pa history: from bunker hill to baghdad

Lt. Col. Richard Goldenberg

Joint Force Headquarters, NY National Guard

“From Bunker Hill to Baghdad”

Military Public Affairs

The military requires public

understanding and support.

The military requires a command

information program for success in

combat, recruiting and retention.

Public affairs is a command

responsibility.

Honesty is the best policy, even when

the news is bad.

“Cynics, I know, describe “PR” as a maternity gown designed to hide the true figure of fact. Undoubtedly, as abused by those who cover up or mislead, public relations can be stigmatized as mere propaganda or outright mendacity.

“Properly practiced, however, some form of it is necessary in a republic where the citizens must know the truth.”

-- General Dwight D. Eisenhower

“Public Affairs fulfills the Army's obligation to

keep the American people and the Army

informed, and helps to establish the

conditions that lead to confidence in

America's Army and its readiness to

conduct operations in peacetime, conflict

and war.”

-- Office of the Chief of Public Affairs

Mission Statement

“Impress on the mind of every man, from

first to least, the importance of the cause

and what it is we are contending for.”

-- General George Washington

“The American soldier is unlike any other

soldier in the world. With a normal

soldier, you give him an order and he

follows it. With an American soldier, you

must first explain to him the reason for the

order ... and then he will follow it.”

-- Baron von Steuben

Letters and pamphlets for the public.

Media of that day were neither timely nor

reliable, so Washington took his case

directly to public officials and the people.

Tell the truth -- good news and bad – so

colonists would know what support was

needed.

Washington believed you needed to have

a valid reason to not release information.

The telegraph • The telegraph greatly increased the speed at which

people could get news and information across the country.

• American Telegraph Company appointed military supervisor to ensure compliance with censorship

Photojournalism • The American public was confronted with black and

white imagery of war.

War Correspondents • Widespread practice of what we might today call

“embedding media.”

“Public sentiment is everything. With public

sentiment, nothing can fail; without it

nothing can succeed.”-- Abraham Lincoln

A turning point in wartime information

The Committee on Public Information• The Creel Committee floods the media with

positive reporting in lieu of censorship

Information is a strategic commodity

The gov‟t “sells” the war to the nation• Pamphlets and speakers program

• Pershing‟s Crusaders (1918), Signal Corps film

• …and implements Espionage and Sedition Act

Lack of good news• The war was a slaughter beyond anything ever seen.

News became a strategic commodity• News from the front became a strategic commodity

since truth would threaten American public support. Leaders feared they couldn‟t report what was really happening on the front lines.

National effort to control news• What emerged was a coordinated federal campaign

to withhold the facts. Instead, the federal government would rely on patriotic slogans and images to build and maintain public support.

• The “Three Minute Men”

“A censor can have no friends,” because he

was a “professional no-man.” The

propagandist, by contrast, was a

“professional yes-man” whose business is

to make friends.

-- Maj. Frederick Palmer, PAO to General

John Pershing, American Expeditionary Forces

The Office of War Information• Pentagon controls release of information in the

Bureau of Public Relations The Army Hour radio program on NBC every Sunday

The Office of Censorship• Does not subscribe to propaganda techniques

• Separate and distinct from release of information

• Voluntary cooperation from news media outlets

The speed of information flow increases• Radio the primary source of news

“I believe the old saying „public opinion wins

wars‟ is true. Our countries fight best when

our people are best informed.

“You will be allowed to report everything

possible consistent with national security. I

will never tell you anything false.”

-- General Dwight D. Eisenhower

This photo, in which three

American Soldiers lie dead in the

sand on Buna Beach in New

Guinea, was taken in February

1943, but was not published until

September.

It was the first time an image of

dead American troops appeared in

LIFE during World War II without

the bodies being draped, in

coffins, or otherwise covered up.

George Strock's Buna Beach

photo and other graphic pictures

were finally OK'd by the Office of

War Information's censors, in part

because FDR feared that the

American public might become too

removed from events on the front.

“One cannot wage war under present

conditions without the support of public

opinion, which is tremendously molded by

the press and other forms of propaganda.”

-- General Douglas MacArthur

“It is the job of the public relations officer to

assist the commander in cementing this

partnership with the public by providing

accurate, full and unbiased information.”

-- Lt. Gen. J. Lawton Collins,

Chief of Information, War Department

A fundamental shift in media relationshipLoss of senior military credibility

• Excessive classification of information

• The „five o‟clock follies‟

• The military found itself drawn progressively into politics, to the point that it had become as involved in "selling" the war to the American public as the political appointees it served

Reporting of war efforts from enemy sideResults? A disconnect in messages to the

American public between the media and the government.

“This was the first struggle fought on

television in everybody's living room every

day... whether ordinary people can sustain

a war effort under that kind of daily

hammering is a very large question.”

-- Dean Rusk, U.S. Secretary of State

Technology changes everything. Again.• The U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 was the most

widely and closely reported war in military history.

• The first time in history that military on the front

lines were able to provide direct, uncensored

reporting themselves.

Media embeds allowed journalists to

embed with combat units without a PAO.• Controversy over embed as a co-opt of

journalists

“It's almost like we've surrendered the information battlefield and said, 'Well, we don't play by the same rules as them because we have to tell the truth,'”

“The key is, we've got to be first with the truth. So we've got to build systems that do that.”

-- Lt. Col. Shawn Stroud, former director of strategic communication, U.S. Army Combined Arms Center in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

The first time in history that military on the front lines were able to provide direct, uncensored reportage themselves.

As the security situation worsened, many journalists depend even more heavily on U.S. military sources, which has led critics to call into question the impartiality of their reports.

Insurgent attacks spiked by 5-10% after increases in negative media reports.

“In a counterinsurgency, the media battlespace is critical. When it comes to mustering public opinion, rallying support and forcing opponents to shift tactics and timetables to better suit the home team, our terrorist enemies are destroying us.

“While our enemies chronicle their successes and our failures, we have an “embed” system that is so ineptly managed.

“Many blame the media for the estrangement, but part of the blame rests squarely on the chip-laden shoulders of key military officers and on the often clueless Combined Press Information Center in Baghdad, which doesn‟t manage the media so much as manhandle them.”

-- Michael Yon, Blogger

“Our Iraqi counterparts occasionally need to

be reassured of our commitment. And I

think the enemy periodically has to be

reminded of our determination.”

-- Gen. David H. Petraeus, April 5, 2007

The military requires public

understanding and support.

The military requires a command

information program for success in

combat, recruiting and retention.

Public affairs is a command

responsibility.

Honesty is the best policy, even when

the news is bad.