Total Cold War
Subtitle: Eisenhower's secret propaganda battle at home and abroad
By: Kenneth Osgood.
Publisher: University of Kansas
Published: 2006
Place of publication: Lawrence
Language: eng
Number of pages: 506
Subjects: Eisenhower, Dwight D. 1890-1969 -- Political and social views; Cold War; Propaganda, American -- History -- 20th century; Psychological warfare -- United States -- History -- 20th century; United States -- Foreign relations -- Soviet Union; Soviet Union -- Foreign relations -- United States; United States -- Foreign relations -- 1953-1961
Description: "Kenneth Osgood now chronicles the secret psychological warfare programs America developed at the height of the Cold War. These programs - which were often indistinguishable from CIA covert operations - went well beyond campaigns to foment unrest behind the Iron Curtain. The effort was global: U.S. propaganda campaigns targeted virtually every country in the free world. Total Cold War also shows that Eisenhower waged his propaganda war not just abroad, but also at home. U.S. psychological warfare programs blurred the lines between foreign and domestic propaganda with campaigns that both targeted the American people and enlisted them as active participants in global contest for public opinion. Osgood focuses on major campaigns such as Atoms for Peace, People-to-People, and cultural exchange programs. Drawing on recently declassified documents that record U.S. psychological operations in some three dozen countries, he tells how U.S.

propaganda agencies presented everyday life in America to the world: its citizens living full, happy lives in a classless society where economic bounty was shared by all. Osgood further investigates the ways in which superpower disarmament negotiations were used as propaganda maneuvers in the battle for international public opinion. He also reexamines the early years of the space race, focusing especially on the challenge to American propagandists posed by the Soviet launch of Sputnik. Perhaps most telling, Osgood takes a new look at President Eisenhower's leadership. Believing that psychological warfare was a potent weapon in America's arsenal, Ike appears in these pages not as an uninterested figurehead, as he's often been portrayed, but as an activist president who left a profound mark on national security affairs.

Osgood's distinctive interpretation places Cold War propaganda campaigns in the context of an international arena drastically changed by the communications revolution and the age of mass politics and total war. It provides a new perspective on the conduct of public diplomacy, even as Americans today continue to grapple with the challenges of winning other hearts and minds in another global struggle." --Book jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Regimenting the public mind : the communications revolution and the age of total war; title: A new type of cold war : Eisenhower and the challenge of coexistence; title: Camouflaged propaganda : psychological warfare's new look; title: Secret empire : psychological operations and the worldwide anticommunist crusade; title: Spinning the friendly atom : the Atoms for Peace Campaign; title: The illusory spirit of Geneva : propaganda and the new diplomacy; title: Every man an ambassador : cultural propaganda and the People-to-People Campaign; title: Facts about the United States : the USIA presents everyday life in America; title: A new "Magna Carta" of freedom : the ideological warfare campaign; title: The power of symbols : psychological strategy and the space race.