War of Words

Ever since words were invented, they’ve been used to attack as well as communicate. This reached a culmination of a kind in World War II, as Ted Lipien writes in his slim, incisive book “Divide and Conquer: The Story of Nazi Terror.” Hitler, a champion of the “big lie,” thought propaganda on top of troops was the key to victory. It worked to some extent in Europe but fell on deaf ears in America. The U.S. provided its own counter-propaganda against the Nazis, says Lipien, while at the same time succumbing to the still more subtle and destructive propaganda of an ally, the Soviet Union. Continue reading “War of Words”