The Ascendancy of Radio News in Wartime

NOTES

• Richard W. Steele, “The Great Debate: Roosevelt, the Media, and the Coming of the War, 1940–1941,” Journal of American History 71, no. 1 (June 1984): 69–92; and Michele Hilmes, Radio Voices: American Broadcasting, 1922–1952 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997), 230–270.
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• Gerd Horten, Radio Goes to War. The Cultural Politics of Propaganda during World War II (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002).
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• Erik Barnouw, The Golden Web: A History of Broadcasting in the United States, vol. II (New York: Oxford University Press, 1968), 133.
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• Susan J. Douglas, Listening In: Radio and the American Imagination (New York: Times Books, 1999), 161–98. For other assessments of the importance of World War II on radio news, see also, among others, Joseph J. Mathews, Reporting the Wars (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1957), 282–84; Robert C. Hilliard and Michael C. Keith, The Broadcast Century and Beyond, 5th ed. (Boston: Focal Press, 2010), 91–92; and Stanley Cloud and Lynne Olson, The Murrow Boys: Pioneers on the Front Lines of Broadcast Journalism (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996), 89–98. See also David Goodman, Radio's Civic Ambition: American Broadcasting and Democracy in the 1930s (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011).
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• For more on the relationship of newspapers and radio news in the prewar period, see Michael Stamm, Sound Business: Newspapers, Radio, and the Politics of New Media (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011), 59–81. Stamm is excellent on the FCCs attempts to regulate media ownership, and the newspaper industry's forays into broadcasting in the 1930s. See also Robert W. McChesney, Telecommunications, Mass Media and Democracy: The Battle for Control of U.S. Broadcasting, 1928–1935 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 163–76.
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• Christopher B. Daly, Covering America: A Narrative History of a Nations Journalism (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2012), 232.
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• Joseph Persico, Edward R. Murrow: An American Original (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1988), 182.
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• Daly, Covering America, 251–52. Similarly Edward Bliss Jr.'s pioneering Now the News: The Story of Broadcast News asserts that “it was the radio reporting from London, more than any other reporting, which brought the Battle of Britain into the consciousness of America. And it was Edward R. Murrow, more than any other radio reporter, who caught the listeners’ attention. Radio had dimensions—instantaneity and sound—which newspapers did not have.” Edward Bliss Jr., Now the News: The Story of Broadcast Journalism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991), 129.
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• Douglas Gomery, A History of Broadcasting in the United States (Maiden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishing, 2008), 62.
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• Public memory of World War II as “the Good War” is associated with Studs Terkel's oral history of ordinary Americans during that time. See Studs Terkel, The Good War: An Oral History of World War II (New York: Pantheon Boob, 1984).
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• For more on this debate, see Julian G. Hurstfield, America and the French Nation, 1939–1945 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986).
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• Murphy's first written directions came on Sept. 22, 1942, but even these were not revealed to the State Department itself until 1943. Roosevelt Directive to Murphy, Sept. 22, 1942, box 154, folder 7, Robert D. Murphy Papers, Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif.
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• There are a number of conflicting accounts about the negotiations with the French in the run-up to Torch. See Robert D. Murphy, Diplomat among Warriors (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1964); Kenneth Pendar, Adventure in Diplomacy: Our French Dilemma (New York: Dodd & Mead, 1945); Mark Clark, Calculated Risk (New York: Harper Brothers, 1950); Cordell Hull, The Memoirs of Cordell Hull (New York: Macmillan, 1948); Dwight D. Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1948); and Arthur Layton Funk, The Politics of TORCH: The Allied Landings and the Algiers Putsch, 1942 (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1974).
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• For more on the military campaign in North Africa, see the official Army history, George F. Howe, Northwest Africa: Seizing the Initiative in the West (Washington, D.C.: Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army, 1957); and Rick Atkinson, An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942–1943 (New York: Henry Holt, 2002).
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• There was considerable controversy at the time and much speculation later about whether Darlan knew of the Allied invasion in advance. Most historians conclude that he was in Algiers by chance, to visit his ailing son.
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• For assessments of Darlan, see Funk, 22–23; Hurstfield, 162–23; and William L. Langer, Our Vichy Gamble (Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1965), 164–65. For a French perspective, see Albert Kammerer, De débarquement africain au meurtre de Darlan (Paris: Flammarion, 1949), 542–55.
