Excerpts from MEIN KAMPF
All propaganda must be presented in a popular form and must fix its intellectual level so as not to be above the heads of the least intellectual of those to whom it is directed. Thus its purely intellectual level will have to be that of the lowest mental common denominator among the public it is desired to reach.
The art of propaganda consists precisely in being able to awaken the imagination of the public through an appeal to their feelings, . . . .
The receptive powers of the masses are very restricted, and their understanding is feeble. On the other hand, they quickly forget. Such being the case, all effective propaganda must be confined to a few bare essentials and those must be expressed as far as possible in stereotyped formulas. These slogans should be persistently repeated until the very last individual has come to grasp the idea that has been put forward.
The broad masses of the people are not made up of diplomats or professors of public jurisprudence nor simply of persons who are able to form reasoned judgment in given cases, but a vacillating crowd of human children who are constantly wavering between one idea and another.
Propaganda must be limited to a few simple themes and these must be represented again and again. Here, as in innumerable other cases, perseverance is the first and most important condition of success.
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Propaganda + Deception
Enemy Agents are seeding fear in our ranks--fear of the future and fear of a supposedly all-powerful foe;
"The New World Order Boogiemen."
Propaganda, dissemination of ideas and information for the purpose of inducing or intensifying specific attitudes and actions.
Because propaganda is frequently accompanied by distortions of fact and by appeals to passion and prejudice, it is often thought to be invariably false or misleading.
This view is relative, however. Although some propagandists may intentionally distort fact, others may present it as faithfully as objective observers.
A lawyer's brief is as much propaganda as a billboard advertisement. Education, whatever its objective, is a form of propaganda.
The essential distinction lies in the intentions of the propagandist to persuade an audience to adopt the attitude or action he or she espouses.
Propaganda may be disseminated by or for individuals, businesses, ethnic associations, religious organizations, political organizations, and governments at every level.
Thousands of special-interest groups disseminate propaganda. Among such groups are patriotic and temperance societies, fire-prevention and traffic-safety committees, leagues promoting conservation or the prevention of cruelty to animals, labor unions, and chambers of commerce.
No matter what its objective, propaganda attempts to persuade through rational or emotional appeal or through the organization of personal opinion. Efficient use of the communication media is central to these efforts.
Political Propaganda
Propaganda for distinctly political ends is as old as history. The Bible, for example, relates that the Assyrian king Sennacherib attempted to terrify the Kingdom of Judah into surrendering by the use of threatening propaganda (see 2 Kings 18-19). Julius Caesar wrote the Gallic Wars to enhance his reputation in Rome and to speed his rise to power.
The quality of the propaganda literature of the American Revolution is outstanding. Before the Revolution the letters circulated by the patriot Samuel Adams and such pamphlets as Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania by John Dickinson sought to inform and unify American opinion in the quarrel with Great Britain.
The Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson, was a masterpiece of rational propaganda intended to crystallize public opinion at home and justify the controversial American cause abroad.
During the period when that cause seemed closest to military defeat, the radical writer Thomas Paine wrote a series of pamphlets titled The Crisis, which rallied and sustained American morale for the long struggle.
After the war, when controversy raged over the adoption of the federal Constitution, the articles written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, and known collectively as The Federalist, explained the new constitution and persuaded Americans to ratify it.
The Federalist was also an effective propaganda instrument among the citizens of the new American nation.
Literary Propaganda Propaganda by individuals has sometimes taken literary forms. Many classics of philosophy, history, religion, and economics, as well as novels, poems, and plays, have been written in part with propagandist intent.
The histories of the French author Voltaire, the pamphlets of Martin Luther, and the works of Karl Marx are examples.
Propaganda for social justice was carried on by the British statistician Charles Booth and by the American social-settlement worker Jane Addams. In American literature, an outstanding novel of propaganda is Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe. By her depiction of black slavery in the South, Stowe contributed to the growth of the abolitionist movement before the American Civil War.
Wartime Propaganda
Massive modern propaganda techniques began with World War I.
From the beginning of the war, both German and British propagandists worked hard to win sympathy and support in the U.S. German propagandists appealed to the many Americans of German descent and to those of Irish descent who were traditionally hostile to Great Britain. Soon, however, Germany was virtually cut off from direct access to the U.S. Thereafter British propaganda had little competition in the U.S., and it was conducted more skillfully than that of the Germans.
