Effective Mongolian propaganda interferes with trade in Western Europe. Rumors of an imminent invasion lead the inhabitants of Gothia, Sweden to cease sending their ships to buy herring on the coast of England. Unsold fish glut the English market and international trade collapses as western Europe cowers in fear of the Mongol onslaught.
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1750 Rousseau on the Arts
The Academy of Dijon offers a prize for an essay addressing the question whether the restoration of the arts and sciences has tended to purify morals. J.-J. Rousseau publishes his "Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts" which answers the question in the negative. Rousseau attacks the arts as instruments of propaganda which tend to increase the riches of the few. The essay expresses his lifelong belief in the fundamental conflict between human nature and the institutions of society. He believes that human nature is essentially good but that civilization has a corrupting influence. He concludes that material progress begets competition and envy, undermining authentic human relationships. Rousseau's controversial essay wins the prize.
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1861 The Confederate Press
The newspapers of the South suffer shortages of ink and newsprint, and in some cases have to move to stay ahead of the Northern armies.
Correspondents are often commissioned officers, and their optimistic propaganda can change a retreat into a "retrograde maneuver."
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1868 Seward's Icebox
The United States buys Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million (less than 2 cents an acre). Expansionist Secretary of State William Seward, who also favors acquisition of the Danish West Indies (the Virgin Islands) and Hawaii, negotiates the treaty for two years, transferring Alaska or "Seward's Icebox" from Russia to the United States. The treaty is ratified by Congress after much propaganda and many bribes by Russian Baron and Minister to the United States, Eduard de Stoeckl.
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1914 Parker's Mailing List
Sir Gilbert Parker assesses the American Press, and the ways it can be influenced. He compiles a mailing list of Americans liable to influence public opinion, and uses the list as the basis for a campaign of propaganda. He will report to the British Cabinet of his success in "the permeation of the American Press by British influence."
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1914 PWAC
The Parliamentary War Aims Committee, financed by funds reserved for Her Majesty's Foreign and other secret services, is established to coordinate British Propaganda during World War I. The Kaiser is portrayed as a beast, and the Germans successfully hung with the epithets, "Hun" and "Boche." Goebbels will pattern his World War II organization on the British model.
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1915 The Lost Atrocity
Henri Barbi of Le Journal and Edmund Candler of The Times both write pieces on the massacre of Armenians by the Turks. Unfortunately, in the fog of war reportage and propaganda, their real stories are lost in the confusion.
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1916 Committee On Public Information
To whip up the "people's righteous wrath," during World War I, newly elected President Wilson uses $5 million of discretionary funds to establish an office of propaganda, The Committee On Public Information. The idea is to drum up public support for Britain, and boost volunteers for the conscript army. At its peak it has 500 executives, and an additional 10,000 staffers.
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1916 Parker's Direct Mail Campaign
Sir Gilbert Parker assesses the American Press, and the ways it can be influenced. He compiles a mailing list of Americans liable to influence public opinion, and uses the list as the basis for a campaign of propaganda. He will report to the British Cabinet of his success in "the permeation of the American Press by British influence."
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1917 July Days, Bolsheviks Banned, Lenin Flees
After a disastrous Russian military offensive there is extensive Bolshevik organization and propaganda aimed at winning support of the increasingly radical masses. Russian sailors from the Kronstadt naval base spark violent demonstrations, called the "July Days", in the first mass confrontation between the Bolsheviks and the Provisional Government. Loyal troops eventually restore order and the Provisional Government outlaws the Bolshevik party and arrests Trotsky. Lenin goes into hiding in Finland where he will write The State and Revolution, his core theoretical text.
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1917 The German Corpse Factory
In one of the most successful pieces of propaganda of World War I, The Times reports that the Germans are "distilling glycerine from the bodies of their dead." Though false, the story runs again and again. The Germans are no better, with stories of an English hospital with "a whole bucketful of (German) soldiers' eyes."
