Office of War Information

The Office of War Information (OWI) was established by an executive order of Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt on June 13, 1942. Its purpose was to coordinate news and information sent out by the U.S. government during World War II and to oversee domestic and foreign propaganda in support of the war effort. Under its director, the distinguished radio journalist Elmer Davis, the OWI had some solid accomplishments. Overall, though, the agency lacked sufficient resources and authority and was rent by internal disagreements. It was not completely successful in presenting a single, clear picture of American actions and intentions either to the world or to the American public.

In the years before World War II propaganda, the mass media was mistakenly believed to have an almost magical power to control public opinion. For example, Josef Goebbels, the Nazi Propaganda Minister, seemed able to create fanatical adulation among the German people for the dictator Adolf Hitler. Political scientist Harold Lasswell convincingly asserted that propaganda was an important weapon of war. Therefore, in the late 1930s and 1940s, the U.S. government created several agencies, such as the Office of Facts and Figures, to control news and information. The OWI was created to bring rational central direction to these agencies.

[Page 605]The OWI was assigned a wide range of tasks. Overseas, it explained American war aims and tried to put the United States in a favorable light. It cooperated with the military in a program of psychological warfare against U.S. enemies. The OWI broadcast news by shortwave radio to neutral, enemy, and occupied countries, and in Europe beamed German-language propaganda intended to weaken the enemy's will to fight; in addition, it dropped 800 million OWI leaflets onto enemy territory, urging Germans and Japanese to surrender. The office also sent millions of magazines and pamphlets overseas, including the glossy, 80-page magazine Victory.

The OWI's tasks at home were even more wide-ranging. The Bureau of Publications created posters and pamphlets on hundreds of subjects. The Bureau of Radio coordinated the broadcast of public service messages about the war. The Bureau of Motion Pictures made documentaries and distributed those made by other government departments. It also worked with Hollywood filmmakers to ensure that the war was treated “appropriately” in the movies. The radio networks were difficult to regulate; the OWI had little statutory authority to compel them to follow guidelines. Nevertheless, most broadcasters cooperated with the war effort, broadcasting messages about war bond and Red Cross drives, incorporating patriotic themes into entertainment programs, and creating new, warthemed shows such as Words at War and Command Performance.

Hollywood also cooperated with the war effort, but on its own terms. The OWI issued detailed guidelines for photoplays; units of American soldiers, for instance, were to be portrayed as ethnically and regionally diverse, to show that the war was being fought by and for the whole society, not any one group. Moviemakers largely conformed to these guidelines. They resisted, however, when OWI officials wanted them to emphasize serious dramas that focused on the important issues behind the war, and to forsake their usual light, escapist fare. Some serious films, such as The Moon Is Down (1943), were made, but lighthearted musicals and comedies like Blondie for Victory (1942) and Hollywood Canteen (1944) were much more common—and much more popular among moviegoers.

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