1775, The Revolutionary War-
History has showed that even as far back as the Revolutionary War American intellectuals have shown a great understanding of various propaganda techniques. They effectively used propaganda to create the psychological and intellectual environment of the revolution. Men like Thomas Pain were considered very skilled at using propaganda in order to spread the ideas of the revolution. Pain wrote numerous pamphlets using rhetoric to justify the revolution. He is mostly known for the influential Common Sense, as well as The American Crisis. Things like town meetings, songs, plays and pamphlets were commonly used to spread ideas. Also, quotes like "No Taxation without representation" or "Liberty or Death."
1861, The Civil War
During the Civil War both the Union and the Confederate used different forms of propaganda in order to sway public favor to their side. They used things like posters, documents, pamphlets, poetry, newspapers, clothing, envelopes, stamps, and other outlets similar to the Revolutionary War. Another effective propaganda source was the Union League which helped to spread the ideas of the Union. A common practice by both sides was to hire professional writers to publish articles and journals supporting one side or the other.
1914, World War I
World War I saw a new era of War Propaganda in which the use of hatred played a new role in the war. Thanks to new advances in technology messages could reach many more people than before and during WWI the use of fear was a popular propaganda technique. The truth was rarely given to the people and they only knew what the government wanted them to know. Each side of the wanted to try and blacken the enemies name and the use of headlines such as "Germans Crucify Canadian Officer" or "French Doctors infect German wells with Plague Germs" accomplished this goal. Newspapers played a very important role in the war and the use of newspaper headlines was also very effective at changing public opinion.
1939, World War II
When WWII was approaching the American people did not want to go to war. Many Americans felt that after an economic crisis efforts should be focused at home trying to build back up, not bother with conflict over seas. Pro-war Propaganda was used when the government realized that American participation was necessary. It wasn't until the attack on Pearl Harbor that the American peoples really started listening, the war no longer felt a comfortable distance away from home. WWII saw a huge increase in the use of posters as a means of propaganda. A good amount of posters attempted to convince the American people that the enemy was closer than they liked to think and that spies were a great threat. Posters saying that people shouldn't talk about the war were abundant, claiming that men could die if someone said the wrong thing. Fortunately spies were not a large threat in America. The most common types of posters used during WWII were posters that tried to convince people to help fund or stimulate the war effort. America was coming out of an economic crisis and advertisements for war bonds and posters telling people to car-pool in order to save gas were everywhere. The government didn't have to do much to convince the people that they should hate they enemy, they just needed to convince them to pay for the war effort.
1959, Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a good example of how propaganda isn't always enough to get people to support a war. The government tried to sell the people the general idea that the United States needed to aid the South Vietnamese from the evil North Vietnamese. This was the general idea behind the war but it didn't gain the support of the people for many reasons. The propaganda of this war was largely ineffective due to the opposition of the media. For the first time the mass media didn't help support the war. The mass media was greatly against the war effort and by exposing the public to images of violence and death they were able to sway the public away from the war effort. Television was extremely important for this level of exposure. It has been claimed by some pro-war individuals that the media lost the war for America.
Cold War Era
The Cold War was unique in terms of propaganda because their was never really any conflict to support. This war was almost purely a psychological war. In this war the use of propaganda became more of a foreign policy device and was used to create distrust for the Soviet Union as well as influence how the Soviets thought about America. America wanted to create fear toward the United States and win the war of ideas and threats that the Cold War turned out to be. During this period organizations were created for the purpose of influencing the opinions of citizens of foreign nations both friendly and hostile. In previous wars propaganda was used in order to influence opinion towards and effort in order for support to be gained. During the Cold War propaganda was used simply to change how people thought and those people didn't even have to live in the United States.
2001, War on Terror
The War on Terror is similar to WWII because until one specific event most people were not interested in it. After the attacks on Sept. 11th the national government was able to use the fear and anger of the people to start a war effort and invade countries supposedly responsible for the attacks as well as nations who were suffering due to terrorism. The majority of propaganda in the United States was aimed to create a strong sense of patriotism in order to counter the propaganda of hatred used by the terrorist leaders toward the American people. Lines like "They hate our freedoms" were used in an effort to keep and anger of the American people lite and gain support for the military effort. The propaganda of this military endeavor seems to be targeting the emotions of the people and hoping to gain support. Overall this tactic didn't seem to work very well because The War on Terror has been a fairly unpopular decision amongst the American people.
