Felix Greene (21 May 1909 – 15 June 1985) was a British journalist who chronicled several communist countries in the 1960s and 1970s.
Felix Greene | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Felix Greene in 1968 | |
| Born | 21 May 1909 |
| Died | 15 June 1985 (aged 76) |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Relatives | Graham Greene (cousin) |
Greene stood as a National Labour candidate in the 1931 election while still a law student.[1] Greene was defeated in South East Essex by a Conservative candidate who refused to stand aside for National Labour, despite the two parties being allies in Ramsay MacDonald's National Government. He did, however, achieve a higher poll than any of the National Labour candidates opposed by Conservatives.
He was one of the first Western reporters to visit North Vietnam when he travelled there for the San Francisco Chronicle in the 1960s. He first visited China for the BBC in 1957.
Greene later produced documentary films, including One Man's China, Tibet, Cuba va!, Vietnam! Vietnam! and Inside North Viet Nam. Right-wing critics have accused these films of presenting a one-sided view of communist society.[2] The Wall Street Journal argued that Greene purposely hid negative information about the extent of starvation in China[3] and called him a "fellow traveller."[4]
Commander R. W. Herrick of the U.S. Navy reviewed A Curtain of Ignorance in Naval War College Review, writing, "There can be no question but that [Greene] set out deliberately to 'prove' his contentions that practically everything having to do with Communist China and its policies is good, while Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalist regimes are unmitigatedly bad. ... Yet, once the reader understands and allows for this bias, this book is eminently worth reading." Herrick agreed with Greene's observation that "... on matters where great national feelings are aroused, scholars and experts are just as likely as the rest of us to allow their judgments to be swayed by the prevailing climate of opinion." He found the chapters on Nationalist China and the China Lobby to be provocative reading.[5]
In the 1970s, Greene went to Dharamsala to visit the 14th Dalai Lama, who recalled that after three days of discussion, Greene's attitude had changed.[6][7]
Greene lived in the San Francisco area for 20 years and died in Mexico of cancer. He was a cousin of the author Graham Greene.[8]
Books
edit- Awakened China: The Country Americans Don't Know. Garden City, New York, 1961.
- The Enemy: What Every American Should Know About Imperialism. New York: Vintage Books, 1971.
- VIETNAM! VIETNAM! In Photographs and text. 1966, Palo Alto, California: Fulton Publishing Company, LCCN: 66-28359
- A Curtain of Ignorance, London: Jonathan Cape, 1965. Details of how Communist China was reported in the US in the 1960s.
- The Wall Has Two Sides. A Portrait Of China Today, The Reprint Society, 1963.
Greene's films and photos are distributed by Contemporary Films.
Notes
edit- ^ The Times House of Commons, 1929, 1931, 1935. 2003. p. 74. ISBN 1-84275-033-X.
- ^ Hypocrisy in the "Peace" Movement: A Case Study by Chris R. Tame Archived 2010-11-02 at the Wayback Machine, 1983/1990, Foreign Policy Perspectives No. 16, ISBN 1-870614-00-3
- ^ Fathers, Michael (October 26, 2012). "A Most Secret Tragedy". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved May 25, 2020.
- ^ How America Was Misinformed About China, in the Wall Street Journal's "Far East Economic Review", published 29 August 2007; archived at archive.org, 2 March 2012
- ^ Herrick, R. W. (1965). "(Review) A Curtain of Ignorance". Naval War College Review. 18 (2).
- ^ Gyatso, Tenzin; Quaki, Fabien; Benson, Anne (23 February 2016). "Power and Values". Imagine All the People: A Conversation with the Dalai Lama on Money, Politics, and Life as it Could Be. p. 17. ISBN 9780861718764.
Felix Green who was quite a close friend to the late Zhou Enlai of China. Mr. Greene had visited China regularly for many years and had great faith in both the country and in Communism. He came to Dharamsala with several films, hoping to show me how happy people were in Tibet, and to explain that things were not as bad as we, the Tibetans in exile, believed. He tried to convince me that everything was okay in my country. We talked and argued for three or four days. After many hours of discussion, he finally changed his attitude on most points. In such cases, a good argument based on sincere motivation can produce a positive result, provided both parties strive to be objective. It is very helpful to talk, talk, talk, until a solution is found.
- ^ "His Holiness the Dalai Lama in New York, NY - May 22, 2010". dalailama.com. Archived from the original on 27 May 2010. Retrieved 11 June 2010.
- ^ "Felix Greene, Reporter, Dies; Visited North Vietnam in 60's". The New York Times. 27 June 1985.