Propaganda Course

Organic propaganda

Did you know that American shoppers are more likely to buy a banana whose peel color is Pantone 12-0752 (Buttercup) than a banana that's Pantone 13-0858 (Vibrant yellow)? Big banana growers do. And they go to considerable trouble to bring you just the right shade of Buttercup.

Color is often used for propaganda purposes.

Here's an interesting item in Fast Company magazine that describes how the healthy foods industry uses subliminal messaging and psychological stimulation to influence your perceptions and behavior.

In this case, it's a way to get you to spend more of your hard-earned money on the organic, generally healthy, fresh-looking food at Whole Foods. The copious beds of glittering ice are not the least bit necessary for keeping certain foods fresh. Some of the "fresh" fruits can be more than a year old. And some of the techniques to entice you into making a purchase also can involve making your produce selection rot more quickly once you take it home. To say nothing of the fact that "organic" means that the food that you put in your mouth wasn't fertilized with nutrients synthesized in a clean factory, but with feces.

Sorry about that last one. You get the idea.

Ever wonder why, at Whole Foods, customers are presented the opportunity to buy fresh cut flowers as soon as they walk into the store, making it more likely that they would damage their selection during the course of shopping, than showcase the flowers safely near the cash registers?

There's a propaganda purpose to it. A form of psychological manipulation.

If organic food producers and supermarket chains can use color, atmosphere, temperature, moisture, art, casualness - and even cut flowers - as a basis of influencing a target audience's perceptions and therefore actions, isn't it logical that nation states can do it, too? Is it something for you as a policymaker to be aware of? To defend against? To use for diplomatic purposes? Let's take it further: To weaponize against others? Think about it. (And don't forget to read the article. Don't worry - it's short.)

Class 4, September 22

World War II Propaganda: Nazi and British Operations and American Public Opinion

The World War II period was a watershed in propaganda methodology, as all sides built on the successes and learned from the failures of World War I.

This class covers white and black propaganda operations of the Third Reich, mobilization of the German-speaking populations for political and military purposes, Nazi foreign propaganda, early Nazi propaganda and political action networks in the United States; study of Soviet foreign influence operations before and during the war, and especially the period before the Hitler-Stalin Pact, during the Nazi-Soviet alliance, and following the Nazi invasion of the USSR. It will also examine British efforts to involve America in World War II.

The class will analyze the circumstances of successful and unsuccessful propaganda operations, and will study how Soviet and British propaganda themes penetrated U.S. official propaganda. The class will sample Nazi propaganda swing music from Josef Goebbels’ Charlie and his Orchestra jazz band, and Frank Capra’s American “Why We Fight” series.

Required Readings

Textbooks

• Smith, On Political War, Chapter 7, “The Nazis,” pp. 141-158; and Chapter 8, “Britain and America in World War II,” pp. 159-184.
• Nigel West, ed., British Security Coordination: The Secret History of British Intelligence in the Americas, 1940-1945 (1998), Part I, Chapter 3, “Contacts for Political Warfare,” pp. 17-23 Download West PW Contacts 17-23; Part II, Chapter 1, “Political Warfare Against the European Enemy,” pp. 53-65 Download West 53-65; Chapter 2, “Campaign Against Axis Propaganda in the United States,” pp. 66-87 Download West Axis 66-87; Chapter 3, “Political Warfare Against Japan,” pp. 88-101 Download West Japan 88-101; Chapter 4, “Disguised Channels of Propaganda and Rumour Spreading,” pp. 102-114 Download West Propaganda 102-114; Chapter 5, "After Pearl Harbor," pp. 115-122 Download West After Pearl 115-122; and "Postscript: Intelligence and Propaganda," pp. 123-132 Download West Intel&Prop 123-132. Also read Part III, "Economic Warfare," pp. 135-184 Download West German business 135-160 / Download West Smuggling 161-184; and Part VIII, "Organization for Secret Activities Outside the Western Hemisphere," pp. 403-444 [Didn't have time to make this pdf yet.]

