In many presidential speeches, propaganda is used to sell or propose ideas to the citizens of their country. In speeches like Hitler’s “War Propaganda,” or speeches by Goering, Machiavelli, and Bernay, many propaganda techniques are used that could be compared to the speeches from a more present time. Franklin D. Roosevelts, “Arsenal of Democracy” is a great example of a speech that provides methods to appeal emotion, fear, and many other emotions among his audience.
On December 29, 1940 Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered “The Great Arsenal of Democracy” from the Oval Office. In his speech, he is proposing the idea of entering World War II, although, not to fight, but to provide resources such as planes, tanks, guns, and “our security.” FDR starts off by letting his audience know that this is a matter of safety and security and the “preservation of American Independence.” He brings up the domestic crisis that happened just eight year earlier and how much the New Deal helped the country. He wants to “do the same thing with the same people” during this crisis that the country is facing. He slowly transitions into speaking about the plan of the Nazi masters of Germany. Apparently their plan was to dominate and “enslave” all of
Europe and then to use all the resources from Europe to basically take over the world. He goes against many people’s beliefs about being safe even after Britain fails, but that is not the case. FDR the concludes his speech by letting the citizens know that we have no excuse to lose, that we will go forward with the hope of peace, love, and honor for the future.
As said before, in FDR’s speech there are multiple propaganda techniques used such as fear, slippery slope, demonizing the enemy, plain folk, and guilt by association. One of the first techniques that show up in his speech is fear. Fear plays a huge part in speeches like this because it raises awareness about an issue. In an excerpt from an article “Hermann Goering,” he mentions what it takes to get people to agree with you:
Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger.
In “The Great Arsenal of Democracy,” fear is used by stating that the Nazis will rule the world if we do not enter the war. Therefore, with the nazis ruling the world, there will be methods of dictatorship across the globe and Americans “ never can and never will do that.” By saying that the nazis or “evil forces” as FDR calls them, have already corrupted many people within our “ gates,” places fear among people because they do not want to become like them. Not only does FDR bring up the secret corruption going on under our noses, he also suggest that there are Nazi agents that are trying to convince us to befriend the axis powers. These so called Nazi agents are doing the work that dictators want done in the United States and if we do not aide in the war, we will fall under complete dictatorship. FDR is trying to scare his audience by telling them that without entering the war, there will be “no hope, no liberty, and no religion” and that this country is at risk of living at the point of a Nazi gun.
Another example of a propaganda used is slippery slope. Slippery slope is defined as “an idea or course of action which will lead to something unacceptable, wrong, or disastrous.” An example of this from FDR’s speech is when he states that our fate depends on if germany defeats britain. He is basically saying that if germany can defeat Britain, then America doesn’t stand a chance. The only thing our country could do to secure our safety against this “unholy alliance” is get involved to help Britain. He suggests that right now it is best to give it our all to support our allie instead of waiting for own turn to fight the Germans single handedly. A similar tactic was used in a book called “The Prince” which was written for Giuliano de Medici by Machiavelli. He mentions that if a prince is too generous, he will become hateful and contemptible, another example of one thing leading to something worse.
Demonizing the enemy is another huge propaganda technique that is used in many speeches and readings. Once again, FDR uses the Nazis to further his argument in his speech. He demonizes the enemy by saying that the Nazis will take the United States under their control. By saying that the nazis will eventually put us under their rule also uses fear to convince the audience that we should definitely enter the war. Demonizing the enemy is also a tactic used in Hitler’s “War Propaganda.” He talks about the United States talks about the Nazis, and by talking about them, it increases the hatred and rage against them therefore makes the argument effective. He states that the most effective weapon that the U.S. gave their soldiers were not the guns or bombs, but the information about the enemy. Another example of demonizing the enemy shows up in an excerpt from Machiavelli’s’ “The Prince.” In “The prince,” it talks about why men are “praised or blamed” and the way demonizing the enemy comes up is when explaining whether it is better to be feared or loved:
Here the question arises: is it better to be loved than feared, or vice versa? I don’t doubt that every prince would like to be both; but since it is hard to accommodate these qualities, if you have to make a choice, to be feared is much safer than to be loved. For it is a good general rule about men, that they are ungrateful, fickle, liars, and deceivers, fearful of danger and greedy for gain.
In this case, Machiavelli demonizes men while questioning which choice is better, being feared or loved. He continues to say that men will turn on you any chance that they get therefore it is better to be feared. It is better to be feared because as he said “people are less concerned with offending a man who makes himself loved than one who makes himself feared.”
Adding to the techniques already mentioned, virtue words is included in the list. Virtue words is define as “words in the value system of the target audience which tend to produce a positive image when attached to a person or issue.” In FDR’s speech, some virtue words that are used are “love” and “honor. These words are used while speaking about our country and nation. By using these words, FDR is appealing to the emotion of the audience and suggesting that if we don’t enter the war, you basically don’t love and care for the nation. A couple more techniques that are vaguely used are plain folk and guilt by association. In the first couple minutes of FDR’s speech, he appeals to working class by mentioning the banking crisis and what that meant to them. By working class he means, “the workmen in the mills, the mines, the factories,the girl behind the counter, the small shopkeeper, the farmer doing his spring plowing, the widows and the old man wondering about their life savings.” Because he mentions the working class, he is letting them know that he is on their side and that they should trust him, which makes him reliable for the rest of his speech. The way guilt by association is a negative transfer. It is brought up in FDR’s speech when he says that the government knows a lot about the Nazis, and then continues to talk about the secrets they are holding. He mentions many things that the governments from other countries are doing to their people by saying that “they are active in every group that promotes intolerance.”
Propaganda techniques are very important in any type of speech or text to get your message across. When using the right techniques you could appeal to many emotions in your audience such as joy, fear, and sadness. People such as Hitler, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Machiavelli, and more, propaganda played a huge part in their speeches and books and it was very effective. Many leaders today have definitely learned from previous pieces.
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