This Cold War era film – originally titled as "Defense Against Enemy Propaganda" – is an episode of the U.S. Army's "The Big Picture" television series. It was released in circa 1957.
This film examines enemy propaganda and its danger to American way of life. It is an absorbing film presentation set in an exhibit room containing examples of media such as pamphlets, posters, broadcasts, and photographs, which were used by the enemy (primarily by the Soviet Union) to disseminate propaganda. A member of the Office of Special Warfare, whose job it is to recognize propaganda, describe its purpose, and discuss the methods of dissemination that may be utilized, narrates this film as stock footage and original shots of enemy propaganda are shown. The film concludes with the lesson that the best defense against enemy propaganda is the ability to recognize it for what it really is – lies and distortion with little or no basis in fact.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND / CONTEXT
Propaganda is information that is not objective and is used primarily to influence an audience and further an agenda, often by presenting facts selectively to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded language to produce an emotional rather than a rational response to the information that is presented. Propaganda is often associated with material prepared by governments, but activist groups, companies and the media can also produce propaganda.
In the twentieth century, the term propaganda has been associated with a manipulative approach, but propaganda historically was a neutral descriptive term. A wide range of materials and media are used for conveying propaganda messages, which changed as new technologies were invented, including paintings, cartoons, posters, pamphlets, films, radio shows, TV shows, and websites.
The West and the Soviet Union both used propaganda extensively during the Cold War. Both sides used film, television, and radio programming to influence their own citizens, each other, and Third World nations. The United States Information Agency operated the Voice of America as an official government station. Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, which were, in part, supported by the Central Intelligence Agency, provided grey propaganda in news and entertainment programs to Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union respectively. The Soviet Union's official government station, Radio Moscow, broadcast white propaganda, while Radio Peace and Freedom broadcast grey propaganda. Both sides also broadcast black propaganda programs in periods of special crises.
(Black propaganda is false information and material that purports to be from a source on one side of a conflict, but is actually from the opposing side. It is typically used to vilify, embarrass, or misrepresent the enemy. Black propaganda contrasts with grey propaganda, the source of which is not identified, and white propaganda, in which the real source is declared and usually more accurate information is given, albeit slanted, distorted and omissive. Black propaganda is covert in nature in that its aims, identity, significance, and sources are hidden.)
When describing life in capitalist countries, in the US in particular, propaganda focused on social issues such as poverty and anti-union action by the government. Workers in capitalist countries were portrayed as "ideologically close". Propaganda claimed rich people from the US derived their income from weapons manufacturing, and claimed that there was substantial racism or neo-fascism in the US.
When describing life in Communist countries, western propaganda sought to depict an image of a citizenry held captive by governments that brainwash them. The West also created a fear of the East, by depicting an aggressive Soviet Union.
George Orwell's novels Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four are virtual textbooks on the use of propaganda. Though not set in the Soviet Union, these books are about totalitarian regimes that constantly corrupt language for political purposes. These novels were, ironically, used for explicit propaganda. The CIA, for example, secretly commissioned an animated film adaptation of Animal Farm in the 1950s with small changes to the original story to suit its own needs.
How to Recognize Propaganda | Cold War Era Educational Film | ca. 1957
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NOTE: THE VIDEO REPRESENTS HISTORY. SINCE IT WAS PRODUCED DECADES AGO, IT HAS HISTORICAL VALUES AND CAN BE CONSIDERED AS A VALUABLE HISTORICAL DOCUMENT. THE VIDEO HAS BEEN UPLOADED WITH EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES. ITS TOPIC IS REPRESENTED WITHIN HISTORICAL CONTEXT. THE VIDEO DOES NOT CONTAIN SENSITIVE SCENES AT ALL!
The federal government pitched a sizeable increase to the alcohol
excise tax earlier this year — only to walk back that commitment in
response to backlash from some MPs, lobby groups and cost-conscious
Canadian drinkers.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland's budget kept the annual tax increase much lower than inflation — it'll grow by just 2 per cent
this year — after a well-organized letter-writing campaign convinced
the government that the political repercussions of such a hike weren't
worth the relatively modest revenue bump.
There was similar
blowback when the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA)
recently issued new drinking guidelines that claimed no amount of alcohol is safe.
The recommendation prompted derision
from some who said the health professionals behind the research are
fun-averse teetotalers bent on needlessly worrying people about the
risks of wine, beer and spirits. The government-funded data still hasn't
been posted publicly by Health Canada.
These incidents reveal
just how deeply entrenched alcohol is in Canadian life — and how
reluctant the government is to crack down on drinking.
"You
know, alcohol is the favourite substance of many policymakers and
indeed for a lot of us. It has sort of an iconic cultural status.
Politicians — they don't want to do much about it," said Dr. Tim Naimi,
the director of the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research at the
University of Victoria.
"It's the leading cause of preventable
death in Canada. It's the government's job to protect Canadians from the
tremendous harms caused by alcohol. For some reason, they feel
threatened by the facts."
At least one politician wants to do something to curb consumption.
Quebec Sen. Patrick Brazeau is a recovering alcoholic. His struggles with addiction have been well-documented.
Sober for three years, Brazeau now wants other Canadians to avoid the potentially life-altering effects of alcohol abuse.
"If
you had told me 10 years ago I'd be sober and introducing a bill to
label alcohol products, I would've told you you're crazy,"
Brazeau told CBC News. "I was drinking way too much because I was
hurting inside. I was trying to kill the pain."
Sen. Patrick Brazeau has introduced Bill S-254, which would mandate health labels on all alcohol bottles. (Olivier Hyland/CBC News)
Brazeau said alcohol is the only known carcinogen that comes without warning labels.
