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"Throughout history, war planners have used various forms of deception to trick their enemies. Because public support is so crucial (to wage war), the home population is also subject to deceitful stratagems. The creation of false excuses to justify going to war is a major first step in constructing public support...."
"The corporate media (are) central to the success of" manufacturing consent. So is repetition to blot out other narratives. Media giants and PR wizards are master mind manipulators, marshaling public support for war.
It works the same way every time. Truth is suppressed. Public fear is stoked. Patriotism and democratic values are highlighted. People are manipulated to support war to protect national security. Wilson claimed entering WW I "kept the world safe for democracy."
During the WW II buildup, anti-war proponents were called subversives and Nazi sympathizers. Once begun, anti-German/Italian/Japanese propaganda censored media and other communications to enlist support. Other techniques included posters, advertising, comic books and cartoons, leaflets, and films extolling America and portraying the axis as bad guys.
Steven Casey's ground-breaking book titled, "Selling the Korean War : Propaganda, Politics, and Public Opinion in the United States" analyzed Truman and Eisenhower administration efforts to shape public discourse, influence media coverage, and gain popular support for limited conflict and anti-Soviet Cold War policies.
He also showed how Truman officials redefined war as it continued with mounting casualties. His analysis used previously unavailable archives, including government documents, papers of leading congressmen, newspaper editors, and war correspondents. His book's the definitive word on how public opinion was manipulated during America's "forgotten war."
Noam Chomsky calls the Vietnam War "a classic example of America's propaganda system." Major media scoundrels let doves and hawks debate, but "(b)oth sides agreed on one thing. We had a right to carry out aggression," but refused to admit it took place.
America's presence was called defense against enemy aggression. "Like the Soviets in Afghanistan, we tried to establish" a pro-US Saigon regime. Escalation led to invasion. Anti-war activists on principle were banned from public discourse. "The debate was essentially over tactics," not legitimacy.
Over time, anti-war sentiment grew, especially after the January 1968 Tet Offensive and June 1971 Pentagon Papers release. They showed the Johnson administration lied to the public and Congress. Gallup Polls showed 70% of Americans thought Vietnam was "fundamentally wrong and immoral, not a mistake."
Opposition produced the "Vietnam Syndrome." Chomsky called it "a grave disease in the eyes of America's elites because people understand too much."
He also discussed months of propaganda preceding Congress voting on contra aid in March 1986. He reviewed 85 New York Times and Washington Post editorials and op-eds. All were anti-Sandanista. Opposition opinion was suppressed despite Nicaragua directing popular social services in contrast with repressive US allies Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.
Of course, all wars are based on lies. When major media scoundrels suppress truth, administrations get away with murder.
It was true in Central America, Grenada on the pretext of rescuing medical students, manufactured incidents to oust Panama's Manuel Noreiga, entrapping Saddam Hussein to invade Kuwait that launched the Gulf War, 9/11 as pretext to attack Afghanistan and continue a decade of imperial wars against nonbelligerent states.
In April 2007, Washington Post writer Tom Shales headlined, "A Media Role in Selling the War? No Question," saying:
"It's always depressing to learn that you've been had, but incalculably more so when the deception has resulted in thousands of Americans dying in the Iraq war effort" based on lies.
As in all wars, the more people rely on television for news, the less they know, and more susceptible they become to government and media propaganda.
