The Propaganda Warriors: America's Crusade Against Nazi Germany

by Clayton D. Laurie

Overview

Legendary "Wild Bill" Donovan, CIA directors Allen Dulles and William Casey, journalists Stewart Alsop and James Reston, diplomat John McCloy, philanthropist Paul Mellon, playwright Robert Sherwood, theatrical great John Houseman, and civil rights leader Ralph Bunche were among the thousands of people who led or participated in America's massive propaganda campaign against Nazi Germany. In The Propaganda Warriors Clayton Laurie fully unveils for the first time this unprecedented, ambitious, and embattled wartime enterprise.

Laurie details the creation, evolution, and field operations of the overseas branch of the Office of War Information (OWI); the Morale Operations Branch of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS); and the Army-dominated Psychological Warfare units (PWB and PWD) serving the Allied forces in Europe. These agencies, Laurie shows, were as much at war with each other as with the Third Reich, largely due to FDR's failure to establish an official propaganda policy or to enunciate precise war and postwar aims. Within this vacuum, each agency eagerly developed its own distinct form of propaganda.

The propagandists at OWI and OSS (forerunner of the CIA) were especially at odds with each other. The OSS was led by Machiavellian "realists," conservatives, and Republicans who wanted American values to dominate the international order and believed that any means—including the Nazi's own subversive "black" propaganda—justified that end. By contrast, the OWI was led by liberals, New Dealers, and those in the media and arts who adhered to Wilsonian ideals and believed that the truth about America, as they perceived it, would win out through the sheer power of its message. They detested the Nazi regime every bit as much as their OSS counterparts but refused to emulate Nazi tactics.

Despite these conflicts, American propaganda did accelerate the drive toward victory, thanks to the emergence of the PWB and PWD, which after 1943 controlled the production of American propaganda against Germany, bending ideological agendas to serve the military's purely tactical objectives. But, as Laurie makes clear, all three agencies played a vital role in this crucial effort, even as their conflicts foreshadowed future ideological disputes during the Cold War.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780700607655
Publisher:	University Press of Kansas
Publication date:	04/30/1996
Series:	Modern War Studies
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.94(d)

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

Introduction

1. American Perceptions of Nazi Propaganda, 1933-1941

2. The American Private Sector Mobilizes, 1938-1941

3. The Federal Government Defines a Propaganda Role, 1939-1941

4. Taking the Offensive: The COI, 1941

5. The Self-destruction of COI, 1941-1942

6. The Menagerie of the Old Guard of the New Deal: The OWI Overseas Branch

7. The Bargain Basement of the Military: The OSS MO Branch

8. Controlling a Rear Echelon Insanity: The U.S. Army and Psychological Warfare, 1941-1943

9. The Final Ideological Clash, 1944

10. The OSS Morale Operations Branch in Action, 1943-1945

11. White Propaganda Operations, 1942-1945

Conclusion

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

Editorial Reviews

"Laurie’s careful exploitation of manuscript and archival sources has allowed him to provide an objective and powerful accounting of the U.S. propaganda campaign."—Journal of Military History

"Laurie’s detailed and unbiased analysis makes Propaganda Warriors an important contribution to the literature available in U.S. propaganda efforts during this century."—National Security Studies Quarterly

"Laurie’s book provides insight into the nature of a powerful weapon of conventional and unconventional warfare."—Special Warfare

"This is a compelling account of the American effort to shape an effective propaganda message during World War II."—American Historical Review

"This extremely good—and important—book makes a significant contribution to our understanding not only of propaganda in the Second World War but also, in a wider sense, of the evolution of democratic propaganda practice in the twentieth century."—War in History

"Laurie has done a fine job of elucidating the figures and controversies involved with this great war effort."—Library Journal

"Whatever one’s opinion of propaganda and its effectiveness, the history of the United States initial foray into this aspect of warfare makes interesting reading."—Paper Wars

"A fascinating story of an old American dilemma—ideals versus self-interest. Propaganda can be truthful, or it can lie to help win a war. The debate Laurie unveils was not resolved during World War II, merely postponed, as the United States went into the Cold War and Vietnam. Essential to an understanding of America’s use of propaganda."—Warren F. Kimball, author of The Juggler: Franklin Roosevelt as Wartime Statesman

"An excellent and impressive work that presents a mass of material on a great World War II intellectual and moral struggle over fighting the Nazis by telling the truth, some of it, none of it, or outright lies."—Thomas F. Troy, author of Donovan and the CIA and Wild Bill and Intrepid: Donovan, Intrepid, and the Origins of CIA.

