Propaganda During The 20th Century And The Onset Of World War

In her essay, “Propaganda: How Not to Be Bamboozled”, author Donna Woolfolk Cross explains the different types of propaganda and how it is used in the United States. The essay was first published in Speaking of Words: A Language Reader (1977). Cross defines propaganda as “simply a means of persuasion and so it can be put to work for good causes as well as bad” (247). In her article she discusses how propaganda works and explains how propaganda is used with thirteen different devices to manipulate people’s thoughts, opinions, and ideas. She uses this essay as an informative piece, giving advice on how not to be manipulated by propaganda.

During World War II propaganda posters where used to influence many peoples value, beliefs and behavior. The use of propaganda had a huge impact on the allied and axis power during this time. Both enemy’s used posters to get support from there government and families back home. Creating these posters encouraged people to save their materials so that most of the weapons could be used during the war. Propaganda it was a smart way to get people to degrade the enemy. Furthermore it was a great financial investment for America and its allies during the war. The poster I will address are what I found to be the most interesting and significant during this time.

Such propaganda included posters asking people to “Wake up America! Civilisation calls every man, woman and child!” A British poster that emphasises the involvement of the total population in the war effort shows different kinds of people engaging in war responsibilities – men at battle, women in the workforce making uniforms, men making weapons – and it asks “Are YOU in this?” This kind of all-embracing propaganda had the aim to brainwash whole nations. The combination of the public’s thirst for information about the war and various governments’ urgent need to mobilise entire civilian populations for the war effort led to a moulding of the public’s thinking through the printed word. In Germany, for example, the military had the right to censor the press and any information that could distress the people was suppressed, while unfavourable news about a situation on the front was passed over silence, delayed or toned down. This was the same in Britain and France. The First World War was total because propaganda and censored news were used as weapons that could reach whole populations and intervene into everyday lives. Even though not all people were physically involved in battle, even children could look at a newspaper or propaganda poster and feel the impact of war through words that evoke fear, sadness, anger or give the urge to join the army.

The United States government has historically used propaganda to entice, encourage, and even shame a person into enlisting in to the uniformed services and/or supporting the war effort. The effective use of propaganda does not only affect the American public’s opinion of a war and its leaders, but also affects their commitment to the war effort. Ineffective use (or lack of) of propaganda can lead to resentment and undermine public trust in its leaders and their ability to lead the nation. This essay will show how the use of media has either supported or hindered the effective use of governmental propaganda in influencing the American public during times of war and why is it sometimes not important to know what is the “whole truth.” The areas that will be covered will be the propaganda used during the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War I-II, the Cold War/Vietnam, and also it’s affect on public opinion.

Following the United States’ entry into World War II and with national governments battling for the hearts and minds of the people, propaganda became an industry of war just as “important as producing bullets and planes.” In the words of Archibald MacLeish, assistant director of the Office of War Information and librarian of Congress, “The principal battleground of the war is not the South Pacific. It is not the Middle East. It is not England, or Norway, or the Russian Steppes. It is American opinion.” Thus, propaganda was the most effective resource in securing the American victory in World War II, as it caused an increase in

World War II is one of many, most horrific and crucial events in world history and one of the most important events in the 20th century. Leonard and John (2007) define propaganda as “notions, facts, or accusations that are spread purposely with the objective of furthering one’s cause or damaging an opponent’s cause”. (7) They used media and propaganda in order to increase support for their side of the war. An immense feeling of patriotism was building up, and the nations used all the resources at their disposal to get their nations ahead of the race regardless of how humiliating and misleading the allegations were. Throughout World War II, propaganda was used to maintain the heat in fights and create unity among the citizens of a nation to achieve a single cause. People receive information on a daily basis since the beginning of the war and the parties of the confrontation. United States of America used propaganda for the creation of massive advertisements in the course of the war that could be interpreted as degrading to rival forces (Cogan, Brian & Tony, 53). Propaganda and information were distributed through numerous sources—radio, films, books and newspapers. The major aim was to impose on people the way of thinking and acting, both consciously and subconsciously (Rhodes 5). Though news sources attempted to be objective, there has always been ways to influence the way in which people interpret information.

