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This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ Framing war, sport and politics the soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the Moscow Olympics Deal, Christopher Geoffrey Awarding institution: King's College London The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 02. Oct. 2021 KING’S COLLEGE LONDON DEPARTMENT OF WAR STUDIES FRAMING WAR, SPORT AND POLITICS: THE SOVIET INVASION OF AFGHANISTAN AND THE MOSCOW OLYMPICS BY CHRISTOPHER G. DEAL Thesis for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY June 2014 ABSTRACT This thesis explores the reporting of the Soviet international broadcaster Radio Moscow, and how it represented to listeners worldwide the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the subsequent US-led boycott campaign against the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games. In doing so, it builds on literature that has examined Cold War radio broadcasting, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the politics surrounding the Moscow Olympic Games. Specifically, this thesis sheds new light on the outputs of Soviet broadcasting, and on the ways the Soviet Union tried to justify their actions and condemn the actions of the US to different audiences worldwide. Using the BBC Monitoring Service material archived at Imperial War Museums, Duxford, and applying the concept of frame analysis, this thesis concentrates on six key moments after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the build-up to the Moscow Olympics. It provides not only examples of how Radio Moscow reported specific events, but how the reporting evolved over time. In addition, the use of transcripts from broadcasts to multiple target audiences provides evidence of how Soviet broadcasting was adapted to appeal to different listeners worldwide, allowing for a comparison of reporting between regions, as well as over time, and to build understanding of how the Soviet Union viewed the world in 1980. The thesis shows that Radio Moscow adapted its broadcasting to appeal to different audiences, and it highlights key examples of how this was achieved. The case studies demonstrate a series of particularly prominent frames used by Radio Moscow, to both suggest and create divisions between groups and as a way of attempting to reinforce previous Soviet claims about the world. The study also examines how these were localised to appeal to the targeted audience, for example focusing on religion in broadcasts to the Middle East and specific world leaders in broadcasts to North America and Europe. The thesis concludes by discussing what this radio material demonstrates of the Soviet view of the world. In doing this, the thesis also highlights the usefulness of the BBC Monitoring Service as a tool for researchers looking to further explore radio broadcasting and alternative state-to-state diplomacy in detail. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................. 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................................................... 6 ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................................................................................... 7 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 9 1.1 BACKGROUND .................................................................................................................................. 10 1.2 AIMS OF THE THESIS .......................................................................................................................... 13 1.3 THESIS STRUCTURE ............................................................................................................................ 14 CHAPTER 2 HISTORICAL CONTEXT ....................................................................................................16 2.1 SHORTWAVE RADIO BROADCASTING AND THE COLD WAR ........................................................................ 16 2.2 COLD WAR RADIO ............................................................................................................................ 18 2.3 THE COLD WAR AND THE SOVIET INVASION OF AFGHANISTAN ................................................................... 24 2.4 THE 1980 OLYMPIC BOYCOTT CAMPAIGN ............................................................................................. 30 CHAPTER 3 METHODS AND CONCEPTS ............................................................................................35 3.1 THE BBC MONITORING SERVICE ARCHIVE ............................................................................................. 36 3.2 FRAME ANALYSIS ............................................................................................................................... 41 3.2.1 Why Frame Analysis? ......................................................................................................... 42 3.2.2 Theories of Framing – the Broadcaster Perspective ........................................................... 43 3.2.3 Theories of Framing – the Receiver Perspective ................................................................. 45 3.2.4 Priming and Agenda Setting ............................................................................................... 46 3.2.5 Frame Analysis – Definition ................................................................................................ 48 3.3 FRAME ANALYSIS AND THE BBC MONITORING SERVICE ............................................................................ 49 3.4 OTHER SOURCES ............................................................................................................................... 52 3.5 TIME FRAMES .................................................................................................................................. 53 3.6 SUMMARY ....................................................................................................................................... 56 CHAPTER 4 REPORTING THE SOVIET INVASION OF AFGHANISTAN AND EXPLAINING AWAY THE WORLD REACTION ...............................................................................................................................59 4.1 THE INVASION AND THE RESPONSE ........................................................................................................ 59 3 4.2 FRAMING THE INVASION ..................................................................................................................... 61 4.2.1 The Death of Hafizullah Amin ............................................................................................. 61 4.2.2 Reporting the Reaction ....................................................................................................... 65 4.3 THE SPEECH ..................................................................................................................................... 70 4.3.1 SALT-2 and Grain ................................................................................................................ 70 4.3.2 Arming Pakistan, threatening the Olympics? ..................................................................... 78 4.3.3 Domestic Discontent, International Aggression, and the United Nations .......................... 82 4.4 FRAMES USED TO REPORT THE INITIAL EXCHANGES ................................................................................... 85 CHAPTER 5 BOYCOTT RUMOURS BECOME REALITY: HOW SOVIET RADIO FRAMED THE STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS ...........................................................................................................................88 5.1 THE UNITED NATIONS RESOLUTION AND THE ISLAMIC CONFERENCE OF FOREIGN MINISTERS ........................... 89 5.2 THE STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS – A DISASTER FOR CARTER? ............................................................... 94 5.3 SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................................... 113 CHAPTER 6 MUHAMMAD ALI, CYRUS VANCE, THE BOYCOTT CAMPAIGN AND KABUL .................