Word War the Story of American Propaganda - Hardcover

Sorensen Tc

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060139536 ISBN 13: 9780060139537

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2000

Synopsis

Public opinion, right or wrong, wise or foolish, is the voice of the people, and there are few nations - even the least democratic - where it does not largely determine the course of history. This book is about our government's efforts to influence foreign public opinion.

The story begins with World War I. Before 1917, it mattered little what others thought of us; they were too remote to affect our destiny. In the last half-century, however, we have learned-often unhappily-that there are few spots on earth so remote that what happens there cannot have an impact here. The attitudes of Vietnamese villagers, for example, have been more important to us in recent years than the opinions of the crowned heads of Europe and Asia.

Among other things, the book relates the never before told story of the U.S. Information Agency's role in the major postwar crises, including: Suez and Hungary (1956); the U-2 fiasco of 1960; the Bay of Pigs (1961) and the Cuban missile crisis (1962); Vietnam; the impact of Kennedy and Johnson on world opinion; the effect of civil rights controversy on American foreign policy; the strengths, weaknesses, and relationships of various men in high places as they affected our image abroad; and previously unpublished data on how the world views this country and its leaders.

Mr. Sorensen spent most of the 1950s as a government Information Officer abroad, and found that merely "informing" people was not enough. "We had to make a case for our views, as others were doing for theirs. We had to be advocates, persuaders - propagandists. We did not lie, or distort the news, or subvert the media, but neither were we disinterested. We accomplished no miracles, but had we not been propagandists we would have accomplished nothing," he writes.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0060139536
• ISBN 13: 9780060139537
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 337