When was the last time you were exposed to propaganda? If you think it was more than a day ago, you are probably unaware of what propaganda really is. According to Donna Woolfolk Cross in “Propaganda: How not to be Bamboozled,” propaganda is “simply a means of persuasion” (149). She further notes that we are subjected daily to propaganda in one form or another as advertisers, politicians, and even our friends attempt to persuade us to use their product, vote for them, or adopt their point of view. Propaganda is usually considered in a negative sense. However, when viewing propaganda as mere persuasion, one can readily appreicate that it is

Propaganda, though not the most effective war time strategy, allows people to come together as one to contribute to the success of the country as a whole. However with this idea, there is also the idea that they are not whole truths being told by governments within countries. Propaganda is a form of a lie seen in both North Korea in the book Escape from Camp 14, and in one of the world’s darkest times, World War II; the world allows these lies to surface due to the fact that they do no outwardly hurt another race.

In the essay, “Propaganda: How Not to be Bamboozled,” and “The World of Doublespeak,” both writers discuss and explains the unusual types of propaganda and the misleading types of doublespeak. First, Donna Woolfolk Cross labels the structures and the detailed methods propaganda presented in our day by day life, and how to avoid being tricked. Also Cross thinks that it is important for people in a democratic society to be well knowledgeable about propaganda due to how people get manipulated into simply doing something except thinking. Additionally, Cross explains for us as readers the different sorts of propaganda and how we view the topics in a positive way. She highlights in her essay that propaganda is not continually negative; however, it also used in significant ways. Cross presents in her essay that there are thirteen different types of

Lorgulescu, A. (2014).The paradigm of propaganda.International letters of social and human sciences. Volume 28.Retrieved from www.scripress.com/ILSHS.28.80

War became no longer a battle of men, tanks, and weapons, but also a war of images, movies and words between countries. Propaganda was widespread in how it was used and similarly, where it was used. Of course, there is not a concrete yes or no answer about if propaganda changed the war’s outcome, that is forever unknown. However, what is clear is the profound influence propaganda had during the war. Propaganda during the Great War was created to serve as a boost of morale, increase recruitment, increase involvement on the home front, sway neutral countries, and to expose the enemy. While both sides had their own methods of implementing propaganda, the one resounding similarity was that both sides used deceit, censorship, and loose facts to try and sway the outcome in their favor. In turn, propaganda was extremely influential and effective throughout the Great War and its influence, both good and bad, is still prevalent in the creation of propaganda in the world

For years people have used propaganda to sway the public into joining their side, and to hate the opposing argument and the people of said argument. During the Cold War the United States and Russia were both trying to win the hearts of their respective nations while fighting each other not physically of course but with tactics. To have a chance at winning one had to have the unconditional support of its people. Propaganda is an excellent way to spread a fear. This would make people turn a political ideology into an evil entity. In this deconstruction of the propaganda of the Cold War we’ll discuss the seven types of propaganda, and of those seven, which were used. The methods used to speak to the US public have changed significantly since then. Also the message being conveyed to the nation is completely different as well. Cold War propaganda has inspired movies, art, and many other forms of media that are still being produced to this day.

A different kind of propaganda machine emerged in the United States during World War II. As opposed to the state controlled monopolies of media producing propaganda in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, the United States’ propaganda machine was mixed between government and free market propaganda. The United States’ government propaganda efforts followed a policy “that it must always retain the essence of truth in what it said” (Rhodes 144), differing from the intentional misleading of Nazi and Soviet propaganda. The poster, though influential, was not the preferred theme of propaganda by the Americans because it was not always as effective as other forms of propaganda, such as the radio and newspapers (Rhodes 150). Nevertheless, posters were used to sway thought by a number of government agencies and corporations, and they encouraged an increase in factory production for wartime economic output, help to defeat the enemy in combat, and overall patriotism as a way to motivate the people (Rhodes 150). In the United States, posters were often flourished with bright colors to catch the viewers’ eyes; therefore, colors like bright blue, yellow, or American red, white, and blue often created the background or the message written on the poster (Little). Once again, the use of propaganda to shape thought was necessary in the United States to both keep the spirits up of the people and to get the people to be opposed to the enemy while supporting the domestic government; thus, the production of posters that encouraged behavior in this way.

The fact that wars give rise to intensive propaganda campaigns has made many people suppose that propaganda is something new. The truth is, it is not. The battle with persuasion for power and men’s minds is as old as human history (Casey, 1994d)

Lorgulescu, A. (2014).The paradigm of propaganda.International letters of social and human sciences. Volume 28.Retrieved from www.scripress.com/ILSHS.28.80