Poowong. Poverty forced him to drop out of school at an early age and work at various odd jobs, including as a vacuum cleaner salesman and an agricultural labourer. In his free time he studied foreign languages.
In 1936 Burchett left Australia for London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. There he found work in travel agency which resettled Jews from Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
in British Palestine and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It was in this job that he met his first wife Erna Hammer, a German Jewish refugee
Refugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
, in 1938.
Burchett was the uncle of chef and cookbook writer Stephanie Alexander
Stephanie Alexander
Stephanie Alexander is an Australian cook, restaurateur and food writer.After studying to become a librarian and traveling the world at the age of 21, Alexander's first restaurant, Jamaican House, opened in 1964. In 1976, Alexander's next venture was Stephanie's Restaurant located in the Melbourne...
.
Second World War
In 1940 Burchett began his career in journalism. His freelance reports of the revolt against the Vichy FrenchVichy France
Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...
in the south-Pacific colony of New Caledonia
New Caledonia
New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, east of Australia and about from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of...
helped him gain accreditation with the Daily Express
Daily Express
The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...
newspaper. He spent the remainder of the war in China and Burma and also covered General Douglas MacArthur
Douglas MacArthur
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was an American general and field marshal of the Philippine Army. He was a Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II. He received the Medal of Honor for his service in the...
's island-hopping campaign.
He was the first journalist to visit Hiroshima
Hiroshima
is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It became best known as the first city in history to be destroyed by a nuclear weapon when the United States Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on it at 8:15 A.M...
after the atom bomb was dropped, arriving alone by train from Tokyo on 2 September, the day of the formal surrender aboard the . His Morse code
Morse code
Morse code is a method of transmitting textual information as a series of on-off tones, lights, or clicks that can be directly understood by a skilled listener or observer without special equipment...
dispatch was printed by the Daily Express
Daily Express
The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...
newspaper in London on 5 September 1945, entitled "The Atomic Plague", the first public report to mention the effects of radiation
Radiation
In physics, radiation is a process in which energetic particles or energetic waves travel through a medium or space. There are two distinct types of radiation; ionizing and non-ionizing...
and nuclear fallout
Nuclear fallout
Fallout is the residual radioactive material propelled into the upper atmosphere following a nuclear blast, so called because it "falls out" of the sky after the explosion and shock wave have passed. It commonly refers to the radioactive dust and ash created when a nuclear weapon explodes...
. His report is more fully recorded in his book, Shadow of Hiroshima.
Burchett's reporting was unpopular with the U.S. military. U.S. censors killed a supporting story submitted by George Weller
George Weller
George Anthony Weller was an American novelist, playwright, and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for The New York Times and Chicago Daily News...
of the Chicago Daily News
Chicago Daily News
The Chicago Daily News was an afternoon daily newspaper published between 1876 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois.-History:The Daily News was founded by Melville E. Stone, Percy Meggy, and William Dougherty in 1875 and began publishing early the next year...
, and accused Burchett of being under the sway of Japanese propaganda. William L. Laurence
William L. Laurence
William Leonard Laurence was a Jewish Lithuanian born American journalist known for his science journalism writing of the 1940s and 1950s while working for the New York Times...
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
dismissed the reports on radiation sickness as Japanese efforts to undermine American morale, ignoring his own account of Hiroshima's radiation sickness published one week earlier. During the U.S. occupation of Japan, and under General MacArthur's orders, Burchett was for a time barred entrance to Japan. In addition, his camera mysteriously disappeared while he was documenting the persisting illness at a Tokyo hospital.
Eastern Europe
After three years in Greece and Berlin while working for the Daily Express, Burchett began reporting for The TimesThe Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
in Eastern Europe. He covered the Stalinist show trials, including that of Cardinal Mindszenty of Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
. During the trial of László Rajk
László Rajk
László Rajk was a Hungarian Communist; politician, former Minister of Interior and former Minister of Foreign Affairs...