Online (required)

• Viktor Reimann, Goebbels: The Man Who Created Hitler, trans. Stephen Wendt (Garden City: Doubleday, 1976), Chapter 3, “Propaganda Devours Culture,” pp. 160-209. Download Goebbels by Reimann
• Leonard W. Doob, “Goebbels’ Principles of Propaganda,” Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 14, 1950, reprinted in Robert Jackall, ed., Propaganda (New York: New York University Press, 1995), pp. 190-216. Download Doob - Goebbels Principles of Propaganda

Recommended Readings

• John W. Dower, War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War (New York: Pantheon, 1996). A study of U.S. and Imperial Japanese war propaganda and how each side dehumanized the enemy.
• William Ebenstein, Fascist Italy (American Book Company, 1939). Chapter IV discusses domestic propaganda structures and processes of the Italian Fascist party.
• Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1925), Chapter VI, “War Propaganda,” and Chapter XI, “Propaganda and Organization.” Hitler’s rambling makes this a dull read, but it its scholarly value is the source. 
• Robert Jackall, ed., Propaganda (New York: New York University Press, 1995).
• Hideya Kumata and Wilbur Schramm, Four Working Papers on Propaganda Theory (Washington: U.S. Information Agency, 1955), on the Japanese “spiritual mobilization” theory of propaganda; the propaganda theory of the German Nazis; notes on the British concept of propaganda; and the Soviet concept of psychological warfare. 
• Clayton D. Laurie, The Propaganda Warriors: America's Crusade Against Nazi Germany (University of Kansas, 1996), the first and concluding chapters. 
• George L. Mosse, Nazi Culture: Intellectual, Cultural, and Social Life in the Third Reich, trans. Salvator Attanasio et al., (Grosset & Dunlap, 1966). 
• Anthony Rhodes, Propaganda The Art of Persuasion: World War II (Secaucus: Wellfleet Press, 1987).
• Sidney Rogerson, Propaganda in the Next War (London: Bles, 1938), Chapters 1 and 4. 
• Richard Taylor, Film Propaganda: Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany (Croom Helm, Ltd., 1979). Focusing on Soviet and Nazi cinema, the book addresses film’s ability to speak to an audience and a mass. 
• Allan M. Winkler, The Politics of Propaganda: The Office of War Information, 1942-1945 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1978). Discusses U.S. propaganda at home and abroad during World War II. 
• Z. A. B. Zeman, Nazi Propaganda (New York: Oxford, 1964), Chapters II, III and VIII.
• Video: Leni Riefenstahl, director, Triumph of the Will (1934), subtitled in English.
• Video: Frank Capra, director, Why We Fight, series of six wartime documentaries (1942-1945).

Commentary: Some Hollywood comedians began tearing down the all-powerful image of the Nazis and the other Axis powers, well before the US was involved in World War II. Charlie Chaplin and the Three Stooges were the first in the US to poke holes in Hitler's carefully crafted image, as the following videos show.

Video: "I'll Never Heil Again" (1941). A short version of one of the Three Stooges' anti-Nazi satires. Moe stars as Hitler, with Larry as Goebbels and Curly as Goering (the leaders of the former kingdom of Moronica). Note among the Axis leaders is a character representing Stalin; this film was made before Operation Barbarossa in which Hitler turned against his Soviet ally. This version is edited down from the original 18 minute feature.

Video: "You Nazty Spy" (1940). The Three Stooges lampoon the Nazis in what is believed to be Hollywood's first released production ridiculing Hitler. This version is also edited down from the original 18-minute feature.

Charlie Chaplin cut down Hitler in a much different and more eloquent style than the Three Stooges did, as shown in this scene from The Great Dictator (1940). Chaplain wrote, directed and starred in this film. His Hitler character is named Adenoid Hynkel, a Jewish barber who became Dictator of Tomania.

