detail of color US propaganda poster 2910 showing the heads of Uncle Sam at center flanked on either side by women

Propaganda & Psychological Warfare

Overview

The Hoover Institution’s propaganda collections are unrivalled in the world, beginning with its extensive poster collection and large holdings of Communist Party literature (Soviet, Chinese and other), through sound recordings and film footage (the Alexander and Ethel Pronin collection holds hundreds of reels of Soviet propaganda film), these collections allow researchers to study the techniques and perfection of propaganda from early and crude images through contemporary professional multimedia presentations. Similarly, Hoover’s holdings on psychological warfare (the Bonner Fellers papers, World War II Psychological warfare reports typescript and Psychological Warfare Branch issuances) are excellent resources for studying the development of psychological operations during the Second World War, as are the RFE/RL Broadcast and Corporate records for the Cold War era.

Bonner Fellers Papers

Chief, US Psychological Warfare Branch in the South West Pacific

Psychological Warfare Branch Leaflets

Propaganda aimed at North Korean and Chinese soldiers during the Korean War

Psychological Warfare Branch Issuances

Propaganda leaflets for the Pacific Theater in World War II

Austrian Radio Section Propaganda

Allied propaganda broadcast from Italy to Austria

Alexander And Ethel Pronin Collection

Soviet cultural propaganda

Psychological Warfare Division Propaganda

US government organization for dissemination of propaganda during World War II

Paul M. A. Linebarger Papers

Author, Psychological Warfare, 1948

Klaus Kirchner Collection

World War II Soviet propaganda aimed at German troops

RFE/RL Broadcast Records

US radio broadcasting organization

RFE/RL Corporate Records

US radio broadcasting organization

Explore

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Professor Matthew Johnson: "Wartime Origins of China's Propaganda State"

From August 5 to August 15, 2013, the conference “Revisiting Modern China at the Hoover Institution Library and Archives” was conducted at Stanford University. Professor Matthew Johnson spoke on “Wartime Origins of China's Propaganda State” on August 6.

December 16, 2013
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Featured Find: Cold War Science Fiction

Paul M.A. Linebarger had the international pedigree and double life of a John le Carré character. Born to Sun Yat-sen’s American adviser, Linebarger grew up in China, Germany, and the United States, spoke six languages, and received his doctorate at twenty-three. After teaching at Duke, he was hired by the US War Department to serve as the Far East Asian specialist of the Psychological Warfare branch.

April 19, 2013
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Friday Finds: Seeds from the Sky

During World War II, US planes dropped gifts such as cigarettes, seed packets, and sewing kits over both the European and Pacific theaters.

March 01, 2013
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Nikolai Khokhlov papers

This collection contains papers and memorabilia of Nikolai Khokhlov, a KGB defector sent to Germany in 1954 to assassinate the head of the anti-Soviet émigré organization NTS. Khokhlov declined and defected to the West, where he wrote his memoirs and became a specialist in Soviet military espionage and psychology. Most of the papers relate to those aspects of his career, including material on psychological warfare and research in parapsychology.

April 27, 2011
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