After drilling troops during the American Revolution, Baron Friedrich von Steuben reportedly noted that although one could tell a Prussian what to do and expect him to do it, one had to tell an American why he ought to do something before he would comply. Although such individualistic thinking is part of the democratic genius of American society, it also complicates efforts to train and educate citizen-soldiers.
For more than three decades, the U.S. Army's Troop Information program used films, radio programs, pamphlets, and lectures to stir patriotism and spark contempt for the enemy. Christopher S. DeRosa examines soldiers' formal political indoctrination, focusing on the political training of draftees and short-term volunteers from 1940 to 1973.
DeRosa draws on the records of the army and the Department of Defense's information offices, the content of the indoctrination materials themselves, and soldiers' recollections in analyzing the political messages the nation conv
Trade Review
“Very well researched, rich with detail and supporting anecdotes, and evenhanded. . . . DeRosa’s book reads very well due to his thorough research.”—Susan Canedy, Journal of American History
"I commend this study to those who wish to understand the Army's efforts to produce not just efficient soldiers, but citizen soldiers who truly believed in what they were asked to do."—John W. Mountcastle, Journal of Political and Military Sociology
Table of Contents
Introduction 1. Anxious to Work Bodily Destruction: Political Indoctrination in World War II; 2. The Morale and Whatnot of the Army: Indoctrination Institutionalized in the Postwar Army; 3. OAFIE's Voice: Political Indoctrination in the Korean War; 4. An Arsenal of Democracy: The Armed Forces' Cold War Information Materials; 5. Morale and the Muzzle: The Political Indoctrination Program Besieged; 6. Information's Impossible War: Political Indoctrination in the Vietnam War Epilogue: Retreat from Political Indoctrination