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1918 Assassination Attempt on Lenin
During the Left Socialist Revolutionary uprising in June, the Communist Propaganda Commissar, V. Volodarskiy is assassinated. Two months later on the day of the assassination of M. S.Uritskiy, Chief of the Cheka (secret police), Lenin is shot twice by socialist revolutionary Fanny Kaplan while leaving a factory after giving a speech. Lenin survives, adding to his personal mystique. This leads to the Sovnarkom Decree in September and the "Red Terror," granting the State the legal right to eliminate dissenters and counter-revolutionaries.
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1919 Dearborn Independent
The Dearborn Independent is published by Henry Ford. He uses his newspaper to promote his own political career and spread anti-semitic propaganda.
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1919 The Ministry of Information
By the end of World War I the PWAC and the Press Bureau have expanded into the Ministry of Information, headed by Lord Beaverbrook. The editors of the Times, the Express, the Daily Mail, the Evening Post, the Chronicle and Reuters all cooperate. All propaganda files and records will be destroyed after the war.
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1928 Disney Empire
Mickey Mouse is born to Walt Disney who creates immensely popular cartoons such as Snow White and Fantasia. But it is war time propaganda projects that keep the studios afloat. Disney goes against the wisdom of the time to create color, full length animation and by going into television. By the 1960s Disney will bring in $100 million a year. Twenty years later, nephew Roy Disney at Walt Disney Productions will have a revenue of $3.4 billion.
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1932 The Glorious Chicoms
The Chinese Communists, though they are nowhere engaged in conflict with the Japanese, seize a propaganda opportunity by declaring war on Japan. Chiang Kai-Shek continues to fight the Communists, declaring that "the Japanese are a disease of the skin, the Communists are a disease of the heart."
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1935 German Recovery
In Germany, the government of Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler embarks on a massive program of public works to end unemployment. Many are put to work building an impressive system of highways, the autobahnen. Many more go to work in war industries. Hitler is rearming Germany in defiance of the Treaty of Versailles. The relentless propaganda campaign directed by Joseph Goebbels restores business confidence and Germany enjoys a remarkable economic recovery.
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1936 Koestler's Agitprop
Arthur Koestler, thought to be an honest, professional reporter, publishes a book, "Spanish Testament." Its harrowing details of Nationalist atrocities cause a wave of revulsion against Franco. Koestler will later admit he wrote the book with the help of Willi Muenzenberg, the Soviet Agitprop (Agitation and Propaganda arm of the Comintern) chief in Paris.
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1939 Ministry Of Propaganda
At the outset of the war, the German Ministry of Propaganda, headed by Dr. Josef Goebbels, skillfully manages the news. Where the British clamp down on all journalism, Goebbels welcomes reporters with open arms to Berlin, giving them special food and petrol rations, settling their bills, and even providing a retreat. However, correspondents whose copy does not satisfy the Ministries review are subjected to increasing degrees of harassment.
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1939 PK
Internal news reporting in Germany is handled by the PK (Propaganda Kompanien), a division of the Army under the control of Major General Hasso von Wedel. Most German Journalists are conscripted, and expected to fight when necessary. Their main role is to "influence the course of the war by psychological control of the mood at home, abroad, at the Front, and in enemy territory."
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1939 The Boer War
In the months preceding active hostilities between Allies and Germany, the PK makes headway by releasing propaganda about the strength of the Siegfried line (actually at the time unfinished), and the non-aggressive intentions of the Germans. Loudspeakers at the front broadcast messages designed to divide the French and the British.
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1940 Wingate's Propaganda
Colonel Orde Wingate mounts an "offensive propaganda operation" against the Italians. Former reporter and now British officer George Steer accompanies Haile Selassie back to Addis Ababa to be restored to the throne.
