Walter Lippmann's Use Of Propaganda

Every war, conflict or battle has always been fought by two means: violence and propaganda. The presented quote by Walter Lippmann shows the significance of the latter method. Lippmann was an American writer and political commentator who developed and classified many political theories and ideologies. Walter Lippmann’s quote expresses the opinion that leaders and governments of nations involved in conflict, use propaganda to negatively portray their enemy and/or receive support for a cause. He is expressing one of the ideas presented in his most famous work Public Opinion (Lippmann, 1922). This popular book illustrated, along with many other things, how leaders use propaganda to gain support for their own causes by creating barriers between

In the early nineteen thirties Ukrainians were prospering and growing with nationalistic pride as famous writers and poets emerged and were branded Ukrainian rather than Soviet. New found nationalism eventually led to the pledge for self-determination and independence of the state from the Soviet Union. This greatly angered Joseph Stalin (leader of the USSR) because he knew that the self determination of Ukraine would become a huge determent to the Soviet Union financially and politically. Losing Ukraine meant losing a large agricultural industry and control over other states that may follow Ukraine’s pursuit of independence. In effect, Stalin instilled a similar movement to Hitler’s, in which he used propaganda to negatively portray Ukrainians and initiated a purge that would, according to Stalin, remove the undesirables. This was done by creating propaganda in which the rest of the Soviet Union was given the impression that Ukraine was being rebellious and disloyal to their ‘true nation’ (the Soviet Union) and that they were trying to leave the Soviet Union while leaving everyone else in misery. This instilled narrow-minded mentality allowed Stalin to create the “crusade for peace” (Lipmann) which made farmland, grain, and all Ukrainian food sources come under the direct authority of Stalin’s regime and initiated one of the biggest man-made famines in world history. The genocide like famine was done to show the rest of the Soviet Union that their nation was being righteous and just by punishing the Ukrainians who were categorized as rebels by Stalin. On top of that, Stalin refused to accept and did not portray the massacres to his people and the rest of the world as a classified genocide. Instead, Stalin made the event and his regime’s ideals look righteous and positive by increasing the grain quota and the income of the Soviet