Photo By Erin Thompson | Christmas card produced by the G-2 in France, c.1918. The bottom left (G-2D) shows a...... read more read more
by Erin E. Thompson, USAICoE Staff Historian
PROPAGANDA ADDED TO MILITARY INTELLIGENCE WORK
On 14 February 1918, the Psychological (Propaganda) Subsection was added to the MI-2 Section of the War Department’s Military Intelligence Division (MID). MI-2 handled foreign intelligence within MID’s Positive Branch during World War I. As part of that effort, the Psychological Subsection collected and analyzed foreign propaganda for counter-propaganda purposes.
During World War I, Military Intelligence was internally organized by function, with each section being abbreviated “MI” with a corresponding number. MI-2 was the section dedicated to the “collection, collation, and dissemination of foreign intelligence.” The section employed numerous intelligence research specialists who prepared foreign intelligence studies and estimates for other sections in the MID. Within MI-2, assignments were further subdivided by duties.
On 14 February 1918, the Psychological (Propaganda) Subsection of MI-2 was activated to study foreign propaganda and liaise on psychological warfare operations. Capt. Heber Blankenhorn was initially the unit’s only employee. Prior to joining the Army, he served as the city editor for the New York Evening Sun newspaper. By June, given the subsection’s high volume of work, Blankenhorn was joined by ten more officers. He and six men departed for France in July 1918. This team included four men commissioned specifically for the unit, like Capt. Walter Lippmann, a former editor of the magazine New Republic.
In France, Blankenhorn’s team was tasked with studying foreign and enemy propaganda materials and supplying analysis and data for various Allied propaganda organizations in France, England, and Italy for the purposes of psychological and counter-propaganda operations. The organization coordinated with American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) general headquarters to prepare a propaganda drive across enemy lines for the fall of 1918. Once the AEF crossed into Germany, the Psychological Subsection would assist propaganda efforts against civilians there and in Austria-Hungary. The Army’s main priority for propaganda efforts during World War I was “truth-in-propaganda,” as telling the truth resulted in far more civilian engagement in the war effort and was notably more effective on enemy troops. Blankenhorn later wrote, “for the first time in the history of military operations the truth was used as an effective weapon.”
While overseas, Blankenhorn also liaised frequently with the Committee on Public Information (CPI), which oversaw domestic and overseas propaganda operations for the U.S.; CPI Chairman George Creel; chief of the MID and head of the CPI’s Foreign Section, Brig. Gen. Marlborough Churchill; and U.S. Secretary of War Newton Baker. As the team’s work progressed, it also provided information for the U.S. State Department and “the Inquiry,” a high-level planning group preparing for eventual peace negotiations and postwar civil affairs.
The successes and qualifications of the Psychological Subsection and its personnel led to the transfer of all wartime propaganda efforts from CPI to the Army. Although the subsection held no authority or responsibility for executing propaganda operations, it soon began training personnel for this purpose. The subsection prepared approximately three million leaflets that were dropped over Europe in the few months it operated and played a crucial role in diminishing enemy morale, a fact substantiated by several high-ranking German military officials after the war.
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| Date Taken: | 02.09.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 02.09.2024 14:44 |
| Story ID: | 463605 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 106 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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