Vlanton, Elias, with Zak Mettger.
Who Killed George Polk? The Press Covers Up a Death in the Family.
Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996. 322 pages.  $27.95.

Nearly fifty years after the brutal murder of CBS foreign correspondent George Polk, the key question remains unanswered of this still unsolved crime.  Who killed Polk?  In their painstakingly detailed account of Polk's mysterious death in Salonika, Greece, in 1948, Vlanton and Mettger draw on their extensive expertise of Greek-American relations to provide a fascinating account of the events surrounding Polk's murder and the less-than-thorough investigation by Greek authorities that followed.

Yet Vlanton's and Mettger's study is more than an indictment of the Greek judicial system.  In many respects, it is an indictment of the American media that was unwilling, largely for political reasons, to probe more thoroughly into Polk's murder.  The book is particularly critical of the Lippmann Committee, named after its chairman, the renowned journalist Walter Lippmann, which was created ostensibly to oversee the investigation of the murder and to issue a final report.  However, according to the authors, the committee was more committed to supporting the Truman administration's policy of fighting communism in Greece than it was to scrutinizing the investigation.  Not surprisingly, the committee did little to highlight the contradictory evidence supplied by the prosecution.

Had the Lippmann Committee conducted its job properly, it would have discovered, as Vlanton and Mettger have, that it is possible Polk was not murdered by renegade communists as many Greek officials and American policy-makers claimed.  And he may not have been killed by the American-supported Greek government, which was becoming increasingly concerned about the vitriolic attacks that Polk and other American journalists were making against their regime.  According to the authors, it is more likely that Polk was murdered by a group of thugs involved in a drug smuggling operation, which the well-known investigative journalist was trying to uncover.

The authors' analysis of the various theories surrounding Polk's murder is cogent and compelling.  Yet, despite poking enormous holes in the explanations offered by others, the authors devote only a few pages to advancing their own.  Interesting as their theory is, more evidence is needed to make it convincing.

Still, the strength of this book is not found in the authors' coverage of the murder investigation but in their analysis of government-media relations during the late 1940s.  Indeed, underlying much of Vlanton's and Mettger's narrative is their concern about the willingness of the media to acquiesce to direct and indirect pressure from policy-makers to support American foreign policy initiatives.  Of even greater concern to them, however, is the propensity of journalists from mainstream media organizations to engage in self-censorship, a trend that became all too apparent during the invasion of Grenada and the Gulf war.

This well-written and thoroughly documented book will be of interest to historians searching for a more informed understanding of Polk's murder as well as the nature of Greek-American relations during the early stages of the Cold War.  It also will appeal to mass communication theorists concerned with how policy-makers and media organizations often cooperate to create images for public consumption.  The book contains a useful bibliography and extensive references to guide future studies on this and related topics.

Donald E. Abelson
University of Western Ontario