biguity or alternative thinking is allowable. It has often been asserted bycritics that propaganda films make bad entertainment: Hitchcockdemonstrated that good entertainment can make equally bad propaganda. The films are relatively unknown until their re-release approximately 50 yearslater. The United States also produced on a large scale propaganda films andnewsreels. Every week a person could go to the movie theater and before themovie started expect to see a newsreel about the war , or war effort that wasbeing fought on our own shores. Even our F.D.R. was known to be filmed ingiving a speech to the American people. Reaching out to the people of theUnited States to pull together as one and stand up to the forces of the day thatthreatened their freedom was a big undertaking indeed. Allied propaganda efforts were aimed at separating the peoples of theAxis nations from their governments, which were solely to blame for the war. The United states attempted by sustained campaigns to win to their side thegreat masses of uncommitted people and thereby achieve their goal. Butthrough the use of film they were able to gain support just like the Germanshad with their own propaganda. And just like the German’s we too hadspecial organizations in charge of doing just that for the people of ourcountry. During the war the offices in charge of propaganda was the Office ofWar Information (OWI) in charge of disseminating information at home andabroad, and the Office of Strategic Service (OSS), charged with conductingpsychological warfare against the enemy. Working together they both provedvery effective in gaining support at home and abroad. One thing that wasdifferent how ever was the fact that once the first concentration camps wereliberated, and even before this, we didn’t have to distort the truth about whatwas going on. What was happening was plain as day, German aggressionwas in plain view and so was the atrocities they were...
