propaganda--whatever it may be called for courtesy's sake--as a tool of
government. Careful scrutiny of what the propaganda is designed to do
will give indications of what is wrong inside the country concerned. Few
nations, for example, are capable of waging aggressive war without get-
ting their own people ready for war. If a foreign country accused the United
States to its own people of being power-mad, imperialistic, meddlesome,
threatening and aggressive, while broadcasting to us nothing but fairly calm
news materials, it might indicate that:
a. The country was preparing to launch a surprise attack on the
United States, the leaders using our alleged aggressiveness
as preparation for the statement, "The Americans shot first!",
while not exciting us any more than possible, before the attack; or
b. Conditions in the country concerned were so bad that the leaders
tried to calm internal discontent by provoking the U.S. into a mud-
slinging contest, which would fill the front pages of the papers and
would rally the people behind their government.
The utterances of a controlled press or controlled radio in an unfree nation
always mean something; nothing is done spontaneously or privately for
private enjoyment. Government control is directed at given purposes. Prop-
anal can uncover most of those purposes.
Military in-
147. PROPANAL AND MILITARY INFORMATION.
formation can be derived from the tone, timing, emphasis, and purpose of
enemy broadcasts. The Germans predicted a new, secret weapon before
they used the V-1; the German predictions dropped off when the launching
ramps on the French coast were bombed; when the ramps were repaired,
the predictions went up in number. This helped to confirm the supposition
that the ramps had an organic connection with the secret weapon which
Goebbels and Hitler had promised. General enemy intentions and commit-
ments can be measured against propaganda; propanal becomes a useful
auxiliary source when the propaganda habits of the source are well known.
21
