For broadcast on CBS Radio Network stations 
April 17-18, 1999:


Propaganda or profiteering?


The Stamp Collecting Report, I'm Lloyd de Vries


Yugoslavia last week issued a set of postage stamps 
commemorating Serb resistance to the NATO airstrikes.  The 
stamp designs feature the "target badges" -- black and 
white concentric circles -- worn by anti-NATO protesters 
in Belgrade.  Serbian state television says two additional 
series of stamps are being prepared.


At first, you may be outraged that Yugoslavia would have 
the nerve to put such propaganda on stamps.


That was the reaction to Iraq's anti-US stamps several 
years ago, and, twenty-five years ago, North Vietnam's war 
protest stamps.


On the other hand, isn't that part of what stamps are for?  
To promote causes and subjects near and dear to the hearts 
of the people of the issuing countries?


During World War Two, the U-S issued a number of propaganda 
stamps, one simply declaring "Win the War."


Is a country issuing stamps for its own causes -- whether 
you like them or not -- worse than one honoring a pop 
celebrity who's never heard of that country?

And that's stamp collecting this week.  

I'm Lloyd de Vries, CBS News. 

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