, Burchett wrote that the accused was a "Titoist spy" and a "tool of American and British intelligence". Burchett also praised the postwar Stalinist purges in Bulgaria, writing that the "Bulgarian conspirators were the left arm of the Hungarian reactionary right arm". In his autobiography he later admitted he began to have doubts about the trials when one of the Bulgarian accused repudiated his signed confession. Hungarian Tibor Méray has accused Burchett of dishonesty regarding the trials and the subsequent Hungarian Revolution of 1956 which he opposed.
Korean War
In 1951, Burchett travelled to the People's Republic of ChinaPeople's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
as a foreign correspondent for the French Communist newspaper L'Humanité
L'Humanité
L'Humanité , formerly the daily newspaper linked to the French Communist Party , was founded in 1904 by Jean Jaurès, a leader of the French Section of the Workers' International...
. After six months in China he wrote China's Feet Unbound, which supported the new Chinese government of Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
. In July 1951, he and British journalist Alan Winnington made their way to North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
to cover the Panmunjon Peace Talks.
Subsequently Burchett was accused of concocting the allegation that the USA was engaging in "germ warfare", perhaps inspired by a science fiction story by Jack London
Jack London
John Griffith "Jack" London was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone...
. However, this has been decisively refuted by his former colleague and veteran anti-Communist, Tibor Méray, in his critical memoir On Burchett.
Burchett visited several POW
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
camps in North Korea, comparing one to a "luxury resort", a "holiday resort in Switzerland", which angered POWs who had been held under conditions that violated the Geneva Convention. Historian Gavan McCormack writes that Burchett regretted this analogy, but argues that the factual basis of the description was confirmed by POW Walker Mahurin.
Similarly, Tibor Méray reports a "Peace Fighter Camp" which had no fences.
Burchett achieved a major scoop by interviewing the most senior United Nations POW, U.S. General William F. Dean
William F. Dean
William Frishe Dean, Sr. was a major general in the United States Army during World War II and the Korean War. He received the Medal of Honor for his actions on July 20 and 21, 1950, during the Battle of Taejon in South Korea...
, previously believed dead. In his autobiography Dean entitled a chapter "My Friend Wilfred Burchett" and wrote "I like Burchett and am grateful to him". He expressed thanks for Burchett's "special kindness" in improving his conditions, communicating with his family, and giving him an "accurate" briefing on the state of the war.
In his study of war correspondents, The First Casualty, Phillip Knightley
Phillip Knightley
Phillip Knightley is a journalist, critic, and non-fiction author, visiting Professor of Journalism at the University of Lincoln, England, and media commentator on the intelligence services and propaganda.-Biography:...
wrote that "in Korea, the truth was that Burchett and Winnington were a better source of news than the UN information officers, and if the allied reporters did not see them they risked being beaten on stories".
Moscow
In 1956 Burchett arrived in Moscow as a correspondent with the National Guardian newspaper, an American radical leftist weekly. During the next six years, he reported on Soviet advances in science and the rebuilding of the Soviet economy in the aftermath of World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Burchett wrote in a dispatch that "a new humanism is at work in the Soviet Union which makes that peddled in the West look shabby; its all-embracing sweep leaves behind no underprivileged". His work in the Soviet Union also gained him notoriety in Britain, with many of his stories being reprinted in the Daily Express and Financial Times
Financial Times
The Financial Times is an international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. Its primary rival is the Wall Street Journal, published in New York City....
.
Indochina
Although 60 years old during the Vietnam WarVietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, he travelled hundreds of miles, huddling in tunnels with NVA and Viet Cong soldiers while being attacked by US forces.
In 1975 and 1976, Burchett believed his friend, former prince Norodom Sihanouk
Norodom Sihanouk
Norodom Sihanouk regular script was the King of Cambodia from 1941 to 1955 and again from 1993 until his semi-retirement and voluntary abdication on 7 October 2004 in favor of his son, the current King Norodom Sihamoni...
