U.S. Government Propaganda Infuencing People During War Time
By: Tecpaocelotl (tecpaocelotl@mexicauprising.net)

American Propaganda is the best in the world, especially during wartime. Without propaganda, the US citizens would’ve lost interest in all wars that America was involved in. American government uses propaganda to influence people’s opinions especially during wartime. Many people do not question the motives, which is bad. We as a people must question the motives of politicians. If we don’t, then we will lose our freedom, the very thing that we cherish in this country. This paper will explain propaganda, used in WWI, WWII, the Vietnam War, and in the War Against Terrorism.

Propaganda is “information that is spread for the purpose of promoting some cause”. The information can be false or contain some truth as long as it gets certain group support (http://www.dictionary.com). There are two types of propaganda; bad propaganda and good propaganda. Bad propaganda is very easy to spot because it uses obvious terminology that can easily be detected. Also, it can be disproved by its “rational thesis”. Good propaganda, which the United States uses, is much harder to prove if false. It mostly relies on “emotional appeals”. It can’t be disproved by its “rational theory”. It “appeals to things no [one] can object [to]”. On emotions, “the stronger and baser, the better”. To promote an idea or view, it utilizes the Christian’s seven deadly sins. The tools for “good propaganda and effective advertising” are fear, envy, greed, hatred, and lust. The best is fear, which is followed by greed. Morality and ethics aren’t as effective as fear or greed in promoting a view or an idea. An example of this is the fall of communism. Communist countries reasoned that people should sacrifice for the greater good, when actually it backfired on them. It failed because people react on fear more than for the greater for humanity. People care more about themselves than about others. Also, another way to convince people to think that propaganda is real is to repeat something over and over, even if it doesn’t make sense. It can be something very simple as long as it is said over and over again. For example, the statement that the United States presidential elections are a democracy. It is not true. It’s more like a Republic because the system goes on electoral votes rather than counting every vote. Politicians in the 20th century learned that emotional propaganda techniques won elections. If they employed a lot of emotional tactics when they were elected for the first time, they are almost guaranteed a re-election. An example would be Ronald Reagan. His Cabinet made the Soviet UNI0N seem like cold-blooded people with no heart. When it fell, people regarded Reagan as a great hero, even though many people lost their businesses, unemployment rose, and problems were created in Central America. From learning that people support things based on emotion, politicians start creating speeches with emotional key words (http://www.purewatergazette.net/propagandainamerica.htm).

Another tactic of propaganda is flags. Flags are emotional symbols, especially if many people wave them (http://www.purewatergazette.net/propagandainamerica.htm). Anybody who doesn’t stand up for the national anthem or doesn’t have one is considered a terrorist (Boyle). Proof that this tactic works is that many people would say there should be an amendment that says burning an American flag should be outlawed, which would contradict the constitution, since it says a person has freedom of speech either verbally or by demonstrating it. Politicians also “demonize” anyone who opposes them. An example would be Roosevelt. Anybody who opposed him was considered “Isolationist or Malefactors of Great Wealth”. These are “words intended to silence counter-argument by appealing to unassailable emotional images,” (http://www.purewatergazette.net/propagandainamerica.htm). No one is into isolation and almost everyone hates a rich man. With this tactic, Roosevelt gets 16 years in the presidency (http://www.purewatergazette.net/propagandainamerica.htm).

Propaganda is influence on the people doesn’t have to be rational (http://www.purewatergazette.net/propagandainamerica.htm). When people find out that the propaganda contains false information, they stop listening to the source. The source will have to find a new direction or spokesperson in order for people to believe it again (Boyle).

There is very little information about the use of propaganda in WWI. People during that time believed everything that the US government said. In 1917, Wilson declared that the US would be on the Allies’ side (Boyle). Wilson first decided to create a draft and justified that it was for the world “safe of democracy” (http://www.purewatergazette.net/propagandainamerica.htm). People were put into classes for war. In the first class were the people who were fit and were sent to war immediately, while the fifth class had prisoners and ex-convicts on probation. Prisoners and ex-convicts were put in the lower class because they were considered morally unfit for duty. When the first class was losing soldiers, the lower classes would take their place. Wilson’s vision was to have at least one million soldiers during the beginning of the war, but by the end of the war, his goal was five million (Boyle).

Propaganda was good for its time. If these propaganda tactics were still used today; many people would not be in favor of the war. A major source of propaganda in WWI was posters. There is the famous poster that has Uncle Sam asking his citizens to go to the nearest recruiting station to join the US Army. The Huns in other posters looked like big ugly gorillas that had beautiful women as captives. In other posters, they were depicted as evil people who had threatened babies and women and having an American Soldier stopping their actions as the people’s savior. This got people to believe that the Huns (Germans) were cold-blooded creatures and that the American people should do something about it. Many people joined the war because they believed that this was the war to end all wars. They would later find out that the statement would be false (Boyle).