He's introduced Bill S-254, which would mandate health labels on all alcohol bottles alerting consumers to the possibility of cancer.
Tobacco, vape and cannabis packages are already plastered with dire warnings, he said, and alcohol shouldn't get a pass.
"There's still a lot of taboo around alcohol — it's so widely accepted in our society," he said.
"But
alcohol is not good for us and we have to stop pretending that it is.
[It] doesn't seem there are too many people on Parliament Hill, elected
officials, who are willing to take the bull by the horns and do
something."
According to data collected by Naimi's institute,
about 25 per cent of Canadian drinkers have no idea that alcohol can
cause seven fatal cancers.
Other jurisdictions have tried to publicize these risks.
Liquor
labels, including one warning that alcohol can cause cancer, were
placed on alcohol containers at a store in Yukon by researchers. (Supplied by Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research)
Researchers in Yukon placed warnings on liquor bottles in 2017.
The results were immediate — sales dropped by 6.6 per cent at
a Whitehorse store as more consumers saw the prominently placed red
labels. The project was scrapped amid pressure from some industry
groups.
A spokesperson for Spirits Canada, a lobby group that
represents the distilled spirits industry, did not respond to a request
for comment on Brazeau's bill. Beer Canada has said the industry can regulate itself.
A cash cow for governments
Governments depend on liquor sales to generate billions of dollars in revenue to fund public programs.
Drinkers — about 76 per cent of all Canadians consume alcohol in a given year — are understandably reluctant to pay more for a product that, statistics show, many regularly enjoy.
Some drinkers
also bristle at the suggestion that moderate consumption is a problem,
and defend alcohol as one of life's little pleasures.
While much
attention has been paid to the ongoing opioid epidemic — a tragic health
event that has claimed the lives of thousands of Canadian drug users —
publicly available data reveals there's a parallel crisis underway.
Dr.
Tim Naimi, the director of the Canadian Institute for Substance Use
Research at the University of Victoria, holds a can of corn. He says
food packages contain nutritional information and alcohol bottles should
be no different. (Michael Mcarthur/CBC News)
"The opioid epidemic is a massive public health problem, but we have a very serious problem with alcohol, too," said Naimi.
"It's
just that alcohol has been with us for a long time. We've essentially
learned to live with a high rate of problems from many, many years."
Canada recorded 3,875 alcohol-induced deaths in 2021, according to the latest data from Statistics Canada — a 21 per cent increase over 2019 that likely was driven by a pandemic-related spike in consumption.
Other Canadian research suggests alcohol is even more deadly than those numbers suggest.
A
peer-reviewed study published by the Public Health Agency of Canada
suggests alcohol consumption in Canada is associated with approximately 15,000 preventable deaths (including 7,000 cancer deaths) and 90,000 preventable hospital admissions every year.
(Preventable
deaths from alcohol are defined as alcohol-related cancers,
cardiovascular disease, liver disease, unintentional injuries and
violence.)
Those
numbers closely track what's been reported in the U.S., a country with a
population almost ten times that of Canada. The United States
reports about 140,000 alcohol-related deaths each year.
While
the government has rolled out a suite of policy measures to curb
opioid-related deaths — there are more safe-consumption sites now and
naloxone kits are ubiquitous — it's said comparatively little about what
can be done to reduce alcohol-related death and disease.
Data shows that about 20 per cent of Canadians reported alcohol consumption that classified them as "heavy drinkers," according to Statistics Canada.
The
numbers are higher in Newfoundland and Labrador (27.7 per cent) and
Quebec (21.2 per cent) and lower in Manitoba (16 per cent) and Ontario
(17.3 per cent).
A
pandemic-driven boom in alcohol-related deaths and disease has prompted
health advocates to call for warning labels on alcohol bottles. (Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press)
Over
the past decade, about 600,000 Canadians have become physically
dependent on alcohol — a condition that can lead to injuries, violence,
alcohol poisoning, risky sexual behaviour, heart disease, stroke, liver
disease, cancer and mental health problems.
While alcohol is a cash cow for all levels of government, researchers say that profit is dwarfed by other costs.
The
provincially owned Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO), the world's
largest alcohol importer, generated an annual dividend of roughly $2.4 billion in 2020-21.
I have 26 years left in the Senate so I'm in it for the long haul.
- Sen. Patrick Brazeau
By comparison, the collective impact of alcohol use on health care, crime and lost productivity has been pegged at an estimated $22.4 billion a year —
a figure higher than the costs of tobacco use and the costs of all
other psychoactive substances combined, including opioids and cannabis —
according to research by Naimi's institute in Victoria.
"This is a
big ticket item. Taxpayers are footing the bill for what amounts to ...
a subsidy on alcohol and heavy drinking in particular," Naimi said.
A
spokesperson for federal Mental Health and Addictions Minister Carolyn
Bennett said the government will "continue to monitor" Brazeau's bill as
it makes its way through Parliament.
As for the charge that it
hasn't done enough to curb problem drinking, the spokesperson said
"alcohol use is a serious and complex public health and safety issue."
Government won't support bill, Brazeau says
The
government is investing in programs to prevent alcohol use during
pregnancy, funding substance use and addiction support programs,
restricting alcohol content in some beverages and financing research,
the spokesperson said.
Brazeau knows he's facing an uphill battle.
In a meeting with Bennett, the minister told Brazeau the government likely won't support his bill, he said.
He's also routinely approached by lobbyists who are intent on killing the legislation, he added.
Brazeau
said he's getting some support from other senators to push the
legislation to committee — but he's not naive about the challenges that
lie ahead in taking on such a popular vice.
"I have 26 years left in the Senate so I'm in it for the long haul," he said.
Referring back to his now infamous boxing match with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Brazeau said, "I'm not afraid of getting in a fight or getting knocked around."
