Alan Winnington

rdf:langString Alan Winnington

rdf:langString Alan Winnington

rdf:langString Alan Winnington

rdf:langString London, England

rdf:langString Cremated ashes were scattered across Karl Marx's grave in Highgate Cemetery

rdf:langString right

rdf:langString Alan Winnington

rdf:langString Acting roles within numerous East German movies.

rdf:langString Author of children's books and crime fiction.

rdf:langString Exposing war crimes during the Korean War.

rdf:langString Travelogue of Tibet

rdf:langString First European to live among the Norsu and return alive.

rdf:langString British

rdf:langString Breakfast With Mao,

rdf:langString I Saw Truth in Korea

rdf:langString Slaves of the Cool Mountains,

rdf:langString Journalist, anthropologist, war correspondent, author of children's fiction and crime thrillers, film actor, butcher shop assistant, salesman, coin counterfeiter

rdf:langString I asked every prisoner I met: "Why are you fighting in Korea?" Not one could give a clear answer. Most said: "I don't know." Some said: "It's something to do with the United Nations, they told us." A few had heard of Rhee. None knew of Kim Ir Sen. With one or two exceptions, Privates, nearly all teen-agers, said they had joined the army to "see the world", "get out of the draft" or "save some money".

rdf:langString I saw the Truth in Korea , page 8 - Interviews with American POWs

rdf:langString They don't know why they're fighting

rdf:langString Alan Winnington (16 March 1910 – 26 November 1983) was a British journalist, war correspondent, and Communist activist most famous for his coverage of the Korean War and the Chinese revolution. He is most well-known as the author of I Saw Truth in Korea (1950), an anti-war pamphlet containing photographic evidence of the mass graves of civilians executed by the South Korean police. The publishing of this leaflet led to the British government debating whether to have Winnington tried for treason, a charge which carried the death penalty, though it was decided instead to make him stateless by refusing to renew his passport. As a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and an Asian correspondent for the Daily Worker, Winnington travelled to China and witnessed the defeat of the KMT by the Chinese Communist Party. During his life in China he became closely acquainted with many leading Chinese communist leaders including Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Liu Shaoqi, and Zhu De. During the Korean War he was one of only two English-speaking journalists to cover the war from the North's perspective, and was active in securing the fair treatment of British and American POWs captured by the Chinese and North Koreans. However, once the British government heard he had contacted British POWs, and angered by his publication of warcrimes committed by the South Korean and American forces, it banished him from the UK and left him to live as a stateless exile. Winnington then travelled to Norsu territory in Sichuan to document the abolition of slavery by the Chinese Communist Party, becoming the first European to live within a Norsu community and return alive. He also lived among the Wa people and interviewed their shamans and headhunters, publishing his findings in Slaves of the Cool Mountains (1959). Winnington also travelled to Tibet where he was an honoured guest of both the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama, experiences which he recorded in the travelog, Tibet (1957). His positive reputation and support from both the Chinese Communist Party and the Tibetan Buddhist officials placed Winnington in a position to obtain a greater insight into Tibetan life in the 1950s than any other journalist. After becoming disillusioned with Chinese politics and suffering constant harassment, he left China in 1960 with the help of Harry Pollitt and moved to East Germany. He spent the remainder of his life in East Germany, working as an author of crime-fiction, children's books, and starring as a movie actor in various films. His autobiography Breakfast With Mao (1986) was published posthumously.