Changes

The OWI was established 13 June 1942 to consolidate the functions of the '''Office of Facts and Figures''', the '''Office of Government Reports''', the division of information of the '''[[Office for Emergency Management]]'''.  The Foreign Intelligence Service, Outpost, Publication, and Pictorial Branches of the '''Office of the Coordinator of Information''' were also transferred to the OWI.  (The Executive order creating OWI, however, stated that dissemination of information to the Latin American countries should be continued by the Office of the [[Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs]].) [[Elmer Davis]] was named director of OWI.  

The OWI was established 13 June 1942 to consolidate the functions of the '''Office of Facts and Figures''', the '''Office of Government Reports''', the division of information of the '''[[Office for Emergency Management]]'''.  The Foreign Intelligence Service, Outpost, Publication, and Pictorial Branches of the '''Office of the Coordinator of Information''' were also transferred to the OWI.  (The Executive order creating OWI, however, stated that dissemination of information to the Latin American countries should be continued by the Office of the [[Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs]].) [[Elmer Davis]] was named director of OWI.  

==Activites==

==Activities==

It ran 350 daily radio programs and had a daily cable wireless output of 100,000 words. It was the world's largest pamphlet and magazine publisher and a big movie producer, sending shorts to every country in the world. It sent out 3,500 transcribed recordings a month and turned out 50 movie shorts a year.  

It ran 350 daily radio programs and had a daily cable wireless output of 100,000 words. It was the world's largest pamphlet and magazine publisher and a big movie producer, sending shorts to every country in the world. It sent out 3,500 transcribed recordings a month and turned out 50 movie shorts a year.  

:"A division called the War Problems Division was created by the Federal Communications Commission, and a staff of attorneys began to function.  

:"A division called the War Problems Division was created by the Federal Communications Commission, and a staff of attorneys began to function.  

:"This division was not a regulatory body. It was not formed to instruct, or supervise, or to correct. It was formed for the avowed purpose of unlawfully liquidating all of the radio personnel in the foreign¬language field that did not meet with its favor. A real gestapo was created and a lawless enterprise was launched.  

:"This division was not a regulatory body. It was not formed to instruct, or supervise, or to correct. It was formed for the avowed purpose of unlawfully liquidating all of the radio personnel in the foreign language field that did not meet with its favor. A real gestapo was created and a lawless enterprise was launched.  

:"It is suggested that we accept this unlawful situation as a benevolent expedient of the moment, but no such purpose as we find here disclosed, however benevolently cloaked, can justify the practices we find. All tyranny begins under the guise of benevolence. …

:"It is suggested that we accept this unlawful situation as a benevolent expedient of the moment, but no such purpose as we find here disclosed, however benevolently cloaked, can justify the practices we find. All tyranny begins under the guise of benevolence. …

:"They even censor our [[Christmas]] and [[Easter]] [[religious]] programs, and tell us what music we may hear. The FCC is alarmed about whether we will react properly to news furnished by our national news agencies. Apparently we can still read the news in our press, but we can only hear what these aliens permit us to. What next medium of communications will receive the benevolent attention of these misguided zealots? Obviously, the press.  

:"They even censor our [[Christmas]] and [[Easter]] [[religious]] programs, and tell us what music we may hear. The FCC is alarmed about whether we will react properly to news furnished by our national news agencies. Apparently we can still read the news in our press, but we can only hear what these aliens permit us to. What next medium of communications will receive the benevolent attention of these misguided zealots? Obviously, the press.  

:"These interpreters of our national policy ¬ these slanters of our news - these destroyers of free speech - are alien in birth, alien in education, alien in training and in thought.  

:"These interpreters of our national policy - these slanters of our news - these destroyers of free speech - are alien in birth, alien in education, alien in training and in thought.  

:"And still these are the people who are permitted to mold our thoughts - to tell us what America's war aims and purposes are. These people are in position to color, to delete, or to slant, as they see fit, in accordance with their own peculiar alien views and ideologies.  

:"And still these are the people who are permitted to mold our thoughts - to tell us what America's war aims and purposes are. These people are in position to color, to delete, or to slant, as they see fit, in accordance with their own peculiar alien views and ideologies.  

:"Persons are being accused of being pro¬fascist, and that without proof and without trial. Persons suspected of being pro¬fascist, and without proof, have been removed from the air and replaced by wearers of the Black Shirt ...  

:"Persons are being accused of being pro-fascist, and that without proof and without trial. Persons suspected of being pro-fascist, and without proof, have been removed from the air and replaced by wearers of the Black Shirt ...  

:"If the radio can thus be controlled in August, 1943, there is nothing to prevent the same control from slanting our political news and nothing to prevent the coloring of our war aims and purposes when peace comes.” <ref> Hearings before Select Committee (House) to Investigate the Federal Communications Commission, 1943.</ref>

:"If the radio can thus be controlled in August, 1943, there is nothing to prevent the same control from slanting our political news and nothing to prevent the coloring of our war aims and purposes when peace comes.” <ref> Hearings before Select Committee (House) to Investigate the Federal Communications Commission, 1943.</ref>

==Subversion==

==Subversion==

When, on June 15 1943, [[Owen Lattimore]] instructed Joseph Barnes<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,791284,00.html ''Tongue-Tied''], [[Time magazine]], Feb. 07, 1944.</ref> to replace the non-Communist Chinese of the Office of War Information (OWI) with Communists, OWI did so. On July 14 [[Thomas A. Bisson]], in the [[Institute of Pacific Relations]] publication, ''Far Eastern Survey'', referred to Moaist forces as the "democratic China."  The disinformation was widely repeated among journalists and academics.  In July and August 1943, the Chinese Communist forces -- in the midst of the war -- joined with the Japanese armies to inflict a serious defeat on the [[Kuomintang]] troops allied with the United States.  <ref>[http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/6315/yaltabet.html ''The Yalta Betrayal''], Felix Wittmer, Claxton Printers, 1953, pg. 36.</ref>

