Why Did The Usa's Use Of War Propaganda

WWI was the beginning of the USA’s extensive usage of war propaganda, and it was also the beginning of the vices of the USA’s war propaganda: exaggeration, misrepresentation and deception. As the USA became a more effective propagandist during WWII, war propaganda was even more corrupted by these vices. However, to conduct wars of such scale, the United States needed to sacrifice some level of morality in order to manipulate and harness public opinion properly.
War propaganda’s purpose is to establish a common enemy and to unite a nation against that common enemy, and there are specific techniques to execute this properly. A nation must use propaganda to give a purpose to those who fight: patriotism and a common enemy. Additionally, propaganda
To utilize this tools effectively the information must be presented in “simple and familiar language,” not even mentioning opposing viewpoints. An example of suggestion would be a commercial claiming that a medicine will eliminate “that tired and run-down feeling.” The delivery of the propaganda in simple and familiar language allows for the propaganda to be easily understood as well as its ideas to be easily discussed or adopted. The absence of any mention of an opposing viewpoint would suggest that what is said is fact rather than opinion, further increasing its potency as propaganda. Another method of propaganda is to analyze the common opinions of the target audience and to leverage those opinions. A powerful propagandist takes passion-fueled topics and takes advantage. Words like “justice,” “constitution,” “Americanism,” and “law and order” were used to inspire support, for these were the values held most dearly by United States society. A powerful propagandist would also the words “racial” or “un-American” to inspire anger among its audience at this time. Important words like these trigger an almost instant
President Woodrow Wilson was a religious man, and he felt it was his God-given duty to spread the American values he preached: democracy, open-door capitalism, and peace. He felt so strongly about these values, that he was willing to go to war for this cause. To demonstrate these purposes of war to his people, Wilson established the Committee on Public Information, which took advantage of recent technological advances to craft propaganda. This was the United States’ first propaganda agency, and it began a daily newspaper to circulate 100,000 copies daily. By the end of the war, this agency created and distributed millions of pamphlets. The largest war the world had yet seen, a president on a mission to spread American values, and technology suitable for mass production created the perfect storm for the beginning of widespread propaganda in the United States. The CPI even built an army of speakers called the “Four Minute Men,” who attempted to inspire patriotism in moviegoers with short speeches. Cartoons and films were all a part of the CPI’s plan to “recruit soldiers, sell war bonds, and foster support for the war effort.” The advances in the media as well as advances in technology allowed the CPI and its propaganda to be more involved in the citizens’ lives than it ever could have before. By the start of the war, there were 1,750 movie theaters in the