"A lively and revealing study of interagency rivalry in that most crucial of wartime arenas, propaganda warfare. There is much that is new and important in this book. All students of the war, as well as of intelligence, will benefit from it."—Robin W. Winks, author of Cloak and Gown: Scholars in the Secret War, 1939–1961

"A ‘must’ acquisition for anyone with any interest in espionage, intelligence, and propaganda."—Dennis Showalter, author of Tannenburg: Clash of Empires and editor of War in History

From the Publisher

Belief in the existence of a worldwide Nazi "fifth column" inspired a terrified America to launch an unprecedented barrage of anti-Third Reich propaganda during WW II. In this eye-opening study, Laurie (The Role of Federal Military Forces in Domestic Disorders, 1877-1945), who teaches at the U.S. Army Center of Military History, reveals how three government agencies-the Office of War Information (OWI), the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and the Army-emerged as the nation's leading propagandists and wound up battling one another as well as Hitler. The OSS favored emulating subversive Nazi tactics; the OWI wanted to spread "truth"; the Army insisted on applying propaganda toward specific tactical aims. The Army eventually took control of the U.S. propaganda machine, but Laurie credits all three agencies with performing a vital service. A fascinating sidelight here is the portrayal of the nascent mind-sets that would characterize the civilian agencies' postwar incarnations (the OSS became the CIA; the OWI returned as the United States Information Agency). This is a serious investigation throughout, but Laurie can be downright amusing at times, as when describing U.S. propaganda dirty tricks like the formation by the OSS of the fictional League of Lonely German Women, whose "offerings" of sexual services to German troops was meant to torture soldiers with thoughts of what their sweethearts were up to. Photos not seen by PW. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Belief in the existence of a worldwide Nazi 'fifth column' inspired a terrified America to launch an unprecedented barrage of anti-Third Reich propaganda during WW II. In this eye-opening study, Laurie (The Role of Federal Military Forces in Domestic Disorders, 1877-1945), who teaches at the U.S. Army Center of Military History, reveals how three government agencies-the Office of War Information (OWI), the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and the Army-emerged as the nation's leading propagandists and wound up battling one another as well as Hitler. The OSS favored emulating subversive Nazi tactics; the OWI wanted to spread 'truth'; the Army insisted on applying propaganda toward specific tactical aims. The Army eventually took control of the U.S. propaganda machine, but Laurie credits all three agencies with performing a vital service. A fascinating sidelight here is the portrayal of the nascent mind-sets that would characterize the civilian agencies' postwar incarnations (the OSS became the CIA; the OWI returned as the United States Information Agency). This is a serious investigation throughout, but Laurie can be downright amusing at times, as when describing U.S. propaganda dirty tricks like the formation by the OSS of the fictional League of Lonely German Women, whose 'offerings' of sexual services to German troops was meant to torture soldiers with thoughts of what their sweethearts were up to.

Publishers Weekly - Cahners\\Publishers_Weekly

Laurie, a historian at the U.S. Army Center of Military History, studies the various U.S. departments responsible for propaganda during World War II. While these departments used the same techniques, including radio and written propaganda pieces, their aims were often different. Franklin Roosevelt had declared that the single aim of the United States was the military defeat of the Axis powers. It was up to the propaganda departments to paint a picture of what a U.S. victory would mean. The Office of War Information (OWI) was staffed by Roosevelt liberals who sought to promote the image of a world run by Wilsonian ideals. The Morale Operations Branch of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the CIA, was run by conservative Republicans who saw the need for Machiavellian realism to promote U.S. power and influence. Although the departments changed names after the war, the seeds for this internal debate continued. Laurie has done a fine job of elucidating the figures and controversies involved with this great war effort. Recommended for libraries with strong World War II collections.-Paul Dewey Kaplan, Lake Villa District Lib., Ill.

Library Journal

Laurie (Histories Division, US Army Center of Military History) details the creation, evolution, and field of operation of the overseas branch of the Office of War Information, the Morale Operations Branch of the Office of Strategic Services, and the Army- dominated Psychological Warfare units serving the Allied forces in Europe. He discusses interagency conflicts that foreshadowed future ideological disputes during the Cold War. Includes b&w photos. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews