Propaganda is nothing new; it has been used for as long as there has been warfare.  Over time, with the advent of new technology the methods used to create and distribute propaganda have changed, yet the basic purposes of propaganda have remained unchanged.  According to Harold D. Lasswell propaganda has four objectives: “to mobilize hatred against the enemy, to preserve the friendship of allies, to preserve the friendship and, if possible, to procure the co-operation of neutrals and to demoralize the enemy.”1   Propaganda has traditionally been used to support armed conflicts however; it can also be used in the service of peace.  Peace movements may not try to mobilize hatred against national groups; instead, they mobilize hatred against certain actions and perhaps war supporters.  A peace movement may also attempt to demoralize those fighting in the conflict as well as any active supporters of the conflict.  Various peace movements have the same goal, that of peace, but may have different underlying principles.

Peace Propaganda

Propaganda campaigns played an unprecedented role during World War I.  Whenever there is war there are always anti-war advocates.2  The way that these groups or individuals used propaganda was not that different from the way war propaganda was utilized.  Peace propaganda, especially for the First World War as well as the Second World War, was less abundant than pro-war propaganda; in stark this contrast to the wide proliferation of war propaganda can easily be seen.  The contrast during World War I is even starker if the examination continues to the Vietnam era where peace movements and war protests are represented as part of everyday life of that time.  The lack of information on peace movement propaganda during World War I may be due to how new the study of peace is when compared to the longevity of the study of war. 

The Revolutionary War had objectors.  These were people who may have refused to fight, notably the Quakers.  In later wars many of these people would be referred to as consciences objectors.3  These groups had religious ideals at the heart of their reasoning which can be said to bring religion into the realm of propaganda.  Later those opposed to war may have had other reasons for resisting the conflict. Much of the success of the peace movements came after WWI ended.  As the world reacted in numb horror to the gruesome, and seemingly pointless, casualty figures of WWI, the anti-war propaganda of peace organizations found a more receptive audience.4  Some of this propaganda can be found in the writing and memoirs of those who participated in the war itself as well as in music.  This late rise of anti-war propaganda may have been due to the fact that war on the scale involved from 1914 through 1918 had never before been experienced.  The new technology used during the war combined with antiquated tactics in staggering carnage.  The destruction was on such a scale that the ideas of glory in war were lost as expressed by Ernest Hemmingway and others.

Peace movements in the United States began with the formation of peace societies.  These groups tended to be elitist.  They tended to be populated by wealthy men, with a few notable exceptions such as Jane Addams.5  These groups linked peace with morality and morality with progress often blaming small groups of people who they felt would benefit from war, including people that manufactured munitions or benefited from the conflict monetarily.6  Speeches and documents that spoke out against conscription ultimately spoke against warfare.7  Peace through force, pacifism or international cooperation; these all are forms of peace.  Since peace was and is preferred to war what sort of peace should be made?8  Many of the people involved in the peace movements wanted peace through international law and cooperation.

The response of the U.S. government to some of the movements proved quite surprising. The federal government prevented much of the anti-war propaganda from being circulated by barring its printing and distribution.9   The Sedition Act was passed in 1918 and the Espionage act of 1917 to prevent speaking out against government actions.  Government agencies all employed censorship.  The pre-war peace parties did not remain unchanged by the outbreak of World War I.  These groups often became fractured and support was divided internally and many began to support the war efforts of the various countries.10  Perhaps they became victims of the war propaganda of their time.  These movements however were not entirely lost through the war and many survived into the post-war period.  The ideas that these groups espoused did find their way into some parts of mainstream society.  Schoolbooks were changed in a manner showing that many believed nationalism was to blame for the war.11  Also authors published books with anti-war sentiments.  In the aftermath of World War I many of the fractured peace societies stabilized.12  The ideal of international cooperation and law to prevent war were to be forged into the League of Nations and later the United Nations.  Despite how little is taught about the peace movements they still have proved to have a profound impact on the lives of those who lived then and now.

War Propaganda

War propaganda took on a variety of forms such as speeches, posters and songs.  This form of propaganda tended to take on a more direct feel.  The posters and other propaganda formats were designed to speak directly to individuals.  The four objectives of propaganda are easy to find in much of the propaganda for the First World War.  The most effective war propaganda manages to include most if not all of the four objectives.  The propaganda for war seemed to have a larger social influence.13  Those who supported the conflict or were swayed by propaganda could create public pressure on others and attempt to sway or humiliate them.  Newspapers were and are a subtle source of propaganda.14

War propaganda can be directed to any number of groups.  The target could be the civilian population of the country producing it to galvanize the people for war and rally support either through enlistment or monetary spending.  These often showed some sort of benefit to giving or a greater threat from inaction.  The enemy in these sorts of posters in World War I and World War II were depicted as some sort of animal.  The target could be the enemy troops or civilian populations.  These forms of propaganda would be used to dishearten the enemy or gain support, or at least apathy from the population in the opposing country.15  Propaganda has been credited with a share in the destruction of the German empire in 1918.16  Propaganda can also target neutral counties in an attempt to bring them into the war.  From the beginning of the war British propaganda followed a policy that was meant to bring the United States into the war to join the Allies.17

After entering the war, the United States government created the Committee on Public Information through executive Order 2594.18  This committee was headed by a journalist named George Creel and was often referred to as the Creel Committee.  This group of men had to accomplish all the aims of propaganda.  To do this they printed poster and recruited lectures called the Four Minute Men.  This name was derived from the idea that the speeches and lectures that they presented should only last four minutes.19  This forced the speakers to be direct.  This committee faced a problem that was unique to the United States.  The population was largely immigrants and their first generation descendants.  These various ethnic groups would have to be united in the war efforts of the United States despite the backgrounds of the citizens.20 

Propaganda can also found its way into the educational system.  During World War I there was a call to bring military training and activities into the schools to prepare people for war.  This idea was largely opposed by the majority of female educators.21  The posters and speeches supporting war needed to turn the war into a struggle of good against evil.  A goal such as that cannot be obtained by simply expounding how the war started be it for imperialism, money or even religion.  The enemy must appear wrong to the point of evil and propaganda was used to create that illusion.  Now the posters of gorillas and rats as the enemy are largely gone.  However, the subtle methods still remain today radio, newspaper and television shape how people see the world and the conflict that arise can be made into struggles against evil without the poster and speeches.  Technology has advanced the art of propaganda to the extent that making the distinction between perception and propaganda can be difficult.

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1. Harold D. Lasswell, Propaganda Technique in the World War (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., LTD. 1927) p. 195.

2. Francesca M Cancian, James William Gibson,  Making War Making Peace: The Social Foundations of Violent Conflicts  (Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1990) p. 225

3. H.C. Peterson and Gilbert C. Fite, Opponents of War 1917-1918 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1957) pp. 121-138.

4. Cancian and Gibson, Making War Making Peace p. 229.

5. Peace Movements in America, Charles Chatfeild, ed. (New York: Schocken Books, 1973) p. 27.

6. Ibid., p 29.

7. Ibid., p. 51.

8. For a discussion on the types of peace see: David P. Barash and Charles P. Webel, Peace and Conflict Studies  (London: Sage Publications, Inc., 2002)

9. Ibid., p. 46.

10. Ibid,.

11. Ibid,. p. 230.

12. Ibid,.

13. H.C. Peterson, Propaganda for War: The Campaign Against American Neutrality, 1914-1917 (University of Oklahoma Press, 1939.) p. 33

14. Ibid,. p. 159.

15. George G. Bruntz, Allied Propaganda and the Fall of the German Empire in 1918 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1938) p. 189.

16. Ibid,.

17. H.C. Peterson, Propaganda for War pp. 33, 229.

18. Susan D. Becker and William B. Wheeler, Discovering the American Past: A Look at Evidence, vol II (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1994) pp. 129-130.

19. History Matters, “Four Minute Men: Volunteer Speeches During World War I” http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/4970/ (4 Dec 2005).

20. Becker and Wheeler, Discovering the American Past p.132.

21. See: Susan Zeiger, “The Schoolhouse vs., the Armory.” Journal of Women’s History 15, no. 2 (2003): 150-180.

Great Britain encouraging solidarity in its allies.

Central Powers propaganda targeting the enemy soldiers and population.

United States encouraging support for the war through contributing money to the war. It makes the call personal by attempting to demonstrate the cost of nonparticipation.

This poster targets men to enlist.  It shows a woman (liberty?) being carried by a non-human brute.  The beast is given the traditional German infantry helm and a club labeled "Kulture." The cost of not enlisting is clear liberty and the traditional culture of the United States.

Great Britain targeting the United States to enter the war.  Liberty clad in a U.S. flag watches as a German man-dog feasts on the people of Europe

Poem Read by Four Minute Men

Attention, Mr. Farmer Man, and listen now to me,

and I will try and show to you what I can plainly see.

Your Uncle Sam, the dear old man who’s been so good to you,

is needing help and watching now to see what you will do.

Your Uncle’s in the great world war and since he’s entered in

it’s up to every one of us to see that he shall win.

He’s trying hard to “speed things up” and do it with a dash,

and so just now he’s asking you to aid him with your cash.

Remember, all he asks of you is but a simple loan,

and every patriot comes across without a single moan.

Should Uncle Sammy once get mad (he will if you get lax),

he then will exercise his right, and make you pay a tax.

Should Kaiser Bill and all his hordes, once get across the Pond,

d’ye think he’ll waste his time on you, and coax to take a bond?

Why no, siree. He’d grab and hold most everything he saw.

He’d take your farm, your stock and lands, your wife and babies all.

He’d make you work, he’d make you sweat, he’d squeeze you till you’d groan.