Class 3, September 15

The Comintern: The First Global, State-Sponsored Network

  

The Industrial Revolution provided cheaper and more effective tools for the modern propagandist, a development that paralleled the rise of mass ideological movements. Modern propaganda as we know it started at the time of World War I, when opposing sides in Europe each tried to influence U.S. perceptions and policies to their military advantage.

  

The Communist International or Comintern was established in 1919 to promote world revolution but rapidly became an instrument of Soviet state policy. The appraratus organized by Willi Münzenberg to raise funds for the starving people of Russia (or more accurately, to raise funds for resources to be distributed under Bolshevik control) evolved into a network of international front organizations to promote Soviet policy through gray propaganda, and to organize political movements in support of Soviet Russia.

 

The class analyzes the successes and failures as well as the post-World War II implications, and how the theory and model of the Comintern came to be employed during the Cold War as a state-of-the-art global propaganda and political mobilization network.

  

Required Readings

• Ellul, Chapter IV, “The Psychological Effects of Propaganda”; and Chapter V, “The Socio-Political Effects.”

• Franz Borkenau, World Communism: A History of the Communist International (New York: Norton, 1939; reprinted by University of Michigan Press, 1962), Chapter 1, “Introduction,” pp. 15-21; Chapter VIII, “The Foundation of the Communist International,” pp. 161-170; Chapter XVII, “The Comintern and the Colonial Peoples,” pp. 284-295; and Chapter XXI, “The Structure of the Communist Parties,” pp. 357-375. [Note: Borkenau was an early Communist and Comintern agent. He broke with Stalin, was active in the anti-Nazi resistance, and after World War II became an important founder of the academic field of sovietology. See a quick wiki biography of Borkenau for more on his background.]

• Louis Budenz, The Techniques of Communism (Regnery, 1954). Read the following chapters as they relate to Comintern- and post-Comintern operations in the United States: Chapter VII, "The Role of the Communist Press," Download Budenz, Role of Communist Press; Chapter VIII, "Affecting Public Opinion," Download Budenz, Affecting Public Opinion; Chapter IX, "Use and Abuse of Minority Groups" Download Budenz, Use and Abuse of Minority Groups
• "Guidelines on the Organizational Structure of Communist Parties, on the Methods and Content of their Work," Third Congress of the Comintern, 1921. Scan the whole document and pay attention to Part IV, "On Propaganda and Agitation." Accessible at Marxists.org.
  

 

  Recommended Readings

• John Barron, Operation Solo: The FBI's Man in the Kremlin (Washington: Regnery, 1997). [About the Jack Morris Childs case.]
• Harvey Klehr and John Earl Haynes, The American Communist Movement: Storming Heaven Itself (New York: Twayne, 1992).
• ____ and Fridrikh Igorevich Firsov, The Secret World of American Communism (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1995).
• Steven Koch, Double Lives: Stalin, Willi Munzenberg and the Seduction of the Intellectuals (Enigma, 1994, 2004).
• Sean McMeekin, The Red Millionaire: A Political Biography of Willy Münzenberg, Moscow's Secret Propaganda Tsar in the West, 1917-1940 (Yale University Press, 2003).
• A. I. Sobolev, et al., Outline History of the Communist International (Moscow, USSR: Institute of Marxism-Leninism, Central Committee of the CPSU/Progress Publishers, 1971), “Introduction,” pp. 7-18, esp. pp. 13-18.
• Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes, & Fridrikh Igorevich Firsov, The Secret World of American Communism (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1995), Chapter 1, “Background,” pp. 3-19; Chapter 2, “Clandestine Habits: The 1920s and the Early 1930s,” pp. 20-71.
• Communist Party USA, Central Committee, memorandum “To All Districts and Sections,” outline for discussion on “Recognition and the Task of the Communists,” 12 December 1933.