It was American propaganda, which raised Adolph Hitler to power (http://www.purewatergazette.net/propagandainamerica.htm). Hitler’s speeches helped him claimed power (Keegan 11). It all started when an American by the name of Ernst “Putzi” Hanfstangl described to Hitler how Americans enjoy football games mainly because they would enjoy the environment. They supported their team with the “music, group cheers, and chants against the enemy.” Nazi propaganda borrowed American Propaganda technique on images alone. Putzi gave advice to Hitler to use flags for his public spectacles. Many of the flags were created so that the people could wave them (http://www.purewatergazette.net/propagandainamerica.htm). A very controversial issue is the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941 when the Japanese bombed a US base. It is said that Franklin Roosevelt knew about it, but he didn’t do anything so that the United States would join the war because the Japanese were part of the axis of evil, which included Japan, Italy, and Germany (Keegan 17). Roosevelt used emotional key words to get the American people to support him. Roosevelt was famous for his propaganda tactics. An example would be when he wanted to pass social security. Security is an emotional keyword. Everyone wants security. With this, he would add images of grandparents smiling hugging their grandchildren. He would also add fear to it by saying that if people didn’t support social security, they would spend their last years in “utter destitution,” (http://www.purewatergazette.net/propagandainamerica.htm). Also, Roosevelt demanded an atomic bomb to be dropped on Hiroshima, Japan in August 6th 1945. On August 25th, the second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Two days later, the Japanese surrendered. The question is, did the Japanese surrender because they believed they would drop a third atomic bomb? (Keegan 2. He did this to bring fear to everyone; to his allies and enemies (Boyle).

The US used tactics that seem silly in today’s world. They used posters and entertainment for propaganda. In one, they show a stereotypical Asian who is working hard. It says “If you worked as hard and fast as a Jap we’d smash Tokio a lot quicker.” Though it seems racist for our time, this poster could’ve influenced people to work harder. Another says “don’t fall for enemy propaganda: against our government, against our allies, against Catholics, Jews, Protestants.” They have posters that said that they shouldn’t listen to “propaganda” that opposed the American Government. There are posters that portrayed stereotypes of Japanese as hard-working individuals, but incorrectly referred to them as Japs. This caused many to disregard anything other than what the American government said. This is the main reason why you don’t see that much opposition to our involvement in WWII. If they did, they would be considered a member of the Axis of Evil or a communist. This also caused people to see Japanese, not as people, but some evil creature that could destroy the very existence of a person’s life. The propaganda made many people feel unsafe around Asians. This caused the American government to justify imprisoning American Citizens Asians in camps. Camps are just a nice way to say prisons (Boyle).

Some of the posters are sponsored by big businesses. One that is sponsored by Texaco has a stereotypical Asian making a statement kind of an off English, which makes it sound like a stereotypical Asian. He says that if the American people think the war is over, then take a day off. This would cause fear that the Axis of Evil would attack and possibly their side would lose. Another poster says “Every mile you drive over 35 mph, Axis smiles.” A company named Emerson Electric sponsors it. It may seem silly to us that a poster like this exists, but to people back then, it was believable and they feared it (Boyle).

The U.S. Government paid Disney to make 32 short cartoon films to get people to support the war. The US government banned one because Disney made the cartoon looked like it glorified the Nazis. Another of these cartoons shows Donald Duck fighting on the side of the allies against the Axis of Evil. Warner Brothers did the same thing. They mostly showed Daffy and Bugs Bunny fighting the Axis of Evil during WWII. One of these cartoons shows Bugs Bunny ticking off Adolf Hitler (Boyle).

DC and Marvel comics’ super heroes were fighting against the Triple Axis of Evil. In DC comics the main hero was Superman (Boyle). In Marvel, there was Captain American, Sub-Mariner, the Human Torch, Citizen V, and the Fin (Thompson Everett Simon Burgos). This time period is known as the Golden Age of Marvel Comics because the comics would sell a lot and pretty much everything written, the fans would love (Boyle). The Nazis would have evil faces while the Japanese had stereotypical Asian faces (Everett Burgos). Everything evil that happened in these comics would have some connection to the Axis of Evil (Simon). At the end of some of Captain America comics, they would advertise for just 10
cents, a kid (or an adult who read comics) can become a member of Captain America’s Sentinels of Liberty. When they did, they would get a badge and membership card that says “I solemnly pledge to uphold the principles of the sentinels of liberty and assist Captain America in his War Against Spies in the U.S.A.” (Simon).

Vietnam was the first war being televised. In the beginning, very few people spoke against the war even though there was a lot of propaganda (http://www.purewatergazette.net/propagandainamerica.htm). People got angry when they found out that many soldiers were killing children and the elderly. A majority of the American Soldiers were men of color and many people protested (Boyle). Some of the protesters against the war were protesting for the wrong reasons. One of the reasons was just because North Korea was communist and they were or supported Communism. Even though they did it for the wrong reasons, their side was right (http://www.purewatergazette.net/propagandainamerica.htm). In LA, there was a protest event, which ended up in a riot after police attacked. The death of a Chicano Reporter for the Los Angeles Times resulted in many American flags being burned. The troops that came back from the war were attacked either physically or verbally (Boyle). In the early years of the Vietnam War, there was some argument whether the war was “predominantly an internal insurgency or conventional cross-border aggression” (Record 3). In “1965… Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs John McNaughton, declared in a memo that ‘70 percent’ of the U.S. purpose in Vietnam was ‘to avoid a humiliating defeat’”. In “1966… he further concluded: ‘we… have in Vietnam the ingredients of an enormous miscalculation… The reasons we went into Vietnam to present depth are varied; but they are now largely academic.’” (Record 4). As it seems, the U.S. tried to preserve South Vietnam because it was noncommunist. This seems weird because three years after the last soldiers were taken out of Vietnam; Nixon opened trade with China, a communist country. North Vietnam was communist while China was also (Record 5). The US government blames the failure on civilian leaders, the media, and the antiwar movement when it seems like it was doomed from the start because of the policy. If the policy were different, the US would’ve won the war a lot quicker with fewer casualties. In this war, the first American defeat, because of the propaganda and lies there were 58,000 American Soldier casualties, plus billions of dollars wasted (Boyle).

