An American soldier, on the front in World War II, holds his battlefield essentials: weapons, ammunition, rations and a typewriter used to document the truth of combat. In her new book, The War of Words, historian and New York Law School professor, Molly Guptill Manning, deftly tells the story of how American GI newspapers served as an antidote to Hitler’s crippling propaganda campaign and played a vital role in boosting troop morale in the fight for freedom.  

The New York Times bestselling author returned to her alma mater recently for a visit with the NYS Writers Institute and took a few minutes to sit down with UAlbany Magazine to discuss her latest work over a late afternoon coffee.

[Editor's Note: Answers have been edited and condensed for clarity and space considerations.]

Can you describe what the Allies were up against in terms of Germany’s strategic spread of misinformation?

Effective propaganda is built on fear. Before France was attacked, Germany spent years putting its propaganda machine in that direction. They paid off French journalists to include stories that had a pro-Germany slant to them. They would write about how the German army was incredibly strong, maybe invincible. That started casting seeds of doubt in the minds of the French as they were preparing for a possible military attack, convincing them that it was futile to fight. Terror rose among the civilians.

It's incredible that France, which had 40 million people and defeated Germany in World War I two decades earlier, surrendered in about six weeks.

Countering German propaganda was essential, but publishing a newspaper in the theater of war was no easy task. Can you give an example that illustrates the obstacles American GI Journalists overcame to get truthful words into the hands of soldiers?

The 1903^rd Engineer Battalion published a troop newspaper called the Tough Sheet. When they shipped out, they stowed their printing equipment to bring with them. On the transport, the journalists typed their articles, they had their mimeograph machine inked and ready, but they soon realized their paper was missing. The crew spent 36 hours going through the hold of the ship, searching all the baggage.  

They finally did find the paper and published their news. A sergeant then marveled, “Here we are right in the middle of the biggest war in history and our biggest worry is getting the Tough Sheet printed. That’s American Freedom of the Press for ya!”

There were over 4,600 unique GI-produced publications in circulation at various times during the war. How were you able to track them down for your research?

Piecing this story together was actually incredibly difficult. I learned how to get creative with research. The War Department kept no record of the newspapers that were printed in the army because there were too many, so they are not ubiquitous in archives. But a lot of them were brought home by troops. I found them on eBay and at estate sales and in boxes at flea markets. I felt like I had to rescue them because they are not fancy-looking. Some are just mimeographs with a handwritten masthead. My fear was that they were just going to be thrown out, so I would sometimes buy a whole collection.

Letters to the Editor was an important forum for free speech. Can you explain how this played out in addressing racism in the military?

In 1944, a Black corporal named Rupert Trimmingham, traveled on army business from his home base in Arizona, where he was treated with pride by the community, to Camp Claiborne in Louisiana. Because of racial segregation laws there, he was not allowed to sit in the lunchroom, even as he watched a group of German soldiers, prisoners of war under guard, seated and served.  

Angered, he wrote a letter to the editor at Yank, the Army Weekly, a magazine with a large circulation. He questioned how, dressed in a military uniform for the United States of America, he could be barred from the same space where the sworn enemy of democracy was welcomed. What are we fighting for, he wanted to know.

Yank printed the letter, and it generated a flood of responses from around the world in support of Trimmingham, many from white troops who had fought alongside Black troops. It created a global conversation about race, democracy and equality.

After the war, newspaper and magazine subscription rates in the U.S. skyrocketed as troops returned home. They were determined to stay informed. Do you have any advice for us in the face of all the unreliable news out there today?

As the troops learned, the price of freedom is information. Today, I think people need to take more control over the information they consume. Do you get your news from social media? Consider the terms influencer and follower. If someone is trying to influence you, they're not informing you, they're trying to get you to see the world the way they do.

The best way to make sure that you're not being swayed is to go to a variety of sources and listen to viewpoints that maybe you don't agree with. That's what the soldiers did with their newspapers. They would read letters to the editor and they could absolutely disagree with them. But they still read. They still engaged with that viewpoint just by knowing that it existed.  

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