 

No class on September 8; See you on the 15th

Dear Colleagues: Our substitute professor is not able to conduct class this week, so class for September 8 will be postponed until September 15. We will catch up on the syllabus, but please be sure to keep up with the readings. I emailed all of you and heard back from some of you, so please do not come in on September 8. See you on the 15th!

Class 2, September 8

Getting Us In or Keeping Us Out: War Propaganda of World War I

The Industrial Revolution provided cheaper and more effective tools for the propagandist, a development that paralleled the rise of mass ideological movements.

Modern propaganda as we know it started at the time of World War I, when opposing sides in Europe each tried to influence U.S. perceptions and policies to their military advantage. The Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in late 1917 heralded yet another type of state propaganda machine.

The World War I period became the forge in which modern propaganda in a mass society developed over the 20th Century.  This methodology has become a template for modern propaganda, though its roots date to antiquity.

This class examines mass propaganda vs. elite propaganda in the context of German, British, and, ultimately, U.S. government war propaganda. Topics include discussion of how British propaganda helped prompt the U.S. to enter World War I and was employed in an attempt to influence the 1916 presidential election. 

The U.S. government, in turn, waged a domestic propaganda campaign to mobilize the American people to sacrifice everything for the war effort.

The "Beat Back the Hun" poster illustrates President Woodrow Wilson's domestic propaganda campaign.

Required Readings

Textbooks

• Smith, On Political War, Chapter 5, “World War I,” pp. 101-118.

• Harold D. Lasswell, Propaganda Technique in World War I (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1971), entire book.

Online (Readings from Peterson, Posonby and optional Vierek readings are attached as PDFs below. They are rather large files for comparatively short documents)

• H. C. Peterson, Propaganda for War: The Campaign Against American Neutrality, 1914-1917 (University of Oklahoma Press, 1939; reprinted 1968), Preface, Chapter I, “Introduction,” pp. 3-11; Chapter II, “British Propaganda Organizations,” pp. 12-32; Chapter III, “British Propaganda,” pp. 33-70; Chapter VI, “German Propaganda and Sabotage,” pp. 134-158; Chapter XIII, “The Election of 1916,” pp. 273-282.  Download 3 Peterson 11.19MB

• Arthur Ponsonby, Falsehood in War-Time (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1928, reprinted by the Institute for Historical Review, 1980, 1991), Chapter XXIII, “Atrocity Stories,” pp. 128-134; Chapter VI, “The Mutilated Nurse,” pp. 67-70; Chapter VIII, “The Belgian Baby Without Hands,” pp. 78-82; Chapter XIII, “The Crucified Canadian,” pp. 91-93; Chapter XVII, “The Corpse Factory,” pp. 101-113; Chapter XXI, “The Lusitania,” pp. 121-125; Chapter XXIV, “Faked Photographs,” pp. 135-139; Chapter XXV, “The Doctoring of Official Papers,” pp. 140-145; Chapter XXVI, “Hypocritical Indignation,” pp. 146-151; and Chapter XXX, “Foreign Lies,” pp. 180-186.  Download 3 Posonby 12.20MB

• “A German Naval Victory,” Lusitania propaganda leaflet, 1915. (This leaflet accompanied the British copy of the German Lusitania medallion and was shown in the course presentation. Instead of reading the leaflet, which we saw on a slide in class, read the multi-page description by the Imperial War Museum of London, which states that the British version of the medal was made on the instructions of the UK chief of naval intelligence for propaganda purposes. I had neglected to say this in class; 300,000 copies were made and sold through a charitable organization to benefit wounded military men.)
  
