Wilfred Burchett
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Wilfred Graham Burchett (September 16, 1911, Melbourne, Australia — September 27, 1983, Sofia, Bulgaria) was a war correspondent known for his coverage sympathetic to communism.
He was the first Westerner to cover the aftermath of the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima with his accounts reported by the London Daily Express newspaper. His article that appeared in the Daily Express on September 5, 1945, entitled, "The Atomic Plague", was the first public report to mention the effects of radiation and nuclear fallout.
After World War II, he spoke out against atomic weapons and against banning the Communist Party.
He covered the Korean War from the point of view of the communist north. He had a Chinese press credential and reported details of alleged atrocities by United Nations forces in Korea.
The U.S. government claimed that U.S. General William F. Dean had been killed by the North Koreans. In fact, Dean was a prisoner of war. The U.S. sought to use Dean's death as leverage in negotiations, but Burchett organized photos of Dean to be taken, thus thwarting the U.S. position.
Burchett had access to the Chinese POW Command in Korea that held U.N. prisoners, but he did not participate in assisting the prisoners. In 1955 the Australian government revoked his passport because of his activities in Korea. Burchett lived primarily in Paris in the years that followed.
He authored over twenty books. Burchett's autobiography, At The Barricades, was published in 1981. He died of cancer in 1983 in Sofia, Bulgaria at age 72.
A biographical film about Burchett was produced by Academy Award-nominated, documentary film-maker David Bradbury entitled Public Enemy Number One.