Secrets of Victory

by Sweeney, Michael S.

• ISBN13: 9780807825983
• ISBN10: 0807825980
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-03-01
• Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Pr

Summary

During World War II, the civilian Office of Censorship supervised a huge and surprisingly successful program of news management: the voluntary self-censorship of the American press. In January 1942, censorship codebooks were distributed to all American newspapers, magazines, and radio stations with the request that journalists adhere to the guidelines within. Remarkably, over the course of the war no print journalist, and only one radio journalist, ever deliberately violated the censorship code after having been made aware of it and understanding its intent. Secrets of Victoryexamines the World War II censorship program and analyzes the reasons for its success. Using archival sources, including the Office of Censorship's own records, Michael Sweeney traces the development of news media censorship from a pressing necessity after the attack on Pearl Harbor to the centralized yet efficient bureaucracy that persuaded thousands of journalists to censor themselves for the sake of national security. At the heart of this often dramatic story is the Office of Censorship's director Byron Price. A former reporter himself, Price relied on cooperation with--rather than coercion of--American journalists in his fight to safeguard the nation's secrets.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	1	(6)
Squarely in the Lap of the Director of Censorship: The Origins and Scope of World War II Censorship	7	(33)
The Censor Has Written Me a Very Stern Letter: Establishing Voluntary Censorship	40	(31)
A Miscellany of Volunteer Firemen: Censorship and the Army, the Navy, and the White House	71	(29)
Umpires Have Called the Game for Reasons I Cannot Speak Of: Radio Censorship	100	(35)
Pearson Said He Was Going to Tell Things He Could Not Write: Drew Pearson and His Secrets	135	(30)
The President Is Making a Trip: The Press and the President's Travels	165	(23)
The Highest Considerations of National Security: Military Secrets and the End of Censorship	188	(25)
Conclusion	213	(8)
Notes	221	(32)
Bibliography	253	(12)
Index	265