  Recommended Readings

• United States Senate. Brewing and Liquor Interests and German and Bolshevik Propaganda: Report and Hearings of the Subcommittee on the Judiciary. 65th Congress, 1st Session, Document No. 62, Vol. 1, 1919. (In IWP library)

• George Sylvester Viereck, Spreading Germs of Hate (New York: Liveright, 1930), Part I, “An Overdose of Poison,” pp. 3-39; Part II, “Secrets of German Propaganda,” pp. 43-118; and Part V, “Irish Wit and Gaelic Candor,” pp. 215-230.  Download 3 Viereck 16.59MB

Class 1, September 1

Introduction to Propaganda as an Instrument of Statecraft

Propaganda has been an instrument of statecraft since antiquity, from the ancient empires of Rome and Athens, to Medieval and Renaissance Europe and the European age of exploration and colonization, to the American Revolution.

George Washington, in his Farewell Address, warned how foreign powers would attempt to exploit the new republic’s democratic system and the human fragilities of its elected leaders - a warning about about foreign propaganda as a weapon against American democracy.

Technology has driven propaganda’s evolution, but the target remains the same: the human mind. This class surveys the history, theory and techniques of propaganda, and discusses definitions of three types of propaganda, as well as disinformation, covert action, active measures, front organizations, agents of influence, psychological operations and related fields.

Required Readings

• [Textbook] Paul A. Smith, Jr., On Political War (Washington: National Defense University Press, 1989), Chapter 1, “The Nature of Political War,” pp. 3-28; and Chapter 2, “Antiquity,” pp. 29-51. (Can't find a copy of this book? See the "Required Readings" page for a PDF copy.)
• [Textbook] Sun Tzu, The Art of War, trans. Samuel B. Griffith (London: Oxford University Press, 1971). Read entire book, and pay particular attention to Chapter I, “Estimates;” Chapter 2, “Waging War;” Chapter III, “Offensive Strategy;” and Chapter XIII, “Employment of Secret Agents.”
• [Textbook] Jacques Ellul, Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes (New York: Knopf, 1966; Random House, 1973), Introduction by Konrad Keller; Preface; Chapter 1, “The Characteristics of Propaganda”; Chapter 2, “The Conditions for the Effectiveness of Propaganda”; and Chapter 3, “The Necessity for Propaganda.”
• George Washington, “Farewell Address,” 1796. See the following:

 George Washington's Farewell Address, 1796 (Yale Law School transcript)

George Washington's Farewell Address, 1796 (University of Virginia digitized image of original with transcript)

Several versions of Washington's Farewell Address exist. People have edited it over time to suit their own purposes. The Yale University version appears reliable. However, as a text it is not a primary source. The above University of Virginia version is the primary digital source: a faithful reproduction of the document in Washington's own handwriting, word-searchable, with a text transcript attached.  This is a good point to remember about propaganda, and how easy it is to alter primary source material. Example: The version on the US State Department website was edited to remove Washington's warning about those who express "pretended patriotism" - a mystery as to why, but the State Department took down the link after this issue was pointed out. (Don't bother to click on the link; it's been dead for years.) The current State Department reference to Washington's Farewell Address gives a summary of its contents, but no longer provides the transcript. 

For Further Reading

• Serge Chakotin, Rape of the Masses: The Psychology of Totalitarian Political Propaganda (New York: Fortean Society, 1940), Chapter 5, “Political Propaganda of the Past,” pp. 137-167.
• Angelo M. Codevilla, “Political Warfare,” in Frank Barnett and Carnes Lord, eds., Political Warfare and Psychological Operations: Rethinking The US Approach (Washington: National Defense University Press, 1989), pp. 77-109, with comments by Donald F. B. Jameson and Abram N. Shulsky.
• Nicholas J. Cull, David Cuthbert and David Welch, Propaganda and Mass Persuasion: A Historical Encyclopedia, 1500 to the Present (ABC-CLIO, 2003).
• Paul M. A. Linebarger, Psychological Warfare (WWII Era Reprint) (Washington: Infantry Journal Press, 1948), Chapter 7, “Propaganda Analysis,” pp. 110-131.
• Gustave Le Bon, The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind (London: Ernest Benn Ltd., 1896; various reprints), esp. Book II, Chapter III. Discusses the phenomenon of crowds, their psychology, morality, ideas, reasoning power, and convictions. Book II, Chapter III explores the leaders of crowds and their means of persuasion.
• Philip M. Taylor, Munitions of the Mind: A History of Propaganda (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1995, 2003). A very good historical survey of propaganda, from Ancient Greece to the present. It gives good treatment to the use of propaganda in medieval and renaissance times, traces technological developments such as gunpowder, printing, and the telecommunications and information revolutions; discusses propaganda in revolutionary warfare and total warfare. A textbook in the Political Warfare: Past, Present and Future course.

