Book Reviews and Notices : Overseas Information Service of the United States Government. BY CHARLES A. H. THOMSON. (Washington, D. C.: The Brookings Institution. 1948. Pp. xii, 397. $4.00.)

• Date: 01 September 1949
• DOI: 10.1177/106591294900200315
• Published date: 01 September 1949
• Subject Matter: Articles

432

conclusion

that

since

the

swing

to

the

People’s

government

in

Poland,

the

future

of

Soviet-Polish

relations

is

now

more

propitious

than

at

any

time

in

six

centuries.

The

history

of

Soviet,Polish

relations

offers

much

to

support

the

authors’

conclusions,

but

the

defense

of

the

Soviet,

and

even

the

pre-

revolutionary

Russian

positions,

is

almost

too

perfect.

The

Poles

are

depicted

as

always

wrong.

Certainly

the

official

view

of

the

United

States

government

has

not

gone

so

far,

nor

is

such

a

situation

in

a

centuries-old

quarrel

true

to

life.

Without

access

to

the

full

documentation

no

out-

sider

can

assess

the

blame,

but

there

will

be

many

in

the

United

States

who

will

not

consider

this

volume

definitive.

The

thoughtful

reader

may

also

wonder

whether

such

a

history

of

conflict

can

be

settled

by

the

emergence

of

class

government

over

national

government.

Will

the

Poles

now

look

to

their

big

brothers

for

guidance

or

revert

to

some

proud

tangent

which

might

seem

foolish

to

the

experienced

brothers?

Columbia

University.

JOHN

N.

HAZARD.

Overseas

Information

Service

of

the

United

States

Government

.

BY

CHARLES

A.

H.

THOMSON.

(Washington,

D.

C.:

The

Brookings

Insti-

tution.

1948.

Pp.

xii,

397.

$4.00.)

Few

books

are

as

illustrative

of

the

revolution

in

concepts

and

tech-

niques

of

foreign

policy

that

have

intervened

since

1939

than

this

one:

it

discounts

&dquo;some

future

period

of

peace&dquo;

and

regards

the

present

as

a

continuation

of

war

by

propaganda.

It

is

therefore

not

illogical

that

it

should

fall

into

two

distinct

parts.

In

the

first

it

presents

a

well-docu-

mented

analysis

of

the

State

Department’s

wartime

&dquo;predecessor&dquo;

pro-

grams

(OWI,

Psychological

Warfare,

Coordinator

of

Inter-American

Af-

fairs

and

the

original

Department

programs)

as

well

as

present

activities

of

the

Department

and

information

control

in

occupied

territories.

The

second

and

more

stimulating

part

deals

with

the

fundamental

problems

raised

by

government

information

and

propaganda

activities

abroad.

For

the

first

time

we

are

given

a

comprehensive

and

balanced

dis.

cussion

of

the

policies,

tactics,

and

techniques,

as

well

as

the

effectiveness

of

the

wartime

agencies.

Appraising

psychological

warfare

proper,

Thom.

son

concludes

that

in

Europe

the

main

successes

were

in

the

field

of

tactical

and

combat

propaganda,

whereas

in

Japan

the

governmental

de-

cision

to

get

out

of

the

war

had

been

taken

largely

as

a

result

of

propa-

ganda

even

before

we

dropped

the

first

atomic

bomb.

Problems

of

propaganda

administration,

and

particularly

lack

of

coordination

between

OWI

and

the

Army,

Navy,

and

State

Departments,

are

clearly

brought

out.