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词条 George Polk
释义

  1. World War II

  2. Greek Civil War

  3. Criticism

  4. U.S. Postal stamp

  5. References

  6. Related articles and links

  7. External links

{{Infobox person
| name = George Polk
| image= Lt. George W. Polk, USNR, c1943.jpg
| caption = George Polk, circa 1943
| birthname = George W. Polk
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1913|10|17|df=y}}
| birth_place = Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.
| death_date = ca. {{death date and age |df=y|1948|05|15|1913|10|17}}
| death_place = Greece
| education =
| occupation = Journalist
| alias =
| title =
| family =
| spouse = Rea Coccins
| children =
| relatives =
| ethnicity =
| religion =
| salary =
| networth =
| credits = CBS
| agent =
| URL =
}}

George Polk (17 October 1913 – May 1948) was an American journalist for CBS who was murdered during the Greek Civil War, in 1948.

World War II

During World War II, Polk enlisted with a Naval Construction Battalion. After the invasion of Guadalcanal, the first element of Construction Unit Base 1 (CUB-1), an advance fuel and supply base, landed on 16 August 1942. This element was commanded by Ensign George W. Polk, USNR, and consisted of five officers and 118 enlisted personnel, all navy petty officers of aviation support ratings. CUB-1 later received a Presidential Unit Citation for its service.[1] Polk also performed duty as a "volunteer" dive bomber and reconnaissance pilot. He was wounded, suffered from malaria and was hospitalized for almost a year.[2]

Greek Civil War

Polk disappeared in Greece and was found dead a few days later on Sunday 16 May 1948, shot at point-blank range in the back of the head, and with hands and feet tied. Polk had been covering the civil war in Greece between the right wing government and communists and had been critical of both sides. He had also alleged that a few officials in the Greek government had embezzled $250,000 in foreign aid ($2.5 million in 2016 dollars) from the Truman Administration, a charge that was never proved. Polk had been particularly outspoken in his criticism of the Truman government's unqualified support for the rightist authoritarian regime in Greece.

In the late 1970s, the story emerged as to how AMAG (American Mission for Aid to Greece) authorities helped the Greek police frame two young communists for his death. {{Citation needed|date=May 2008}} A communist journalist, Gregorios Staktopoulos, was tried and convicted of helping Vaggelis Vasvanas and Adam Mouzenidis, members of the illegal communist army, commit the murder. The communist guerilla radio station claimed that Adam Mouzenidis was already dead, having been killed in an aerial bombing by the Hellenic Air Force, when Polk was murdered. Staktopoulos himself maintained that the confession that led to his conviction was obtained through torture. In fact, it was later revealed that Adam Mouzenidis had arrived at Salonica, where he was allegedly introduced to Polk, two days after Polk's murder, and Vasvanas was not in Greece at the time. {{Citation needed|date=May 2008}} An investigation by James G. M. Kellis (also known as Killis), a former OSS officer with knowledge of Greek political circles and power brokers, concluded that Greek communist circles lacked the power and influence to commit the murder and cover it up. Kellis worked on contract for the Wall Street law firm of William 'Wild Bill' Donovan, the former head of OSS, who was hired by journalist Walter Lippman to investigate the case. Following Kellis' conclusion that it was more likely Polk had been murdered by right-wing groups within or affiliated to the Greek government, the investigation was halted and Kellis recalled to Washington. At the time the US government was financially supporting the Greek government to prevent a communist take-over of the country. The British government had supported the Greek government throughout 1941–1945, but this became a financial impossibility after the war.

Polk had married Rea Coccins (also known as Rhea Kokkonis), a Greek national and ex-stewardess, seven months prior to his death. They had no children. After being allegedly harassed and threatened by the Greek government, Rea fled to the U.S. where she was debriefed by Donovan's law firm. She became friendly with Barbara Colby, the wife of William Colby, a former OSS officer attached to Donovan's firm, who later would become director of the CIA.

Reporters in New York city started a fundraising project to send an independent investigation committee to Greece, and from this effort the newsmen's commission was formed. Members included Ernest Hemingway, William Polk (George Polk's brother), William A. Price (Polk's cousin) and Homer Bigart. This was soon however eclipsed in media coverage by the Lippman Committee, consisting mostly of Washington journalists with Walter Lippman as chairman and James Reston of The New York Times.

Within months of his death, a group of American journalists created the George Polk Awards for outstanding radio or television journalism. These awards were modeled after the Pulitzer Prize which is awarded for outstanding print journalism in newspapers.

Criticism

In February 2007, Polk's "status as a symbol of journalistic integrity" was challenged by historian Richard Frank, who concluded that Polk made false claims about his service record in World War II. Frank examined the claim, repeated by Edward R. Murrow, that Polk had commanded a unit of 119 Marines on Guadacanal, flew a fighter plane that shot down 11 Japanese aircraft and won a Purple Heart. He concluded that it is not consistent with the available documentation. Frank said that "the inescapable conclusion is that George Polk did not simply verbally recount false tales of his wartime exploits to his family and to his journalist colleagues, he actually forged documents to buttress his stories."

