thanks, guys, for continuing the measured, intelligent tone of your discourse. i need add no more. you prove my point.

maracas and dioxin - the toxic twins.

By all means let's get to basics.

1. "Wilfred Burchett was denied access to his native Australia as a direct result of his reporting 'from the other side'. True but he was secret member of the ACP until the Russians came into WWII and were suddenly allies: until that time, the Communist Party worked against the duly elected government of this country.

2. The first journalist into Hiroshima against the wishes of the allies resulted in an accurate record of the devastation and carnage wreaked on the civilian population. - Yes and it axiomatic that you are against the use of the bomb. You probably believe like many that the object in bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki was to teach the Russians a lesson. If that is the case, then you have uncritically swallowed Soviet disinformation. I'll wager my study of World War II in which the key factor was the projected casualties involved in taking the Japanese home islands, was of no interest to you because after all they were only Americans and somewhere between 350,000 and half a million of little consequence.

3. By the time he was reporting in Vietnam, he was a fully recruited KGB agent, taking Russian gold and with apartments in two East European capitals. In that capacity, why should he have been allowed to keep his Australian passport? His values were grounded in the triumph of Soviet communism. The coalition government was vengeful: the Whitlam government was permeated by fellow travelers among whom Burchett was a hero.

4. Your ignorance of the validity of the Soviet archives is a pathetic defence. While it is true that Soviet claims, especially economic were regarded as propaganda, the actual documentation itself was verified by CPSU officials after the Party was dissolved in Russia. They stand as bona fide historical documents, attested to by party officials.

More to follow.

Pericles, you continue to show your ignorance and right wing bias, selectively quoting suspect material as fact. You accept O'Connors opinions as fact because he wrote his opinions resulting from his research on a Fulbright Scholarship.

I have read material from a professor at Yale:
Ben Kiernan, an Australian,Together with other academics and Journalists, investigated Burchett's alleged KGB involvement completely discounted the allegations....An extract from the 3rd November 2005 Media Report on Radio National below:

Quote
Stephen Crittenden:(to George Burchett) What responsibility did you feel as an editor this time around, as well as a son, in I guess, testing some of the more controversial issues around your father’s story? The germ warfare story in Korea for example, charges that he was involved in interrogating prisoners who’d obviously been tortured?

George Burchett: I’ve read almost every scrap that’s been written on the subject, including a book that was put together by Ben Kiernan, who’s a Professor History at Yale, it’s not very well known here in Australia. It was written by about 15 academics and journalists who really scrutinised Wilfred’s career, and gave him an absolutely clean slate.

Stephen Crittenden: What does an absolutely clean slate mean?

George Burchett: Meaning that all the stuff about KGB and brainwashing is rubbish. Now about what opinions he expressed, that’s a separate issue, but as far as I’m concerned truth is sacred, opinions are free, and I don’t think anyone ever accused Wilfred of lying or of not telling the truth.

Stephen Crittenden: What about the claim that he was a KGB agent?

George Burchett: Well that’s based on the evidence of a KGB pimp who was paid 100-quid by the police to shut up.

Unquote.

Wilfred Burchett had the correct response for slanderers like You.
Say it in Print and he will sue you. But you are pretty safe now, he is deceased. He requested a proper investigation himself but it never happened. Why ? because the allegations were false.
Read the full Media Report interview and you might correct some of your slanderous assertions

Crawl back into your hole.

I see the apologists are out and about,

Try this for size http://www.brookesnews.com/041201burchett.html

here are extracts (wordcounter!)

"during the Korean war Burchett actively participated in the interrogation of Australian, US and UK POWs by North Korean 'interrogators' who tried to force them into falsely confessing to war crime.

One appalling incident was fully described during the Jack Kane libel trial.

Burchett had decided to sue Kane for an article accusing him of being a Soviet agent.