After the fall of the Twin Towers, the tactic of fear persuaded a large amount of the American people to agree with George W. Bush in support of the Patriot Act, even though they didn’t know what the Patriot Act was. The U.S. Patriot Act is a law that Bush created to make it sound like something that would track terrorism, when actuality, it can do more harm than good. The government can track what you do online. If your activity were considered a threat, for example someone committing anarchy or teaching how to make bombs, you would be listed as a terrorist. When you are considered terrorist, the government can enter your house without a warrant and possibly arrest you without a trial. All this really means is they would be taking away freedom from the American people and be replaced by monitoring. Inspired by Roosevelt, Bush used as many emotional key words as possible in his speech (Boyle). Ashcroft and Bush said in different ways that if you’re not with them, then you’re against them, which means you’re viewed as a terrorist. These are the same type of tactics used in WWII. Any one who questions the Twin Tower attack is considered a terrorist. Anyone who opposes the war is considered a terrorist and not supporters of our troops (http://www.purewatergazette.net/propagandainamerica.htm).

Bush convinced people to wave their flags for this event since it was a very emotional day. Many people bought flags to show their patriotism. People who didn’t have a flag were considered unpatriotic or terrorist (Boyle). With this mentality, no one wants to be the “loner” and follows the rest of the crowd (http://www.purewatergazette.net/propagandainamerica.htm). Bush’s cabinet tried to connect any group that was against the US and Bush told the people that these groups were united as a giant terrorist group and thus brought the war on terrorism. Bush first connected the 9/11 attack to Afghanistan and said they were the mains in charge. After they found nothing, they left the country the way it was. Then the Bush Administration connected it to Iraq and said they were in charge and somehow the people forgot about Afghanistan (Boyle). Five hours after Flight 77 hit the Pentagon, the Secretary of Defense was telling his aids to start thinking about how to connect Saddam Hussein to the attacks (http://www.fair.org/press-releases/clark-iraq.html). Bush announced in his speech on May 1st that there were about 50ish deaths because of the war. The media varied on numbers, depending which station you watched. What this really is, is how many soldiers died in combat rather than total soldiers who died because of the war (http://www.fair.org/activism/iraq-casualties-network.html).

Many people were silent during this time (Boyle). An example would be on June 15 2003, NBC’s Meet the Press was canceled because Former General Wesley Clark told anchor Tim Russert about how the Bush Administration officials were trying to connect Saddam Hussein to the 9/11 attacks on that day, even though there was no evidence (http://www.fair.org/press-releases/clark-iraq.html). When many people found out that some of the information that Bush announced was false and how people were silent who opposed him, it caused many people to get angry and oppose the war (Boyle). There were many rallies protesting the war. Many sources get their information from the Associated Press, also known as AP. The AP would use pro-troops to mean pro-war which is not true. People who are pro-war are pro-troops, but people who are pro-troops are not usually pro-war
(http://fair.org/activism/pro-troops.html). For example on March 20th of 2003 AP had a headline that said “Anti-War, Pro-Troops Rallies Take to Streets as War Rages.” Another example would be on March 24th of 2004, an AP’s story said “Protestors Rally Against War; Others Support Troops.”
(http://fair.org/activism/pro-troops.html).

The latest fad today is everyone, even the entertainment and publishing industry, is attacking someone with power on their wrongdoing. Michael Moore started it with Fahrenheit 9/11, which questioned Bush and his motives. It affected people’s thinking and possibly whom they will vote for in the upcoming election (Corliss 64). What the people don’t notice is that if the people with these high positions aren’t dishonest, they cannot become rich. There is no way a person who is always honest becomes rich. That is impossible (Boyle).

In conclusion, during wartime, American government uses propaganda to influence people’s opinions. U.S. Propaganda is the best in the world, especially during wartime. This paper explained what propaganda is, propaganda in WWI, propaganda in WWII, propaganda in Vietnam, and the propaganda in the war in Terrorism. WWI had very little information on the propaganda tactics it used. WII had many things, but denied that it was propaganda. Vietnam was the first war being televised and the first war to be protested. The war on Terrorism had the same tactics as WWII to convince the people, but failed. The people must question the motives of the government. If the people don’t, then this Republic will become an Empire. Politicians are slowly taking away our freedom.

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