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1941 The Office Of Censorship
After Pearl Harbor, the US attacks the problem of the manipulation of information in earnest. The Office of War Information is set up with a $40 million budget under Elmer Davis to handle propaganda. Censorship is a separate activity, under the guidance of Byron Price, former executive news editor of the Associated Press (AP) at the Office of Censorship.
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1943 Unconditional Surrender Scares Germans
German propaganda minister, Paul Joseph Goebbles, effectively uses the Allied decision to insist upon unconditional surrender following World War II in exhorting the German people to fight to the end. Critics later argue that the Germans might have surrendered earlier had a less harsh term been used.
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1953 Chinese and Soviet Schism
China complains that the Soviet Union is not honoring its 1950 Sino-Soviet friendship treaty during the Korean War. The Chinese have just used up a Soviet $300 million loan (for Soviet goods and technical aid), and desire more financial aid than the Soviet texts and propaganda constantly flooding into China. When Stalin dies, the Soviet government seeks to appease China. The Soviets don't balk when Gao Gang, China's pro-Soviet economic and manufacturing planner, is ousted from office and his policies are turned around. Though the Soviets extend more aid to China next year, the Chinese question Soviet economics and seek to reduce Soviet control in China.
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1961 Kennedy's Unconventional Warfare
Before Congress, John Kennedy describes revolutionary warfare as: "They have fired no missiles, and their troops are seldom seen. They send arms, agitators, aid, technicians and propaganda into every troubled area. But where fighting is required, it is usually done by others - by guerillas striking at night, by assassins striking alone... by subversives and saboteurs and insurrectionists, who in some cases control whole areas of independent nations... We need a greater ability to deal with guerilla forces, insurrection and subversion and we must help train local forces to be equally effective." In response, the Navy forms the SEALs (Sea Air Land Teams), and the Air Force develops the Air Commandos. The Army expands the ranks of its Green Berets.
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1967 Arab-Israeli Tensions Heating Up
Relative stability between Israel and her Arab neighbors begins to disintegrate. Egypt has been prohibiting Israel from using the Suez Canal, periodic border clashes have broken out on Israel's borders with Syria and Jordan, and the Arab countries have been boycotting Israeli exports. But now, anti-Israel propaganda is heating up in Egypt, Syria and Jordan, and border clashes are becoming more frequent and dangerous. Egypt masses troops on their border with Israel and asks the United Nations to withdraw its police forces from the Sinai and Gaza. Egyptian President Nasser closes off the Gulf of Aqaba to Israeli shipping and signs a pact with Jordan to put her armed forces under Egyptian command. Tension is building and the Western powers can't diffuse it.
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1981 Blowback
Claire Sterling's article, "Terrorism: Tracing The International Network" is published in the New York Times Magazine. In the coming months it will cause a reevaluation of US policy on terrorism, and inform the assertions made by Secretary of State Alexander Haig in a press conference. A small part of Sterling's information has come from an Italian press story on the "Red Brigade," which is itself a part of a CIA covert propaganda effort.
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1981 Finding On El Salvador
President Reagan signs a top secret finding calling for propaganda and political support for the Christian Democrats in El Salvador. Though El Salvador is the target, Reagan claims to be acting to thwart the actions of the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua, and Fidel Castro's effort in Cuba to export Marxist revolution into Central America.
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1990 Disinformation?
Newspapers, radio and television stations in Iraq put forth a variety of stories about the American forces in Saudi Arabia. They claim that 40% of the troops are HIV infected and that the US plans to dump nuclear waste in the Saudi desert. They claim, too, that American troops have slaughtered Saudi demonstrators. The Voice of America and BBC broadcasts into Iraq have been jammed. Islamic sensibilities are disturbed by frequent reminders that the Americans drink alcohol and eat pork.
But for wartime propaganda to be most effective, the deepest fears of the Iraqi and perhaps other Arabic peoples must be tapped. The threat that the Americans will not leave now that they have a chance at controlling the oil fields upon which their country 's economy depends is their fear; and many Americans share it.