, was part of the leadership group. As relations between Cambodia and Vietnam deteriorated, and after visiting refugee camps in 1978, he realised the true situation and condemned the Khmer Rouge
Khmer Rouge
The Khmer Rouge literally translated as Red Cambodians was the name given to the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, who were the ruling party in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, led by Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen and Khieu Samphan...
. He was subsequently placed on a Khmer Rouge death list.
Passport controversy
One of the controversies that dogged Burchett for much of his career concerned his Australian passport. In 1955 it went missing, believed stolen, and the Australian Government refused to issue a replacement. Matters came to a head in 1969 when Burchett was refused entry into Australia to attend his father's funeral. The following year his brother Clive died, and Burchett flew to Brisbane by a private plane, triggering a media sensation. An Australian passport was finally issued to Burchett by the incoming Whitlam Government in 1972.Testimony by Krotkov
In November 1969, Soviet defector Yuri KrotkovYuri Krotkov
Yuri Vasilevich Krotkov Юрий Васильевич Кротков was a Russian dramatist and film writer. Working as a KGB agent, he defected to the West in 1963....
testified before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security that Burchett had been his agent when he worked as a KGB controller. Other agents he named included Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy, particularly Marxism, and was one of the key figures in literary...
and John Kenneth Galbraith
John Kenneth Galbraith
John Kenneth "Ken" Galbraith , OC was a Canadian-American economist. He was a Keynesian and an institutionalist, a leading proponent of 20th-century American liberalism...
. He claimed that Burchett had proposed a "special relationship" with the Soviets at their first meeting in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
in 1947. Krotkov also reported that Burchett had worked as an agent for both Vietnam and China and was a secret member of the Communist Party of Australia. For his part, Burchett critic Tibor Méray alleged that he was an undercover party member but not a KGB agent.
Jack Kane libel trial
Burchett had always been defensive about charges that he was a "communist propagandist" or "communist agent," and in November 1974 he filed a libel suit against Australian Democratic Labor PartyDemocratic Labor Party (historical)
The Democratic Labor Party was an Australian political party that existed from 1955 until 1978.-History:The DLP was formed as a result of a split in the Australian Labor Party that began in 1954. The split was between the party's national leadership, under the then party leader Dr H.V...
politician Jack Kane
Jack Kane
John Thomas "Jack" Kane was an Australian politician. Born in Burraga, New South Wales, he was educated at Catholic schools in Lithgow, after which he became a coalminer. He was Vice-President of the Transport Workers' Union 1952-1956 and Assistant General Secretary of the New South Wales Labor...
. The one-million-dollar suit was filed, in part, over an article Kane had written in his political newsletter detailing Yuri Krotkov's testimony.
During the trial, Kane's defence team not only presented the testimony Krotkov gave in the United States in 1969, but also gathered thirty former Korean-War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
POWs to testify during the trial. The former prisoners testified that Burchett had used threatening and insulting language against them and in some cases had been involved in their interrogations. Historian Gavan McCormack has argued in Burchett's defence that his only dealings with Australian POWs were "trivial incidents" in which he "helped" them. With regard to other POWs, McCormack has shown that their allegations were at variance with earlier statements which either explicitly cleared Burchett or blamed someone else.
North Vietnamese defectors, Bui Cong Tuong and To Ming Trung, also testified at the trial, claiming that Burchett was so highly regarded in Hanoi he was known as "Comrade Soldier", a title he shared with Lenin and Ho Chi Minh.
Burchett denied all the allegations, and Krotkov's testimony was exposed as supposition. Though the jury found Burchett had been defamed, it considered the article a fair report of a 1971 Senate speech by DLP leader Vince Gair
Vince Gair
Vincent Clare "Vince" Gair was an Australian politician. He served as Premier of Queensland from 1952 until 1957, when his stormy relations with the trade union movement saw him expelled from the Australian Labor Party. He was elected to the Australian Senate and led the Democratic Labor Party...
and therefore protected by parliamentary privilege
Parliamentary privilege
Parliamentary privilege is a legal immunity enjoyed by members of certain legislatures, in which legislators are granted protection against civil or criminal liability for actions done or statements made related to one's duties as a legislator. It is common in countries whose constitutions are...
