Simpson, Christopher. Science of Coercion: Communication Research and
Psychological Warfare, 1945-1960. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
204 pages.
Communication research is a small academic field that evolved within
the social sciences, and is reflected today in the fields of print and
broadcast journalism, public relations, and advertising. Its early research
was sponsored by government funding for psychological warfare, which reached
$1 billion annually in the early 1950s. Carnegie and Ford, working closely
with the government, were secondary sources of funding. Behind this money
was a massive U.S. intelligence bureaucracy that was honing techniques for
clandestine warfare around the globe. Soon it became "counterinsurgency"
and "special forces," and now it is called "low-intensity conflict."
The scholars who cashed in thought they were engaged in "value-free
science." Simpson argues that they actually avoided the consideration
of values altogether, and absorbed by default the values of their sponsors.
The model for psychological warfare, and all of its research, was one of
domination. When the government shifted its focus from anti-Sovietism to
Third World manipulation, these scholars failed to notice that their craft
was essentially destructive. "The supposed beneficiaries of U.S.-sponsored
psychological warfare in a long list of countries are worse off today than
ever before." (page 116)
ISBN 0-19-510292-4
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