pa history: from bunker hill to baghdad
DESCRIPTION
Discussion of public affairs efforts through US Military history for the PRSA Capital District ChapterTRANSCRIPT
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.