[3]

George Polk's brother, William, replied to this attack, which he called slanderous, in a letter to the Guardian Monday March 19, 2007.[4] He pointed out that Frank did not discuss a single article Polk ever wrote and that his military record is amply substantiated in a range of military documents, including a picture of Polk being decorated by Vice-Admiral John McCain on November 30, 1943, on behalf of the "Airplane Cruiser Detachment for their heroic role during the Battle for the Solomons." [5]

In April 2007, Frank responded to William Polk's letters and to what he considered a baffling silence from journalists that greeted his charges.[6]

U.S. Postal stamp

On October 5, 2007, the United States Postal Service announced that it would honor five journalists of the 20th century times with first-class rate postage stamps, to be issued on Tuesday, April 22, 2008: Martha Gellhorn, John Hersey, George Polk, Rubén Salazar, and Eric Sevareid.[7] Postmaster General Jack Potter announced the stamp series at the Associated Press Managing Editors Meeting in Washington.

Polk was related to US Presidents James Knox Polk and Andrew Jackson.

George Polk grew up in Fort Worth, Texas. He was a 1938 graduate of the University of Alaska.

References

1. ^U.S. Navy All Hands magazine April 1944, p. 32. and TIME OF THE ACES: Marine Pilots in the Solomons
2. ^{{cite web|url=http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/35737 |title=Richard B. Frank : Celebrated Journalist George Polk's Real WW II Record |publisher=Historynewsnetwork.org |date= |accessdate=2015-03-04}}
3. ^George Polk's Real World War II Record: The fictional career of a famous newsman. Richard B. Frank, Weekly Standard, Feb 16, 2007
4. ^{{cite web|author=19.52 EDT |url=http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,,2036930,00.html |title=Letters | Media | The Guardian |publisher=Media.guardian.co.uk |date=2007-03-19 |accessdate=2015-03-04}}
5. ^A more detailed reply can be found at http://www.williampolk.com/pdf/2007/open%20letter%20to%20winners%20of%20the%20geo%20polk.pdf
6. ^{{cite web|url=http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/013/506hdoal.asp |title=The Unanswered Case Against George Polk |publisher=The Weekly Standard |date=2007-04-13 |accessdate=2015-03-04}}
7. ^{{cite news|url=http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hoKyKa1Uf3XnvACJMu-M5Rt99DCgD8S3ANR00 |title=Stamps Honor Distinguished Journalists |accessdate=October 18, 2007 |agency=Associated Press |year=2007 |author=The Associated Press |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071030010438/http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hoKyKa1Uf3XnvACJMu-M5Rt99DCgD8S3ANR00 |archivedate=October 30, 2007 }}
* Prados, John (2003). Last Crusader: The Secret Wars Of CIA Director William Colby. Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-512847-8}}.

  • Bernhard, Nancy E (1999). U.S. Television News and Cold War Propaganda, 1947-1960. Cambridge University Press.
  • Keeley, Edmund (1989). The Salonika Bay Murder: Cold War Politics and the Polk Affair. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.
  • Marton, Kati (1990). The Polk Conspiracy: Murder and Cover-Up in the Case of CBS News Correspondent George Polk. Farrar Straus and Giroux, New York.
  • Unger, Sanford (1990). "The Case of the Inconvenient Correspondent", Columbia Journalism Review 29 (November/December 1990).
  • Vlanton, Elias, and Zak Mettger (1996). Who Killed George Polk? The Press Covers Up a Death in the Family. Temple University Press, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Related articles and links

  • George Polk Awards
  • Cold War
  • Greece
  • William Joseph Donovan
  • Walter Lippman
  • Frank Polk

External links

  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20071002131032/http://seattle.indymedia.org/en/2004/04/239683.shtml Seattle.indymedia.org] at seattle.indymedia.org
  • Who Killed George Polk? at www.vlanton.com
  • http://www.routledge-ny.com/radio/polk.pdf
  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20050909213631/http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03%2F04%2F07%2F040212 Democracy Now! | The Story of George Polk] at www.democracynow.org
  • https://web.archive.org/web/20050208091654/http://dlib.nyu.edu:8083/tamwagead/servlet/SaxonServlet?source=%2Fnewsmens.xml&style=%2Fsaxon01t2002.xsl&part=body
  • https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281592670_Criminologistic_Analysis_of_The_Assassination_of_George_Washington_Polk
  • https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/159369930 George Washington Polk at Find a Grave
  • George Polk case National Security Archive
  • George Polk
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16 : 1913 births|1948 deaths|American male journalists|CBS News people|Journalists killed while covering military conflicts|Deaths by firearm in Greece|People from Fort Worth, Texas|People murdered in Greece|American people murdered abroad|Murdered American journalists|20th-century American non-fiction writers|Journalists from Texas|20th-century American male writers|1940s murders in Greece|1948 crimes in Greece|1948 murders in Europe

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