Browsing
through the Brighton library recently, I came across a video
from a 1982 PBS mini-series titled “A Walk Through the 20th Century.” This
particular installment was called “World War II — The Propaganda Battle,”
narrated by Bill Moyers. Being a history buff,
especially about World War II, I checked it out.

The
film compares how propaganda, or public information, was handled by the United
States and the Axis Powers, especially Nazi
Germany, before and during the war. And the contrasts between the Nazi approach
and the American could not be more striking.

The
main effort in America was through a
series of films called “Why We Fight,” produced by Hollywood’s Frank
Capra. Before the series was started, Capra met with General George Marshall,
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. In this meeting, Marshall stressed
above all else that the films be entirely truthful, because the truth and the
right were clearly on our side.

The
films, which were shown to the American armed forces, civilians, and people the
world over, emphasized the virtues of American life, such as freedom of speech
and the press. They even showed people speaking out against entering the war
before Pearl Harbor.

They
didn’t show massive armies being put into action or regimentation of American
life. Rather, they emphasized the citizen soldier being called upon to defend America and
civilization. To make the case, the films used an accurate depiction of the
historical record leading up to the war, and they used excerpts from the Nazis’
own propaganda films to demonstrate what we were up against. The American films
depicted the Nazis as a polar opposite of what America stood for at
that time.

The
Nazi propaganda films were of an entirely different orientation. First and
foremost, the story they portrayed was mostly false. The invasion of Poland was presented
as a preemptive war launched because Poland was
threatening Germany, and the
Poles supposedly welcomed the Germans as liberators. The invasions of Norway, France, and Russia were also
presented as preemptive strikes in anticipation of hostile actions.

Even
more important is the depiction of how the German home front was prepared for
the war. Again, falsehood was the key, and regimentation of thinking and action
were the objectives. The appeal to nationalism was prominent: Flags were
everywhere, and the national leaders were always surrounded by military
uniforms and displays of power. The slogan of the time was “One People, One
Leader, One Nation.” The obvious implication: If you
deviated from that norm, you were a traitor.

Fritz
Hippler, the man in charge of the Nazis’ filmmaking,
told Moyers that the films were expected to emphasize
simple themes, and they were to repeat them over and over. It was the Big Lie
Technique at work: Germany was
threatened and had to defend itself against the evils of Communism, the Jews, the plutocrats of the West.

The
Nazi propaganda never mentioned the conquest of an empire. All news was
censored, and journalists were strictly controlled. Casualties or military
burials were not to be shown. German military might was to be emphasized, and
the word blitzkrieg (shock and awe?) was coined to intimidate future victims.
Films of early German triumphs were widely distributed to show the futility of
resisting German might.

Democracy
and propaganda, Moyers noted, are uneasy partners. And
it’s clear that Moyers feels the US propaganda
during World War II is an example of a truthful and responsible effort to
explain the war. Sadly, the Bush administration is not using this approach in
explaining the Iraq war. The
propaganda efforts at work today, unfortunately, tend toward the example of
Nazi Germany. This is a hard truth to accept, and many would violently
disagree. And certainly no one would compare the behavior of the US to that of
Nazi Germany. But if we look at what’s happening today, the parallels to the
Nazis’ propaganda are all too evident.

The
America of today is
not the America of 1941. In
World War II, we were literally fighting for our lives against a regime of
unparalleled barbarity determined to dominate the world. And the Germans had
the power to win. Today the United
States is the world’s overwhelming national
power. And with that power we are creating an empire.

We
have major military bases in 38 countries and some form of military
establishment in 153 countries. Since World War II, we have attacked or
intervened in 25 countries and have had a hand in the overthrow of 17
governments. Some of these actions were justified. Many were not. With the Cold
War at an end, exactly who is this military colossus aimed at? A small band of
terrorists?

But
it’s a harder sell to convince people to go to war to defend an empire rather
than to protect their country. And so we use false propaganda to justify the
war. In his recent book “Sorrows of Empire,” Chalmers Johnson cited several sorrows
that will soon be upon us as we move forward on the imperial road. We will be
in a perpetual state of war constantly creating new animosities, he says.
Smaller nations will try as never before to get weapons of mass destruction to
ward off the American juggernaut. There will be a loss of democracy and
constitutional rights at home. The principle of truthfulness will be replaced
by false propaganda, disinformation, and glorification of war. And lastly:
there will be financial collapse as the cost of empire becomes unsustainable.

All
these “sorrows” are clearly in motion.

The
optimist in me says that eventually the American people will see through what
is happening and demand different political leadership. The sooner the better.

This article appears in May 4-10, 2005.