Wilson gets the U.S. into WWI thanks to propaganda
CHAPTER 18
The massive modern propaganda techniques which have
become a familiar part of particularly the American and
British governments began with World War I (1914-1918).
From the beginning of the war, both German and British
propagandists worked hard to win sympathy and support of
the United States. German propagandists appealed to the
many Americans of German descent, and to those of Irish
descent, who were traditionally hostile to Great Britain who
was living in America. The propaganda was rather crude by
today's standards, but what it lacked in finesse was made up
by the sheer volume of the huge output of Wellington House.
Soon, however, Germany was virtually cut off from direct access to the United States. Thereafter British propaganda had little competition in the United States, and it was conducted more skillfully than that of the Germans who had no equivalent of Wellington House, Bernays, or Lippmann.
Once engaged in the war Woodrow Wilson 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. And no wonder. Its program was written for the White House by Tavistock and was largely directed from London.
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.
Elsewhere herein we have detailed the lies and distortions engaged in by the Bryce Commission, which remains one of the most disturbing examples of blatant lying successfully passed off as truth. The part played by Americans at Wellington House, the premiere propaganda center in the world at that time is also explained later herein.
The propaganda aspects of World War II were similar to those of World War I, except that the Second World War, also started by Britain and financed by the international bankers, was greater in scope. Radio played a major role, with "news broadcasts" always a mixture of facts heavily laced with fiction. Propaganda activities overseas were more intense. The Tavistock Institute was able to put into practice all of the valuable lessons it had learned in 1914-1919, and it used its experience in a number of new ways in the old as well as new countries.
Both Germany and the United Kingdom 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 wave of anti-Communism. German agents also gave their support to movements in the United States that backed "isolationism", a descriptive tag attached to all Americans who opposed war with Germany.
German propaganda efforts were no match against the expertise of Wellington House and Tavistock or the resources of Britain (secretly aided with huge amounts of money by the Roosevelt administration) and once again it proved ineffective.
The carefully planned attack on Pearl Harbor was well known by Roosevelt, Stimson and Knox for months before the actual attack.
December 1941, was a godsend for Roosevelt who had been trying desperately to force the U.S. to go to war on the side of Britain, especially after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor; American people were persuaded by propaganda and outright lies that Germany was the aggressor.
The dire warnings by Lindbergh, the famous aviator, and a number of other anti-war Senators that Roosevelt was not to be trusted, and that as was the case in WWI, the U.S. had no business interjecting itself into the war in Germany, was blunted by propaganda. Also, the "contrived situation" at Pearl Harbor changed public opinion, as Roosevelt well knew it would. Allied propaganda efforts that flowed from Tavistock were aimed at separating the peoples of the Axis nations from their governments, which were held solely to blame 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 Tavistock "information" at home and abroad, and the Office of Strategic Service (OSS), forerunner of the CIA and a creation of Tavistock, 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 under the direction of Social scientists from the Tavistock Institute.
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 people 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 United States in more than 40 languages to all parts of the world.
Is history being repeated? The case of Lord Bryce
CHAPTER 19
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