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Time line of American War Propaganda:
American War Propaganda Time line:
1775, The Revolutionary War-History has showed that even as far back as the Revolutionary War American intellectuals have shown a great understanding of various propaganda techniques. They effectively used propaganda to create the psychological and intellectual environment of the revolution. Men like Thomas Pain were considered very skilled at using propaganda in order to spread the ideas of the revolution. Pain wrote numerous pamphlets using rhetoric to justify the revolution. He is mostly known for the influential Common Sense, as well as The American Crisis. Things like town meetings, songs, plays and pamphlets were commonly used to spread ideas. Also, quotes like "No Taxation without representation" or "Liberty or Death."
1861, The Civil War
During the Civil War both the Union and the Confederate used different forms of propaganda in order to sway public favor to their side. They used things like posters, documents, pamphlets, poetry, newspapers, clothing, envelopes, stamps, and other outlets similar to the Revolutionary War. Another effective propaganda source was the Union League which helped to spread the ideas of the Union. A common practice by both sides was to hire professional writers to publish articles and journals supporting one side or the other.
1914, World War I
World War I saw a new era of War Propaganda in which the use of hatred played a new role in the war. Thanks to new advances in technology messages could reach many more people than before and during WWI the use of fear was a popular propaganda technique. The truth was rarely given to the people and they only knew what the government wanted them to know. Each side of the wanted to try and blacken the enemies name and the use of headlines such as "Germans Crucify Canadian Officer" or "French Doctors infect German wells with Plague Germs" accomplished this goal. Newspapers played a very important role in the war and the use of newspaper headlines was also very effective at changing public opinion.
1939, World War II
When WWII was approaching the American people did not want to go to war. Many Americans felt that after an economic crisis efforts should be focused at home trying to build back up, not bother with conflict over seas. Pro-war Propaganda was used when the government realized that American participation was necessary. It wasn't until the attack on Pearl Harbor that the American peoples really started listening, the war no longer felt a comfortable distance away from home. WWII saw a huge increase in the use of posters as a means of propaganda. A good amount of posters attempted to convince the American people that the enemy was closer than they liked to think and that spies were a great threat. Posters saying that people shouldn't talk about the war were abundant, claiming that men could die if someone said the wrong thing. Fortunately spies were not a large threat in America. The most common types of posters used during WWII were posters that tried to convince people to help fund or stimulate the war effort. America was coming out of an economic crisis and advertisements for war bonds and posters telling people to car-pool in order to save gas were everywhere. The government didn't have to do much to convince the people that they should hate they enemy, they just needed to convince them to pay for the war effort.
1959, Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a good example of how propaganda isn't always enough to get people to support a war. The government tried to sell the people the general idea that the United States needed to aid the South Vietnamese from the evil North Vietnamese. This was the general idea behind the war but it didn't gain the support of the people for many reasons. The propaganda of this war was largely ineffective due to the opposition of the media. For the first time the mass media didn't help support the war. The mass media was greatly against the war effort and by exposing the public to images of violence and death they were able to sway the public away from the war effort. Television was extremely important for this level of exposure. It has been claimed by some pro-war individuals that the media lost the war for America.
Cold War Era
The Cold War was unique in terms of propaganda because their was never really any conflict to support. This war was almost purely a psychological war. In this war the use of propaganda became more of a foreign policy device and was used to create distrust for the Soviet Union as well as influence how the Soviets thought about America. America wanted to create fear toward the United States and win the war of ideas and threats that the Cold War turned out to be. During this period organizations were created for the purpose of influencing the opinions of citizens of foreign nations both friendly and hostile. In previous wars propaganda was used in order to influence opinion towards and effort in order for support to be gained. During the Cold War propaganda was used simply to change how people thought and those people didn't even have to live in the United States.
2001, War on Terror
The War on Terror is similar to WWII because until one specific event most people were not interested in it. After the attacks on Sept. 11th the national government was able to use the fear and anger of the people to start a war effort and invade countries supposedly responsible for the attacks as well as nations who were suffering due to terrorism. The majority of propaganda in the United States was aimed to create a strong sense of patriotism in order to counter the propaganda of hatred used by the terrorist leaders toward the American people. Lines like "They hate our freedoms" were used in an effort to keep and anger of the American people lite and gain support for the military effort. The propaganda of this military endeavor seems to be targeting the emotions of the people and hoping to gain support. Overall this tactic didn't seem to work very well because The War on Terror has been a fairly unpopular decision amongst the American people.
Sources:
http://www.civil-war.ws/propaganda/http://www.americanforeignrelations.com/O-W/Propaganda-Revolution-war-and-propaganda-to-1917.html
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/propaganda_and_world_war_one.htm
http://library.thinkquest.org/C0111500/ww2/american/amerprop.htm
http://www.globalissues.org/article/402/media-propaganda-and-vietnam
http://www.americanforeignrelations.com/O-W/Propaganda-Cold-war.html
http://www.globalissues.org/article/352/mainstream-media-and-propaganda