Howard P. Becker

Howard Becker is a well known Sociologist.

During the 1939-45 war he worked for OSS in Black Propaganda.

OSS role

Sefton Delmer's approach to 'Black radio' was 'that its purpose was 'to corode and erode with a steady drip of subversive news' the confidence of the German population in its leaders. But sometimes OSS's approach to Black radio broadcasts against Germany was more sensational. for on one occasion at least OSS seemed bent on trying, in one fell swoop, to alter the course of the war. This occurred in September 1944 when Howard Becker, a professor of sociology who was running OSS's Black propaganda, urgently requested the use of 'Aspidistra' for a one shot broadcast. This was agreed and what followed was what Delmer described as being one of the most fantastic broaddcasts of the war - a speech by one of the generals involved in the putch against Hitler who had died by hs own hand when it failed.^[1]

Publications

• Howard Becker, Review of Sykewar: Psychological Warfare against Germany, D-Day to V-E Day. by Daniel Lerner, American Sociological Review, Vol. 15, No. 2 (Apr., 1950), pp. 317-318

Further Reading

Christopher Simpson, 1994 "Worldview Warfare" and World War II Excerpt from The Science of Coercion Communication Research and Psychological Warfare 1945-1960, by Christopher Simpson, pp. 22-30. (Oxford University Press, 1994)

Notes

1. ^ Ian Dear, Sabotage and Subversion: The SOE and OSS at War, July 1999 London: Cassell military.