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• For the AFHQ planning process, see “Public Relations Policies re Torch,” memo, Oct. 9, 1942, entry 3A, box 67, record group (hereafter RG) 331, Allied Operational and Occupation Headquarters, World War II, National Archives (NARA), College Park, Md.
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• James Wood, History of International Broadcasting (London: Peter Peregrinus, 1992), 17–18.
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• For Torch press planning, see “Instructions for Field Press Censorship,” Oct. 1, 1942, World War II (AFHQ microfilm), box 115, reel 71D, RG 331, Allied Operational and Occupation Headquarters, NARA. See also “AFHQ Instructions for Handling Material Field Press Censorship,” Oct. 21, 1942, entry 1, box 326, RG 218, Joint Chiefs of Staff, NARA.
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• John MacVane, On the Air in World War II (New York: William Morrow, 1979), 9–11.
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• Cloud and Olson, The Murrow Boys, 112.
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• Ibid., 158.
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• Richard J. Thompson Jr., Crystal Clear: The Struggle for Reliable Communications Technology in World War II (Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley, 2007), 51.
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• MacVane to Richardson, cable, Nov. 13, 1942, box 1, folder 1, MacVane Papers, Wisconsin Historical Society (WHS), Madison, Wis.
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• Quoted in Cloud and Olson, The Murrow Boys, 158.
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• John MacVane to Stanley Richardson, cable, Nov. 13, 1942, box 1, folder 1, MacVane Papers, WHS.
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• John MacVane to Stanley Richardson, letter, Dec. 2 1942, box 1, folder 1, MacVane Papers, WHS.
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• Ibid.
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• Stanley Richardson to John MacVane, cable, Nov. 18, 1942, box 1, folder 1, MacVane Papers, WHS.
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• John MacVane to Stanley Richardson, cable, Nov. 24, 1942, box 1, folder 1, MacVane Papers, WHS.
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• John MacVane to Stanley Richardson, letter, Dec. 2, 1942, box 1, folder 2, MacVane Papers, WHS.
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• Charles Collingwood to Edward R. Murrow, cable, Nov. 20, 1942, box 3, Walter Bedell Smith Papers, Eisenhower Library, Abilene, Kan.
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• George Marshall to Alexander D. Surles, Nov. 25, 1942, entry 13, box 28, RG 165, War Department General and Special Staffs, NARA.
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• John MacVane to Stanley Richardson, letter, Dec. 2 1942, box 1, folder 2, MacVane Papers, WHS.
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• Eisenhower was so desperate after several days out of contact with the Western Task Force that he planned to send a speedboat from Gibraltar to Casablanca for a report. See Eisenhower, Crusade, 111.
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• For more on such accreditation, see “Accreditation Agreement Boyle signed with War Department,” Oct. 20, 1942, box 1, folder 2, Harold “Hal” Boyle Papers, WHS.
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• For more on Liebling's communications problems, see William Shawn to A.J. Liebling, Feb. 23, 1943, and other correspondence, box 394, file 11, New Yorker Archives, New York Public Library, New York.
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• MacVane, On the Air, 133.
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• John MacVane to Stanley Richardson, cable, Nov. 25, 1942, box 1, folder 2, MacVane Papers, WHS.
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• Broadcast script, Nov. 25, 1942, box 1, folder 5, MacVane Papers, WHS.
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• Ibid.
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• These newspapers were chosen because they capture both AP and UP coverage. In addition, the Times had its own correspondent in North Africa.
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• John MacVane, Journey into War (New York: D. Appleton-Century, 1943), 90–91.
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• Ibid., 91.
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• John MacVane to Stanley Richardson, letter, Dec. 2, 1942, box 1, folder 2, MacVane Papers, WHS.
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• Eisenhower to AGWAR (War Department), Oct. 14, 1942, entry 3A, box 67, RG 331, Allied Operational and Occupation Headquarters, World War II, NARA.
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• Broadcast script, Dec. 3, 1942, box 1, folder 5, MacVane Papers, WHS.
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• William H. Lawrence, “President Upholds Deal with Darlan,” New York Times, Nov. 18, 1942.
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• “American Critic of Darlan,” The (London) Times, Dec. 4, 1942.
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• Blake Sullivan, “Nazis Hurled Back in Africa,” Washington Post, Dec. 3, 1942.
