A Study On America’s Cultural Propaganda Related To Tibet During The Cold War

During the Cold War era,the United States took a series of cultural actions against the Soviet bloc.Government agencies,private organizations,and propaganda media all actively participated in those activities,using mass media,covert actions,educational exchange programs and other non-military actions to mobilize domestic people,spread American values,establish a positive image of the United States,and strive for the support of the international community.As a major western country involved in the socalled Tibet issue after World War II,the United States realized that Tibet if of great value in propaganda and ideological struggle when comes to America’s antiCommunist and anti-China strategy.Therefore,in addition to military covert operations,the United States has also carried out targeted propaganda war in Tibet.The United States intends to embed its own thoughts,values,moral standards and ideology into various propaganda activities concerning the “Tibet problem”,making it an extensive cultural process.Understanding this process is of great practical significance to China.Therefore,based on American foreign relations documents,declassified archives of CIA and National Archives,and debates and resolutions of US Congress on Tibet,this paper analyzes and summarizes the background,main body,strategies,specific ways and Tibetan discourse formed in the process of cultural propaganda of Tibet.In the early stage of the Cold War,Tibet was regarded by the American government as an effective tool to shape the public opinion environment favorable to the United States,a way to curb the spread of communist ideology in South Asia and achieve the success of the Cold War strategy in Asia.Through the U.S.Embassy in India,Indian government,domestic intelligence officers,Tibetan exile elites and Taiwan intelligence system,the United States established a powerful information network about Tibet knowledge acquisition and intelligence collection in the early stage of propaganda.From the point of view of national interests and Cold War strategy,the American government has defined the goals,basic strategies and basic methods of Tibetan-related cultural propaganda,and framed the main tone of the policy discourse on Tibet during the whole Cold War.American society,including American mainstream media,American academic circles and mass consumer culture circles,are also acting as promoters of Tibetan-related cultural propaganda intentionally or unintentionally,which has profoundly influenced the views of domestic people and the international community on Tibet.At the same time,as a special form of cultural propaganda,the Dalai clique received the political and economic support and was guided by propaganda strategy of the US government,reshaping the identity of Tibetan exiles and expanding the international influence of the “Tibet problem” from three dimensions: “selforientalization”,glorifying “Tibet independence” activities and carrying out“international public relations” activities.In the process of promoting Tibet-related cultural propaganda,the U.S.government,American society and Dalai clique cooperated with each other,forming a tacit and effective propaganda chain of Tibet-related cultural propaganda,gradually establishing a world-wide dominant discourse system related to Tibet,and evolving into a relatively fixed expression.They concocted wrong views on key issues related to Tibet,such as“Tibet buffer state”,China-Tibetan history,and its relations,forming a decidedly opposite image of “China-Tibetan confrontation” and “Tibet independent country”.Narratively packaging the “Tibet problem” with topics such as human rights,peace,national self-determination,cultural protection,and the environment,so that it fits more closely with the value system and belief logic of the western public,and constantly attracts public attention;Finally,the western public’s special feelings for Tibet are used to ignite their Shangri-La complex,which strongly shapes the western public’s general cognition of Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism and makes them have emotional views and irrational and unreal love for Tibet.Until today,the cultural cold war about Tibet has not really ended.From time to time,the United States and Dalai clique still use “Tibet issue” to guide international public opinion and restrain and politically suppress China.Therefore,on the basis of fully understanding the dominant Tibetan-related discourse established by the United States,it is very important to think about how to deconstruct the western Tibetan-related discourse and build China’s discursive power on “Tibet problem” while promoting the development of Tibet.