. Costs were awarded against Burchett, who appealed but lost.
Death and legacy
Burchett moved to Bulgaria in 1982 and died of cancer in SofiaSofia
Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...
the following year, aged 72.
His legacy has continued to excite controversy to the present day. Journalist Denis Warner remarked: "he will be remembered by many as one of the more remarkable agents of influence of the times but by his Australian and other admirers as a folk hero".
In 1981 David Bradbury made a documentary entitled Public Enemy Number One. It showed how Burchett was vilified in Australia for his coverage of "the other side" in the Korean and Vietnam Wars and asked the questions: "Can a democracy tolerate opinions it considers subversive to its national interest? How far can freedom of the press be extended in wartime?"
In 2011 Vietnam celebrated Burchett's 100th birthday with an exhibition in the Ho Chi Minh Museum
Ho Chi Minh Museum
The Ho Chi Minh Museum is located in Hanoi, Vietnam. It is a museum dedicated to the late Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh and Vietnam's revolutionary struggle against foreign powers. It was constructed in the 1990s.- External links :* *...
in Hanoi
Hanoi
Hanoi , is the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city. Its population in 2009 was estimated at 2.6 million for urban districts, 6.5 million for the metropolitan jurisdiction. From 1010 until 1802, it was the most important political centre of Vietnam...
.
Further reading
- Burchett, George and Shimmin, Nick (eds.)(2005), Memoirs of a Rebel Journalist. The Autobiography of Wilfred Burchett, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, New South Wales. ISBN 0 86840 842 5
- Heenan, Tom (2006), From Traveller to Traitor. The Life of Wilfred Burchett, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, Victoria. ISBN 0 522 85229 7
- Kane, Jack (1989), Exploding the Myths. The Political Memoirs of Jack Kane, Angus and Robertson, North Ryde, New South Wales. ISBN 0207161690
- Kiernan, Ben (ed.)(1986), Burchett Reporting the Other Side of the World 1939-1983, Quartet Books, London, England. ISBN 0 7043 2580 2
- Meray, Tibor (2008), On Burchett, Callistemon Publications, Kallista, Victoria. ISBN 9780646477886
External links
- http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=5964The contrasting stories of the first journalists to visit Hiroshima (Burchett) and Nagasaki (Chicago Daily NewsChicago Daily NewsThe Chicago Daily News was an afternoon daily newspaper published between 1876 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois.-History:The Daily News was founded by Melville E. Stone, Percy Meggy, and William Dougherty in 1875 and began publishing early the next year...
reporter George Weller).] - http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/mediarpt/stories/s1495777.htmRadio NationalRadio NationalABC Radio National is an Australia-wide non-commercial radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.Radio National broadcasts national programming in areas that include news and current affairs, the arts, social issues, science, drama and comedy...
's Media Report discussing Memoirs of a Rebel Journalist.] - Stuart MacintyreStuart MacintyreStuart Forbes Macintyre , Australian historian, academic and public intellectual, is a former Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Melbourne. He has been voted one of Australia's most influential public intellectuals...
and Ben KiernanBen KiernanBenedict F. Kiernan is the Whitney Griswold Professor of History, Professor of International and Area Studies and Director of the Genocide Studies Program at Yale University. He is a prolific writer on the Cambodian genocide...
, "Wilfred Burchett's Memoirs of a Rebel Journalist: Lessons from Hiroshima to Vietnam and Iraq" - Wilfred Burchett's Memoirs of a Rebel Journalist: Lessons from Hiroshima to Vietnam and Iraq
- Vesselina Ossikovska-Burchett – 1919-2007
- People's Democracies by Wilfred G. Burchett