III. Experience of World War II
¶18. THE NAZIS AS PROPAGANDISTS. In order to gain control
of Germany, the National Socialist German Workers' Party, as Hitler
called himself and his followers, had to use psychological warfare methods
in time of peace. This was made possible by the breach of faith between
Left and Right in Germany, each of which had become acutely conscious of
propaganda. (The Left, KPD, or German Communist Party, was so propa-
ganda-sensitive that all considerations of constitutionalism or internal
security had to be reviewed on the assumption that other parties were
propaganda-conscious and that every political move was filled with propa-
ganda value. This stultified their own effectiveness. The anti-Nazis never
united successfully.) The Nazis cynically tried to learn from Communist
experience and soon gained a mastery of mass media. They used posters,
rumor campaigns, personal intimidation, mass rallies, radio, and a
coordinated press. They learned strategic psychological warfare tech-
niques--simplicity, clarity, repetition, splitting the opponents, alternate
appeasement and intimidation of antagonists--on their way to power with-
in Germany. Once in power, they subordinated their politics to propaganda.
T19. EFFECTS OF OVER-EMPHASIZED PROPAGANDA.
The
Nazis over-did propaganda to the extent that neither the Nazi party members
nor, even less, the German people could tell what they really wanted. They
could not even find out what Germany as a whole was doing or planning to
do. The government controlled all news, entertainment, radio, telegraphs;
the mails were not secret; publishing was under license. Opposition had to
be violent and illegal ("purges"). Secret police and internal espionage
used terror against the home population. This gave the Germans a united
country. They did not have to worry about cheap, insincere, or fatuous
opposition. They did not have to put up with foreign or private propaganda.
But they paid a terrible price for this false security, since they lost all
chance of finding out their own true economic, political or legal position.
By being too suspicious of outside propaganda, they made themselves the
utter, willing dupes of Hitlerite propaganda. Propaganda not only put
Hitler into power; it helped to keep him there after all other parties were
"unified" into the Nazi party or else suppressed, and after criticism and
opposition gave the Germans no further chance to check up on him or to
oppose him, except through high treason. The evils of the private press
were ended; the evils of a single-party system and a controlled press were
greater.
120. THE CONQUEST OF AUSTRIA AND CZECHOSLOVAKIA.
After achieving power within Germany, Hitler began applying the same
tactics in his foreign affairs. He called the bluff of the Allies by re-
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