Total Cold War: United States propaganda in the 'Free World,' 1953--1960

This dissertation explores the nature, scope, content, and impact of U.S. propaganda during the Eisenhower presidency. Although many associate propaganda and psychological warfare in the Cold War context with aggressive campaigns to “liberate” Eastern Europe and to “pierce the Iron Curtain,” the most important propaganda activities of the United States actually took place on the other side of that curtain, in the so-called “free world.” This dissertation reveals that allies, neutral nations, and domestic audiences were the critical targets of U.S. psychological warfare, and it argues that, far from being a peripheral aspect of the U.S.-Soviet struggle, the competition for hearts and minds was one of the Cold War's principal battlegrounds. The ideological competition with the Soviet Union for the allegiance of the world's peoples suffused all U.S. actions and policies with psychological significance. Propaganda concerns, referred to in official circles as “psychological strategy,” permeated diverse aspects of U.S. foreign relations, including trade and economic aid policy, space exploration, cultural exchange, tourism, and diplomatic negotiations—not to mention the production, publication, and distribution of ideas.; Eisenhower, and many of his advisors, recognized that the Cold War was as much a psychological and ideological contest as it was a military and economic one. Eisenhower tried to apply the nation's experience with total war to the unique circumstances of the Cold War by emphasizing that such factors as economic development, diplomacy, culture, technology, religious beliefs, ideas, and the behavior and practices of ordinary Americans ranked alongside hydrogen bombs and ballistic missiles as vital weapons in the U.S. arsenal. Moreover, the administration enlisted the services of ordinary Americans, prominent citizens, civic organizations, women's groups, labor organizations, and virtually every arm of government in its propaganda campaigns. The Eisenhower administration thus blurred any lingering distinctions between “domestic” and “international” propaganda. The administration not only “targeted” the American public; it enlisted them as active participants in the war of persuasion being waged abroad.