 | Cold War on the Airwaves: The Radio Propaganda War against East Germany Nicholas J. Schlosser draws on broadcast transcripts, internal memoranda, listener letters, and surveys by the U.S. Information Agency to profile RIAS. Its mission: to undermine the German Democratic Republic with propaganda that, ironically, gained in potency by obeying the rules of objective journalism. Throughout, Schlosser examines the friction inherent in such a contradictory project and propaganda's role in shaping political culture. He also portrays how RIAS's primarily German staff influenced its outlook and how the organization both competed against its rivals in the GDR and pushed communist officials to alter their methods in order to keep listeners. From the occupation of Berlin through the airlift to the construction of the Berlin Wall, Cold War on the Airwaves offers an absorbing view of how public diplomacy played out at a flashpoint of East-West tension. Nicholas J. Schlosser is a historian at the U.S. Army Center of Military History. He received his bachelor's degree from Binghamton University in 2002 and his doctorate in history from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 2008. He is the coeditor of Counterinsurgency Leadership in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Beyond . |
