| From 1940 through 1945 the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (OCIAA) organized a significant propaganda program utilizing movies, radio, press, and advertising. The main focus of the OCIAA information campaign was directed toward Latin America, to mobilize Latin American governments and people to support the U.S. in the war effort, but the OCIAA also needed to mobilize the U.S. public to support its economic programs in Latin America. Thus the OCIAA's psychological war was waged on two fronts and the major media to reach U.S. audiences was film—feature films, theatrical shorts, newsreels and educational documentaries. This study examines the film campaign designed for the U.S. audience and focuses on how the OCIAA used film to elicit domestic support for the Good Neighbor Policy during World War II. It surveys the activities of the Motion Picture Division of the OCIAA, its influence and interaction with the feature film and newsreel industry, and its support of independent producers for production of nontheatrical documentaries. It analyzes the films produced or influenced by the OCIAA to draw connections between U.S. foreign policy, government relations with the media industries of the 1940s and the role of popular culture in international affairs.; The body of films influenced or sponsored by the OCIAA reflects broader concerns than wartime hemispheric solidarity. The choice of subjects and the presentation of women, indigenous peoples, race and class differences, industrial development, and social welfare programs also presented long-term foreign policy goals, conveyed messages about U.S. domestic relations and policies during a time of social and cultural upheaval, and indicated how the government viewed the role of the U.S. public within foreign policy process.; The OCIAA represented a deliberate shift from the turn-of-the-century ideology as it created propaganda programs to re-form public notions of Latin America. The film program of the OCIAA and its work with Hollywood studios, newsreels, and independent documentary filmmakers would lay the ground work for post-war propaganda and the government's continued role in trying to shape how U.S. citizens view the world and their role in it. |
