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By the eve of World War I, the inventions from which modern psychological
warfare techniques were developed had already appeared -- the printing
press, telegraph, telephone, wireless, camera and various combinations
of the above.
Psychological warfare during World War I was exercised through political
warfare and tactical propaganda (airborne and artillery - fired leaflets).
Wireless (voice radio) was not developed for effective psychological
warfare during World War I. Before 1914, Germany stood alone among the
great powers to carry on systematic propaganda. While other governments
occasionally engaged in special propaganda campaigns for a definite ob-
jective, German propaganda was continuous and widespread.
The national propaganda agency was an emergency wartime department of the
United States government known as the "Creel Conittee,"' so called because
the chairman of the Committee of Public Information was George Creel. It
was a well organized committee, charged with both domestic and foreign
propaganda. This committee had the normal problems of stimulating wartime
morale, and it proceeded vigorously on the domestic front. Opposing the
committee's efforts were Irish-.American,German-American and isolationist
groups. It served the press by systematizing the government's information
policy. It carried war messages to the nation through techniques that
used standardized orators, posters, advertisements, cartoons, civic clubs,
women's organizations, theaters and movies.
In General Pershing's headquarters in 1918, as a "G-2D" Section was organ-
ized to supervise "psychological warfare." Tactical leaflets provided the
principal means of battle-area propaganda on the Western Front. A variety
of leaflets were used:
1. Surrender leaflets.
2. Standard forms on which German prisoners could notify their families
-heir safety.
3, Pictures of well-fed prisoners in American hands.
4. Political attacks on the Kaiser.
5. Political attacks on Prussian control of non-Prussian Germany.
6. News of war, especially when favoring the Allies.
7. Attacks on Gernan profiteers.
8. News of starvation and suffering on the German Homefront.
9. News of the continuous flow of American troops to the American
sectors of the Western Front.
10. News of the democratic aims of the Allies.
Prominent German political and military leaders have credited the Allies
with effective professional propaganda, even blaming Germany's defeat
directly on Allied propaganda. While these German confessions in them-
selves were propaganda (the Germans being unwilling to admit loss of the
war by weight of arms alone), nevertheless, psychological warfare played
an important role in the World War I victory. Demorilization among the
German troops during the final months of the war was evident -- caused by
tactical propaganda used in conjunction with the continued success of the
Allied armies.
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United States. Air Force. Psychological Warfare, paper, April 1962; [Universal City, Texas]. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth907150/m1/4/: accessed June 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting National WASP WWII Museum.