Cold War Propaganda in the 1950s (Macmillan & St Martin's Press, 1999)

My first edited book, published in 1999, was Cold War Propaganda in the 1950s. Although I vowed never to edit another book - the process was quite difficult, mainly because of the different sizes and types of floppy disks contributors used - I really enjoyed bringing together an exceptional team of experts, most of whom continue to have fabulous academic careers: 

W. Scott Lucas (who I knew at that time from his work on the Suez crisis) wrote a nice contextual chapter to open the book; my fellow PhD student Susan Carruthers (now as Prof in Warwick) contributed her research on the Brainwashing scare of the 1950s; Graham Roberts, former Director of the Institute of Communications Studies (ICS) at Leeds, wrote on Soviet cinema; Tony Shaw who has completed great work on Cold War propaganda and especially cinema wrote on British Feature Films and the Early Cold War; Howard Smith, also at ICS (a former BBC producer) contributed a chapter on the portrayal of Germany in BBC TV programmes; my good friend and colleague from Nottingham, Richard Aldrich (also now at Warwick) wrote about the CIA and European Movement Propaganda; Edward S. Herman, Noam Chomsky's long time collaborator, contributed a chapter on American propaganda in Guatemala; and of course my PhD supervisor, best friend, and source of my academic inspiration, Philip M. Taylor (who passed away far too young in 2010) ended the book with a usual flourish: 'Through a Glass Darkly? The Psychological Climate and Psychological Warfare of the Cold War'. Phil's title was appropriate. He wrote:

'The degree to which international relations were being increasingly conducted through the paranoid spectacles of the Cold War meant that neither side could any longer "see" the other except as a reflection of itself.'

And

'Wars, when all is said and done, begin and end in the human mind'.

I had intended to follow up my first book, Radio Diplomacy and Propaganda, with a comprehensive study of American propaganda in the Cold War, and my essay on the Campaign of Truth was supposed to be (probably) the first chapter.

I soon realised that, coming on the heels of my PhD, book, and holding down my first teaching job at the University of Nottingham, this was rather ambitious; wouldn't it be better to ask other experts who can bring their own perspectives to a very wide time frame and geographical spread?

In addition to the Introduction, I wrote two chapters: one on President Truman's 'Campaign of Truth', launched in 1950; and one based on a chapter of my PhD, exploring the role of the BBC External Services in the Hungarian Uprising of 1956.

I still have the letter (dated 12 March 1996) from Noam Chomsky in which he declined my invitation to write a chapter, but in which he suggested instead Edward Herman, formerly of the Wharton School ('he does fine work'). Professor Chomsky said in his letter: 'I am looking forward to obtaining' the book. I wonder if he did?