Psychological WarfareLinebarger, Paul Myron Anthony
History
Psychological Warfare
Linebarger, Paul Myron Anthony
Psychological warfare
When Washington agencies wanted to find out what the broadcasts really
were saying, the actual working offices at New York and San Francisco,
their feelings hurt at not having been consulted by the Joint Chiefs,
refused (on _their_ security ground) to let anyone see a word of what
they were sending out. This baffled other Washington agencies a great
deal. (The author, who was then detailed from the War Department to OWI,
outflanked this move in one instance by getting a report on a San
Francisco Japanese Broadcast from the Navy Department. It had been
monitored by an American submarine out in the Pacific.)
Large overseas offices were set up at various foreign locations. Some of
these went down to work quickly, efficiently, smoothly, and did a
first-class job of presenting wartime America to foreign peoples;
others, with the frailties of jerry-built government agencies, lapsed
into inefficiency, wild goose chases, or internal quarrels.
Lastly, the poor British officials continued to wander around
Washington, looking for their American opposite numbers in the
propaganda field--looking for one and always finding a dozen.
That was in 1942-1943.
By 1945, this had all become transformed into a large, well run, well
integrated organization. Three weeks before Japan fell, the OWI finally
prepared an official index of its propaganda "Directives"--that, is, of
the official statement of what kinds of propaganda to make, what kinds
not to make. The overseas units had been associated with the
metropolitan short-wave. Personnel had been disciplined. Techniques had
become more precise. Under the command of Lieutenant Commander Alexander
Leighton, an M.D. who was also a psychiatrist and anthropologist,
careful techniques were devised for the analysis of Japanese and German
morale. Comparable though dissimilar work on Europe had been done by a
staff associated with Harold Lasswell. The propaganda expert Leonard W.
Doob had been appointed controlling and certifying officer for every
single order of importance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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