Once engaged in the war, the U.S. organized the Committee on Public Information, an official propaganda agency, to mobilize American public opinion. This committee proved highly successful, particularly in the sale of Liberty Bonds.
The exploitation by the Allies of President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points, which seemed to promise a just peace for both the victors and the vanquished, contributed greatly toward crystallizing opposition within the Central Powers to continuation of the war.
After World War I propaganda achieved great importance as an instrument of national policy in the totalitarian state. Germany, Italy, Japan, and the Soviet Union deliberately molded public opinion through government propaganda agencies.
In Germany, Adolf Hitler established the extremely powerful ministry of propaganda headed by Paul Joseph Goebbels. Completely dominating all public utterances in Germany, this agency instigated the so-called war of nerves. Before each new aggressive move by Germany, as, for example, against Czechoslovakia in 1938, the German press and radio publicized alleged evidence of persecution of German minorities in the victim country.
Incidents were manufactured and exploited to justify German intervention, and the German war machine was depicted as invincible.
The technique proved effective in dividing populations, weakening the power of the victim to resist, and causing its allies to hesitate. As the European crisis intensified, German agents in France spread propaganda of defeatism. Through books, pamphlets, and venal newspapers and in the legislature and the army, they encouraged dissatisfaction with the government, distrust of allies, and fear of German military power. These divisive efforts hastened the collapse of French resistance when the German army finally struck in May 1940.
The propaganda aspects of World War II were similar to those of World War I, except that the war was greater in scope.
Radio played a major role. (+ now the internet also!)
Radio played a major role, and propaganda activities overseas were more intense. Both Germany and Great Britain again sought to sway American opinion. German propagandists played on anti-British sentiment, represented the war as a struggle against communism, and pictured Germany as the invincible champion of a new order in world affairs.
German agents also gave their support to movements in the U.S. that supported isolationism. German propaganda efforts again proved ineffective, especially after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor; the evidence of German aggression was too clear, and American sympathies were increasingly on the side of Great Britain.
After the United States entered the war, the Axis powers sought to weaken the morale of the Allied armed forces and civilian populations by radio propaganda. The British traitor William Joyce broadcast from Germany under the sardonic name "Lord Haw Haw"; the American poet Ezra Pound broadcast for the Fascist cause from Italy; U.S. forces in the South Pacific became familiar with the voice of Iva Ikuko Toguri D'Aquino, a native Californian of Japanese descent, who broadcast from Japan as "Tokyo Rose."
Allied propaganda efforts were aimed at separating the peoples of the Axis nations from their governments, which were solely blamed for the war. Radio broadcasts and leaflets dropped from the air carried Allied propaganda to the enemy.
The official U.S. propaganda agencies during World War II were the Office of War Information (OWI), charged with disseminating information at home and abroad, and the Office of Strategic Service (OSS), charged with conducting psychological warfare against the enemy. At Supreme Headquarters in the European theater of operations, the OWI and OSS were coordinated with military activities by the Psychological Warfare Division.
Hitler's propaganda minister: Joseph Goebbels is said to have said: "There is no need to argue with the masses, slogans are much more effective. Slogans are like strong drinks to people. The crowd doesnt react like men but like women, who rely on their feelings, rather than on intelligence if any, Propaganda is a great, difficult and noble art,------
Cold-War Propaganda
In the period of the cold war, a marked conflict of interests between the United States and the Soviet Union following World War II, propaganda continued to be a significant instrument of national policy. Both the democratic and Communist blocs of states attempted by sustained campaigns to win to their side the great masses of uncommitted peoples and thereby achieve their objectives without resorting to armed conflict. Every aspect of national life and policy was exploited for purposes of propaganda. The cold war was also marked by the use of defectors, trials, and confessions for propaganda purposes.
In this propaganda war the Communist nations seemed initially to have a distinct advantage. Because their governments controlled all media, they could largely seal off their peoples from Western propaganda.
At the same time, the highly centralized governments could plan elaborate propaganda campaigns and mobilize resources to carry out their plans. They could also count on aid from Communist parties and sympathizers in other countries.
