The war of words How America's GI journalists battled censorship and propaganda to help win World War II

One of the reasons history has such a thorough accounting of World War II is thanks to countless soldiers who wrote about their personal experiences in letters, journals, and small, self-published pamphlets and newspapers. What Manning (When Books Went to War, 2014) reveals in War of Words is just how much the efforts of these soldier-journalists contributed to Allied victory. They helped counter the efficient and extensive Nazi propaganda machine. They helped augment traditional Western media outlets, thus keeping people informed and bolstering morale. Most importantly, they added to the flow of intelligence, enabling Eisenhower and his generals to plan more effective campaigns. They also helped put a human face on the devastation and the tragedies wrought by the Nazis, particularly accounts written by those who helped liberate the concentration camps. Manning's history will help readers appreciate the efforts of Allied soldiers to defeat one of the greatest evils in human history and the invaluable role the written word plays in such struggles. This book should be required reading for students of history and journalism.

In this eye-opening account, historian Manning (When Books Went to War) delves into the pivotal role amateur U.S. troop newspapers played in WWII. In 1942, Army Chief of Staff George Marshall revitalized the Army's tradition of unit-based newspapers with the distribution of field kits "brimming with printing gear," including mimeograph machines, on which the mostly novice journalists cranked out their newssheets. At a time when the press around the world was censored (even American newspapers were corralled by the U.S. government into a voluntary program of "self-regulation"), troop journalists on the Western front counterpunched against Nazi propaganda and kept soldiers well-informed. (In the Pacific theater, on the other hand, unit newspapers under the domineering Gen. Douglas MacArthur bristled with "the rancor, depression, and resentment" of censorship.) Army soldier-journalists in the field, "dazed by the horror of combat and the prospect of death," documented critical moments in history: for example, the May 11, 1945, issue of the 42nd Rainbow Division's Rainbow Reveille was absent its "usual swagger and humor" because it focused its coverage on the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp. Based on letters and newspaper extracts, Manning's vital study draws liberally and poignantly on soldiers' own words. It's an essential contribution to the history of WWII. (Sept.)