The Propaganda of War, Part 2 of 4

The Price Of Freedom
This painting was created in 1915, by James Montgomery Flagg, one of the leading illustrators at the time. This piece was created to serve as an enlistment poster in World War One, but was also used in World War two, and afterwards, became one of the most commonly known American recruitment posters. Also, over the years, it is one of the most altered propaganda posters, keeping it popular through out the ages.
This piece is an example of Repetition, the repeat of an image or catch phrase. The image of Uncle Sam was created during the Civil war, and became the iconography of America to this day. This image was posted everywhere, but doesn’t give any true information, thus becoming propaganda.
The actual poster is a very stern Uncle Sam, staring and pointing forward, towards the fourth wall (the imaginary barrier between art and viewer). The text underneath is supposed to be what he’s saying, “I WANT YOU FOR U.S. ARMY” then in smaller text “NEAREST RECRUITING STATION” (sic). Poor grammar aside, the intent is clear and concise. Enlist. Now.
This is also one of the reasons it could be posted everywhere, the image simply tells the viewer to enlist, but only tells you to go to the nearest recruitment station, no address, which means it could be posted in any city without having to be altered. Also, since there is no true political statements, the image doesn’t get out dated, save for the style of work. Now the piece is considered traditional, therefore dated look doesn’t matter anymore.
This poster has become one of the most iconic of the U.S. Army for almost 100 years. Even though there are dozens of alterations out there, almost every American knows the original image. This piece of iconic art is an important piece and his story which should be passed down through the ages, and thanks to the countless wars we’ve had, will probably always serve a purpose in our lives.


Charlie The Gunner
This leaflet is my personal favorite. This image was created in 1945 as a demoralization leaflet which was dropped on American soldiers via an airborne leaflet bomb, (A bomb which when upon hitting the ground throws leaflets instead of shrapnel and explosive matter). The image itself (not just the letter on the back) is an ingenious example of Demoralization and Common Man.
Common Man is a type of propaganda which appeals to the ‘average person’. The image is of a man, in uniform, but ambiguous uniform, smiling at the viewer over a fence. On the fence is a black bird-like thing which is also smiling. It looks straight out of one of the Warner Brother’s Vaults. The ’bird’ in the left hand corner is one almost identical to one of the extras in a few Warner Brother Shorts (Which ones, I don’t remember, but I have seen it before).
Demoralization is what it sounds like, an attempt to crush the spirits of those whom the image was intended for. This is an important part of Psychological Warfare. It is possible to defeat a strong, driven and well-prepared enemy, but why bother when you can fight an emotionally unstable enemy who’s been given misinformation for months?
With that aside, the image on the front of the flyer was not what German artist were creating at the time. Hitler had enforced realistic paintings only, by saying artist that use abstraction in their art were, in simplicity, inferior and couldn’t see the world for the way it was. The art is extremely similar to American cartoons at the time, the Disney Company and Warner Brothers, so the image looks like something created in America.
On the back of this, is a short letter by ‘Charlie the Gunner’ who is “No more than one of millions of suffering soldiers in the world. I’m an Allied Soldier!” (sic). This was blatant fabrication. Although the art is very American-esque, the letter on the back’s syntax is slightly off. It isn’t off enough to truly be considered bad but, it’s clear that the author’s native language was not American-English. It’s almost as if the writer was trying to hard to sound American.
The summary of the letter is “Say, I’m just like you, I’m a soldier, I’m your buddy. I bet we could win this war without having to attack Italy. Doesn’t it suck that the higher ups are forcing us to do it anyway? So, now it is our time to kick the bucket for them, even though we don’t have to. Yay!” The entire thing is written in a light hearted manner, but the last few paragraphs are rather intense. This was an effective way to demoralize the target audience, especially if they didn’t realize it was the enemy that had created this.
This piece fits into the rest of the collection mainly because it is propaganda, but it also uses pop culture art to express it’s message. The main point of this is to get American soldiers to flip the page over and read the ‘letter’ on the back, which is to them could have been horribly demoralizing, but for us is an interesting concept.