Democratic states, on the other hand, could neither prevent their peoples from being exposed to Communist propaganda nor mobilize all their resources to counter it. This apparent advantage for Communist governments eroded during the 1980s, as communications technology advanced. Inability to control the spread of information was a major factor in the disintegration of many Communist regimes in Eastern Europe at the end of the decade.
The United States Information Agency (USIA), established in 1953 to conduct propaganda and cultural activities abroad, operates the Voice of America, a radio network that carries news and information about the U.S. in more than 40 languages to all parts of the world.
In 1978 USIA functions were taken over by the International Communication Agency; its name was changed back to the U.S. Information Agency in 1982.
In 1967 it was revealed that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had for many years covertly supported numerous American and foreign labor, student, and political organizations, such as Radio Free Europe, the efforts of which benefited U.S. foreign policies.
Other Propaganda
In recent years the growing sophistication of propaganda techniques has been evident in election campaigns; these include the propaganda of the deed (influencing public opinion by actions rather than words), the use of television, the manufacture of news by staged events, the skillful recruitment and use of opinion leaders, and the adjustment of appeals to group interest.
The civil rights struggles of the 1950s and '60s benefited from the propaganda effects of protest marches, assemblies, picketing, sit-ins, and "freedom rides." Large business corporations and commercial interests, such as railroads and oil companies, have also carried on extensive propaganda campaigns through advertising and other techniques in attempts to develop public support for legislation favorable to their interests.
In the 1970s and '80s, various kinds of propaganda became tools for such diverse special interests as antinuclear-energy groups, women's rights activists, pro-abortion and antiabortion forces, gun-control lobbies, adherents of capital punishment, senior citizen groups, and the Moral Majority. The technological advances of the mass media, especially those of the electronic media, are expanding the outlets available to propagandists and are likely to have a significant impact on propaganda efforts in the future.
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ruse
(DOD) In military deception, a trick of war designed to deceive the adversary, usually involving the deliberate exposure of false information to the adversary's intelligence collection system.
deception
(DOD, NATO) Those measures designed to mislead the enemy by manipulation, distortion, or falsification of evidence to induce him to react in a manner prejudicial to his interests. See also counterdeception; military deception.
deception action
(DOD) A collection of related deception events that form a major component of a deception operation.
deception concept
(DOD) The deception course of action forwarded to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for review as part of the CINC's Strategic Concept.
deception course of action
(DOD) A deception scheme developed during the estimate process in sufficient detail to permit decisionmaking. At a minimum, a deception course of action will identify the deception objective, the deception target, the desired perception, the deception story, and tentative deception means.
deception event
(DOD) A deception means executed at a specific time and location in support of a deception operation.
deception means
(DOD) Methods, resources, and techniques that can be used to convey information to the deception target. There are three categories of deception means: a. physical means--Activities and resources used to convey or deny selected information to a foreign power. (Examples: military operations, including exercises, reconnaissance, training activities, and movement of forces; the use of dummy equipment and devices; tactics; bases, logistic actions, stockpiles, and repair activity; and test and evaluation activities.) b. technical means--Military material resources and their associated operating techniques used to convey or deny selected information to a foreign power through the deliberate radiation, reradiation, alteration, absorption, or reflection of energy; the emission or suppression of chemical or biological odors; and the emission or suppression of nuclear particles. c. administrative means--Resources, methods, and techniques to convey or deny oral, pictorial, documentary, or other physical evidence to a foreign power.
deception objective
(DOD) The desired result of a deception operation expressed in terms of what the adversary is to do or not to do at the critical time and/or location.
deception story
(DOD) A scenario that outlines the friendly actions that will be portrayed to cause the deception target to adopt the desired perception.
deception target
(DOD) The adversary decisionmaker with the authority to make the decision that will achieve the deception objective.
propaganda. Organized efforts to influence the thoughts, emotions, opinions, impulses, and actions of people collectively and as individuals by means of words, pictures, music, symbols, or public demonstrations. The purpose may include enlightenment, education, increase in patriotic fervor, or destruction of an enemy. Methods run the gamut from careful and thorough presentations of the truth to endless repetitions of lies. The authors of white propaganda correctly announce the source when they release the propaganda. In black propaganda a false source is announced with the intention to mislead. In gray propaganda no source is announced. Edward C. Smith and Arnold J. Zurcher, Dictionary of American Politics, 2nd ed. (Barnes & Noble, Inc. 1968), p. 300.