Allied Propaganda and the Collapse of German Morale in 1918

Abstract

In no other war in history has propaganda played so important a part as in the world conflict of 1914-I8. Although most of us know the extent to which the neutral countries were bombarded with propaganda from the civil authorities of the Allied and Central powers, few of us perhaps realize the importance placed upon propaganda as an instrument of warfare by the military authorities. The destruction of the enemy morale by the dissemination of defeatist, disheartening, and revolutionary leaflets, pamphlets, books and propaganda news sheets, was recognized as an important part of the offensive against the enemy. While the Allied artillery, for instance, was pounding the German troops with shells, the propaganda sections were bombarding these same troops and the German people behind the lines with arguments. The seriousness with which this attack of word bullets was regarded by the military machines on both sides, and the effect that Allied propaganda had upon the morale of the German troops and civilians behind the lines, is the story of the paragraphs that follow. During the first two years of the war the governments were busy with the task of bringing public opinion at home to war pitch, and with the more strictly military side of the war. But by 1917 propaganda was recognized as a valuable instrument of offensive