Kane's defence put Brigadier Phillip Greville, an Australian, on the stand. Greville had been captured and tortured by North Koreans. While on the stand Greville emphatically stated that Burchett was a traitor. This accusation was supported by other Australian, US and UK ex-POWs who had suffered because of Burchett's treason. One ex-POW who had testified for the defense became so emotional that he literally grabbed Burchett's throat, kneeing him in the chest as he dragged him to the ground before being pulled off him. The testimony of these men was utterly damning.

The Jury found in favour of Kane and he was awarded costs against Burchett.

Nevertheless, Burchett had the gall to claim afterwards that he had been vindicated by the trial! A thoroughly dishonest assertion that his supporters laboured to give credence to.

That Burchett was a long-time Soviet agent was revealed by Yuri Krotkov, a KGB defector.

Krotkov stated that Burchett had supplied information to the KGB and that he also worked for Hanoi and Beijing

Krotkov's testimony was confirmed in part by Bui Cong Tuong and Ming Trung, North Vietnamese defectors, "

Read the full article.

I think I know who “Dioxin” is. He has just received a pasting on another thread.

Lies, deflections and deceit are the stock in trade of the “dioxins”/ Burchetts of the world.

I am one who has read the excellent analogies of George Orwell to the insidious and selfish practices of the Communist / Marxist sympathizers.

“1984” shows where Orwell thought communism was going.

Solzenitzen’s writings confirmed it.

Burchett was a loathsome traitor. The world is better off with him dead.

Same for his apologists.

Ah, Perikles... “more to follow”; I can’t wait! Especially with more blinding wit like “toxic twins”! It's amusing how you guys always think anyone who disagrees with you is the victim of propaganda and disinformation. I guess this is because the Americans never use propaganda and disinformation. Gosh, thanks for putting us straight there.
It’s also great how you tell me what I think about everything. It’s “axiomatic...”, it’s “of no interest to [me]...” You’re wrong on both counts, of course. But you clearly state that for you, hundreds of thousands of Japanese deaths are okay as an alternative to American deaths, so you have exposed yourself as a disgraceful racist. Hardly surprising. And Col thinks he knows who I am. Good luck!
History 101 textbooks say you need EVIDENCE to make historical statements - “secret member of the ACP”; evidence? - “fully recruited KGB agent”; evidence? Same old rhetoric you guys have trotted out for decades.
And since when is “working against the duly elected government of the country” a hanging offence? So John Howard's a traitor for “working against” Hawke and Keating? You are ridiculous.
As for the Soviet archives – well of course party officials attested to them when it was convenient. They’re not stupid, you know. I love your faith in the Russian archives when it suits your purposes. But you still don’t seem able to explain why the Russians would send such messages to China then.
As for you, Col, even Robert Manne, one of Burchett’s harshest critics, acknowledges that the trial found that Burchett had been defamed. Costs went against him because the comments were made under the coward’s defence of parliamentary privilege. You guys just don’t care about the facts. It isn’t even worth discussing Krotkov – that one was buried years ago in any intelligent circles.
Maracas, as you’re interested in history rather than hearsay, rigorous work on Burchett was done by Tom Heenan, ten years of research published last year. Read with the Memoirs, his book gives a very full picture of Wilfred.

Those more familiar with Col Rouge's posts to other Online Opinion forums might have good reason to believe that his seemingly sanctimonious self-righteous an blood-curdling denunciations of anyone he chooses to label 'Communist' may have a lot more to do with the fact theat he considers them a threat to his ability to continue to enrich himself at the expense of others than any innate sense of patriotism.

To me, in 2007, 'traitor' is a term more applicible to those who are profiting by cheaply exporting Australia's mineral wealth and jobs, and flogging Australian real estate and citizenship overseas.

Let's not forget the rotten deal that John Howard entered into with the 'Communist' Chinese Government to export our gas at fixed bargain basement prices for 25 years.

Let's also hope that the planned 'free trade' agreement with 'Communist' China ends up the waste paper bin.