When, on June 15 1943, [[Owen Lattimore]] instructed Joseph Barnes<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,791284,00.html ''Tongue-Tied''], [[Time magazine]], Feb. 07, 1944.</ref> to replace the non-Communist Chinese of the Office of War Information (OWI) with Communists, OWI did so. On July 14 [[Thomas A. Bisson]], in the [[Institute of Pacific Relations]] publication, ''Far Eastern Survey'', referred to Maoist forces as the "democratic China."  The disinformation was widely repeated among journalists and academics.  In July and August 1943, the Chinese Communist forces -- in the midst of the war -- joined with the Japanese armies to inflict a serious defeat on the [[Kuomintang]] troops allied with the United States.  <ref>[http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/6315/yaltabet.html ''The Yalta Betrayal''], Felix Wittmer, Claxton Printers, 1953, pg. 36.</ref>

While Romania was frantically imploring the West for assistance during the Soviet invasion, OWI praised the Soviet Unions's "new democracy" and the "innocent nature of Communism." <ref>Reuben M. Markham, ''Rumania Uner the Soviet Yoke'' (Boston: Meader, 1949), p.

While Romania was frantically imploring the West for assistance during the Soviet invasion, OWI praised the Soviet Unions’ "new democracy" and the "innocent nature of Communism." <ref>Reuben M. Markham, ''Rumania Under the Soviet Yoke'' (Boston: Meader, 1949), p.

169.</ref>  By November, [[Andrey Vyshinsky]], the legal mastermind who presided at the major show trials of Stalin's [[Great Purge]], arrived to "restore internal order."

169.</ref>  By November, [[Andrey Vyshinsky]], the legal mastermind who presided at the major show trials of Stalin's [[Great Purge]], arrived to "restore internal order."

Soviet spies  [[Philip Keeney]], [[Irving Lerner]], [[Peter Rhodes]], [[Christina Krotkova]] and  [[Flora Wovschin]] were employed within OWI during its lifetime.

Soviet spies  [[Philip Keeney]], [[Irving Lerner]], [[Peter Rhodes]], [[Christina Krotkova]] and  [[Flora Wovschin]] were employed within OWI during its lifetime.

OWI's broadcasts to Poland ended not with the Polish national anthem but with a song adopted by the Polish emigres in Moscow who were known as Stalin's "[[Polish People's Army|Committee of Liberation]]." The expert in charge of the Polish section was actually born in Poland, but left there and spent the rest of his life in France as a Communist. He fraternized with the [[Vichy government]] during the [[Hitler-Stalin rapprochement]], but when Hitler invaded Russia he came to America and quickly became OWI's expert. <ref> Congressional Record, 78th Congress, 1st Session, Vol. 89, Part 13, pps. 5999, 6000.</ref>

OWI's broadcasts to Poland ended not with the Polish national anthem but with a song adopted by the Polish émigrés in Moscow who were known as Stalin's "[[Polish People's Army|Committee of Liberation]]." The expert in charge of the Polish section was actually born in Poland, but left there and spent the rest of his life in France as a Communist. He fraternized with the [[Vichy government]] during the [[Hitler-Stalin rapprochement]], but when Hitler invaded Russia he came to America and quickly became OWI's expert. <ref> Congressional Record, 78th Congress, 1st Session, Vol. 89, Part 13, pps. 5999, 6000.</ref>

[[Louis Adamic]] <ref>Louis Adamic, ''Dinner at the White House'', (Harper, 1946).</ref> had access to [[Eleanor Roosevelt]] and had a very intimate association with the Office of War Information.

[[Louis Adamic]] <ref>Louis Adamic, ''Dinner at the White House'', (Harper, 1946).</ref> had access to [[Eleanor Roosevelt]] and had a very intimate association with the Office of War Information.

*[http://www.hrw.com/si/social/si_1914/si_ww2posters/victory5.htm War Aims Through Art] (posters)

*[http://www.hrw.com/si/social/si_1914/si_ww2posters/victory5.htm War Aims Through Art] (posters)

*[http://www.archives.gov/publications/finding_aids/holocaust_era_assets/civilian_agency_records_part_3.html#RG208| National Archives and Records Administration]

*[http://www.archives.gov/publications/finding_aids/holocaust_era_assets/civilian_agency_records_part_3.html#RG208| National Archives and Records Administration]

* FBI Silvermanster file, [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster046.pdf Vol. 46, pg. 93] pdf, May 17, 1946. Statement by surveillance subject that only “[[progressives]]” were to be hired by [[UNRRA]] in China, plus discussion of hiring at OWI, indicating to FBI that subject and associates were “active in placing Communists in government jobs in Washington and elsewhere.”

* FBI Silvermaster file, [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster046.pdf Vol. 46, pg. 93] pdf, May 17, 1946. Statement by surveillance subject that only “[[progressives]]” were to be hired by [[UNRRA]] in China, plus discussion of hiring at OWI, indicating to FBI that subject and associates were “active in placing Communists in government jobs in Washington and elsewhere.”

*''The Roosevelt Myth'', John T. Flynn, Fox and Wilkes, 1948, Book 3, Ch. 8,[http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Eight___The_Thought_Poli.htm ''The Thought Police''].

*''The Roosevelt Myth'', John T. Flynn, Fox and Wilkes, 1948, Book 3, Ch. 8,[http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Eight___The_Thought_Poli.htm ''The Thought Police''].