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Felix Greene (21 May 1909 – 15 June 1985) was a British journalist who chronicled several
communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
countries in the 1960s and 1970s.
He was one of the first Western reporters to visit
North Vietnam
North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; vi, Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa), was a socialist state supported by the Soviet Union (USSR) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Southeast Asia that existed f ...
when he travelled there for the ''
San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...
'' in the 1960s. He first visited China for the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
in 1957.
Greene later produced
documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...
s, 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. ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' argued that Greene purposely hid negative information about the extent of starvation in China and called him a "
fellow traveller
The term ''fellow traveller'' (also ''fellow traveler'') identifies a person who is intellectually sympathetic to the ideology of a political organization, and who co-operates in the organization's politics, without being a formal member of that o ...
."
Commander R. W. Herrick of the
U.S. Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...
reviewed ''A Curtain of Ignorance'' in ''
Naval War College Review
The ''Naval War College Review'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by the United States Navy's Naval War College. It covers public policy matters of interest to the maritime services and was established in 1948.
History
Dur ...
'', writing, "There can be no question but that
reeneset 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
In American politics, the China lobby consisted of advocacy groups calling for American support for the Republic of China during the period from the 1930s until US recognition of the People's Republic of China in 1979, and then calling for clo ...
to be provocative reading.
In the 1970s, Greene went to
Dharamsala
Dharamshala (; also spelled Dharamsala) is the winter capital of Himachal Pradesh, India. It serves as administrative headquarters of the Kangra district after being relocated from Kangra, a city located away from Dharamshala, in 1855.
Th ...
to visit the
14th Dalai Lama
The 14th Dalai Lama (spiritual name Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, known as Tenzin Gyatso (Tibetan: བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་, Wylie: ''bsTan-'dzin rgya-mtsho''); né Lhamo Thondup), known as ...
, who recalled that after three days of discussion, Greene's attitude had changed.
Greene lived in the
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
area for 20 years and died in
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
of cancer. He was a cousin of the author
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...
.
Books
* ''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
{{DEFAULTSORT:Greene, Felix
1909 births
1985 deaths
English male journalists
San Francisco Chronicle people
Place of birth missing
Deaths from cancer in Mexico