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• Raymond Daniell, “Allies Throw Back Strong Attack in Tunisia,” New York Times, Dec. 3, 1942.
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• A clear sense of the extent of German success in this battle is provided in Atkinson, An Army at Dawn, 219–25.
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• “Radio Digest,” Nov. 21, 1942, entry 497, box 2, RG 165, War Department General and Special Staffs, NARA.
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• “Radio Digest” Dec. 17, 1942, entry 497, box 2, RG 165, War Department General and Special Staffs, NARA.
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• Dwight D. Eisenhower to Walter Bedell Smith, cable, Dec. 6, 1942, World War II (AFHQ microfilm), box 115, reel 75D, RG 331 Allied Operational and Occupation Headquarters, NARA.
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• For details of the Lincoln Barnett case, see “Case of Lincoln Barnett” folder, WO204/3718B, National Archives, Kew (London), United Kingdom. See also “Lincoln Barnett,” entry 499, box 14, RG 165, War Department Special and General Staffs, NARA.
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• Dwight D. Eisenhower to Walter Bedell Smith, cable, Dec. 6, 1942, World War II (AFHQ microfilm), box 115, reel 75D, RG 331, Allied Operational and Occupation Headquarters, NARA.
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• Although I could locate no document expressly calling for an end to that censorship, for hints of Milton Eisenhower's attitude toward political censorship, see Dwight D. Eisenhower to Alexander Surles, cable, Dec. 22, 1942, box 113; and Milton Eisenhower to Dwight Eisenhower, letter, Feb. 26, 1943, box 174, Dwight D. Eisenhower Papers, Eisenhower Library.
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• Renée Gosset, Conspiracy in Algiers, 1942–1943, trans. Nancy Hecksher (New York: The Nation, 1945), 131.
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• Cloud and Olson, The Murrow Boys, 160, 404.
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• MacVane, On the Air, 152–59.
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• Broadcast script, Dec. 24, 1942, box 1, folder 5, MacVane Papers, WHS.
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• MacVane, Journey, 139. See also Edwin James, “Algiers Muffe Badly on Darlan Death,” New York Times, Dec. 27, 1942.
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• Broadcast script, Dec. 25, 1942, box 1, folder 9, Cecil Brown Papers, WHS.
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• Charles Collingwood broadcast transcript, “Radio Digest,” Dec. 31, 1942, entry 499, box 2, RG 165, Records of the War Department Special and General Staffs, NARA.
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• Collingwood broadcast transcript, “Radio Digest,” Dec. 31, 1942, entry 499, box 2, RG 165, Records of the War Department Special and General Staffs, NARA.
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• MacVane, Journey, 154.
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• Broadcast script, Dec. 30, 1942, box 1, folder 5, MacVane Papers, WHS.
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• A.J. Liebling, The Road Back to Paris (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1944), 235.
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• Ernie Pyle, “Snakes in Our Midst,” in Ernie's War, ed. David Nichols (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986), 64–65.
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• Charles Collingwood broadcast script, “Radio Digest,” Jan. 5. 1943, entry 499, box 2, RG 165, War Department Special and General Staffs, NARA.
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• Charles Collingwood broadcast transcript, “Radio Digest,” Jan. 7, 1943, entry 499, box 2, RG 165, War Department Special and General Staffs, NARA.
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• Broadcast scripts for Jan. 4, 1943, and Jan. 13, 1943, box 1, Cecil Brown Papers, WHS.
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• “New Crisis Predicted Soon in North Africa,” New York Times, Jan. 12, 1943; and “Royalists Linked to Darlan Death,” New York Times, Jan. 14, 1943.
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• These are collected in entry 171, box 1847, RG 44, Office of Government Reports, NARA.
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• H. Freeman “Doc” Matthews to Robert D. Murphy, cable, Jan. 6, 1943, UD 2013, box 23, RG 84, Records of the Foreign Service Posts, NARA.
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• General Robert McClure to Major General Frederick Lawson, cable, Jan. 19, 1943, WO 204/5426, National Archives, Kew (London), United Kingdom.
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• John MacVane, broadcast script, Jan. 16, 1943, entry 136, box 6, RG 313, Naval Operating Forces, NARA.
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• Drew Middleton, Our Share of Night: A Personal History of the War Years (New York: Viking, 1946), 245.
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• Dwight D. Eisenhower memo for diary, