impartial-looking agency to which to carry an appeal against propaganda.
The anti-radio measures included poster and leaflet operations. Illus-
tration #2 shows a German attempt to refute Allied claims that the Waffen-
SS (militarized Hitlerite elite guard) was a gang of thugs and murderers;
the German leaflet shows the enemy broadcaster as a Jew saying, "I accuse
the men of the Waffen-SSI"--of such things as believing in the future, want-
ing to help France, preventing recurrent world wars, being heroic soldiers.
126.
TYPES OF CIVILIAN AUDIENCES.
Civilian audiences for
both radio and leaflet propaganda were often divided into five categories:
a. The home audience;
b. Allies;
c. Friendly or impartial neutrals;
d. Enemy satellites and hostile neutrals;
e. The enemy audience.
Different programs had to be worked out in each case.
127.
THE PROPAGANDA OUTPOST. For home, allied, and
neutral audience, it was possible for the propagandists to move into the
city with the audience, to rent an office, go talk to local newspapermen,
make arrangements with local theaters, and carry on through the normal
procedures of publicity. The picture exhibit and the "cultural" enterprise
were among the major undertakings. (Things which were not entertaining
enough to be called recreation were frequently listed as "culture"--special-
ized lectures, exchange of professors, etc.) The propaganda outpost pos-
sessed the inestimable advantage of direct contact. When the outpost was in
a neutral country, it provided a channel through which material could be
given to visiting enemies; or the neutral press, circulating in enemy terri-
tory, could be primed with items calculated to do psychological harm to
the enemy.
128.
NEWS LEAFLETS.
For both civilian and military enemies,
news was one of the main forms of United Nations propaganda against the
Axis and enemy-occupied countries. The free nations had a more open
news policy, so that the Germans could not use news as freely in reprisal.
For civilian audiences, this took the form of miniature airborne newspapers
dropped over the enemy by plane. When the military situation became static,
such newspapers were dropped on enemy troops as well (see Illustrations
#6 and #10). When great events occurred, it usually was found more im-
pressive to get out a special news leaflet summarizing the event. Often
these were prepared in advance (D-Day; Russo-Japanese war; fall of Paris);
sometimes they had to be worked out at top speed (Roosevelt's death;
atomic bomb; Japanese offer to surrender).
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