Peoples Temple Collection; Box 9, Virtual item 27, Q209 - Part 1, Jones reads news (August 30, 1978), tests basic knowledge

Digital Record

Identifier: ms-0183_09.27 Part 1

Staff Only

Digital Object (mixed_materials)

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Dates

Digitized: 08/30/1978

Creator

Jones, Jim (Jones, James Warren) (Person)
Peoples Temple (Organization)

Summary Note

While Jones quotes periodically from the BBC, the Voice of Netherlands and even the Voice of America, the wire service he uses the most is Tass, the Soviet news agency. Some of the perspectives have an even greater pro-Soviet tilt than other newscasts of the period, especially as they relate to coverage of Chinese attempts to become a world power, and the tilt seems to derive from both the wire service reports and Jones’ editorial interpretations. “We say we’re not pro-Soviet or pro-Chinese,” Jones tells his followers early in the broadcast. “We say that the Soviets are fearful of Chinese expansionist aims in Europe. You understand? Chinese expansionist aims in Europe.” After detailing some of the “expansionist” plans – which includes China’s separate treaties with Eastern Bloc nations – Jones quotes a news source as saying, “China is a threat to word peace. She is cleverly and cunningly dividing the Soviet alliance, she has cleverly divided the US alliances in NATO, and is distinctly on the ascendancy as the major world power. And she holds no fear, the fear of nuclear war has no meaning to China whatsoever, said the Voice of Holland. It will mean that the Cold War will get the chilliest ever.” Full summary of the recording available at Alternative Considerations of Jonestown website, along with the tape transcript.

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