The Foreign Propaganda course is closed. But there is an alternative.

My Foreign Propaganda, Perceptions and Policy course is now at capacity and is closed to additional students. The professor would accept more students, but the classroom isn't big enough.

However, there is an alternative for those who plan to graduate in Spring 2012 and have not taken the course, but need to fulfill the requirement before graduation.

Those who are in a bind may meet with me to see if you'll be able to take Political Warfare: Past, Present and Future (IWP IR 641), on Thursday afternoons from 2:30 to 5:30, starting September 1, as a substitute. Please contact me directly for more information.

Hint: It would be a very good idea to get started on your reading

Some of you have indicated that you'd like to start reading before the semester begins. This is a good idea. The course is full and the reading assignments are rather robust.

If you do not master the readings, you will not pass the final exam.

That's not propaganda. It's just a fact.

While I don't publish the syllabus online, the following required books must be read in their entirety: Berman, Borkenau, Choate, Ellul, Lasswell, Linebarger and Smith. I recommend starting with Smith, Lasswell, Linebarger or Ellul.

The full listing of required readings is here.

For the faint of heart, there is still time to withdraw from the course, as other students are on a waiting list.

Course description

As the most influential and powerful city in the world, Washington, D.C. is under constant propaganda attack by foreign entities seeking to influence and manipulate American perceptions and policies.

You as an analyst, policymaker, or policy implementer are a regular target of foreign propaganda. You need to know how to recognize it and handle it.

This situation is a natural political reality. Those who shape public opinion or design or implement U.S. national security strategy, economic policy and foreign policy – including government officials and staff, the military and intelligence services, think tanks, news and entertainment media, and students and professors – are among the principal targets of foreign propagandists.

We can gain an understanding of modern-day propaganda, disinformation and influence operations by studying not only the memoirs of practitioners and secondary source analysis, but also by the examination of original materials.

This course combines history, communications, political science, psychology, diplomacy, warfare, intelligence, and other disciplines to show the development and deployment of propaganda, especially the modern propaganda of a mass society developed over the 20^th Century, and its refinements into the present. It combines a historical survey with a study of foreign propaganda technique.

This is a defensive course in propaganda: to help the student develop awareness and the means to neutralize the effects of foreign influence operations aimed at the United States.

The flip side of this course, Public Diplomacy and Political Warfare (IWP IR 656), offered in the spring, is designed to help the student develop awareness and means of conducting offensive propaganda abroad.

A companion course is Political Warfare: Past, Present and Future (IWP IR 641) offered in the fall on Thursday afternoons.

Course objectives & learning outcomes

COURSE OBJECTIVES

This course is designed:

• To help the student develop or sharpen an awareness of foreign propaganda that is designed to influence American attitudes and decision-making;
• To provide the student with a firm historical and methodological background of foreign propaganda and its effects;
• To prepare the student to build a resistance to foreign disinformation and propaganda that will affect perceptions and policy formation; and
• To assist the student to devise or employ countermeasures against foreign propaganda.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

• Students will demonstrate recognition and knowledge of foreign propaganda that is designed to influence American attitudes and decision-making.
• Students will demonstrate knowledge of the history and methodology of foreign propaganda and its effects.
• Students will design strategies, tactics, and methods to counter foreign disinformation and propaganda.  They will analyze and evaluate different methods.  They will devise and employ countermeasures against foreign propaganda.