War and Propaganda Is Hearsay,

War and Propaganda

Propaganda is hearsay, word of mouth or information that is most of the time shaded in the color of deception to gain certain ends that serve the interests of agency propagating it. Thus propaganda is basically a systematic effort to persuade and convince, and normally carried out by projecting the strong points of one party while completely downplaying the efforts or qualities of rival side. Fundamentally it's a campaign to reach out to masses by means print, electronic and all other means of communication. Given the scale and magnitude of this exercise it is ostensibly understandable that the governments are the key players of it. It acquires special significance at the time of war and is important in two dimensions, the first dimension targets the citizens and potential sympathizers who ought to be convinced that their cause is right and they are quite capable of rising up to the challenge and vanquishing the enemy. The second dimension involves enemy and in this all the tricks in the book are used to demoralize and disarray the enemy population and troops. '

The country is America and the period was later part of 18th century, this was the time and country that made indelible marks on history. It presents to us the perfect case study of phenomenon "war and propaganda." This was the time when the glory of British Empire reigned supreme, there is a proverbial saying regarding the British Empire; giving the fair idea of its vastness at that time according to it "sun never set(s) in the British Empire" while technically speaking it was true but its usage was predominantly for the propaganda purposes, it projected the sense of invincibility of the British Empire and also used to demoralize and intimidate the possible dissidents. Against all odds the American colonies were able to break asunder the shackles of slavery and won independence from the British rule for number of reasons but the prime and foremost among them was the sheer determination and desire on the part of people to have control of their lives and be able to express themselves freely. Speaking of odds that American people faced during their struggle were: Britain had well recognized and in fact best navy in the world; the United States had no navy, Britain had well trained army and also large number of mercenaries to accompany their regular troops from all over the world; in the beginning most of the United States army was made up of state militia, the British soldiers were well supplied while everything had to arranged from scratch for the American soldiers.

The background of the conflict developed like this, in the start the American colonists and British jointly strove to overcome the threats by the French and the Indians in the North America and after defeating French and subduing Indians, Americans were glad to be part of the great British Empire in 1763, but the association was short lived as the debt ridden British government sought for ways to minimize the deficit and one way of doing that was to impose taxes on the colonists that created unrest among the local population and later turned into resentment against the British rule and eventual freedom for the U.S.

In the later part of 18th century when Britain was ruling the thirteen colonies of North America, the representatives from the thirteen colonies constituted a governing body called Continental Congress. The main objective of this body was to deal with complaints against British government and try to resolve the issues amicably. But as the continued imposition of taxes made the local population literally belligerent against the British government the resistance acquired the status of legitimate struggle. As the resistance transformed into armed struggle both sides fought on the propaganda front as well. British termed those people among the local population that still supported the monarch in Britain and were willing to fight on behalf of British empire as 'loyalists' while 'rebels' and traitors to them that fought against British. On the other hand rebels in the eyes of British declared their resistance as just and called themselves 'patriots' who were willing to die for the cause of liberty and freedom. Obviously large percentage of local population sided with patriots in the conflict.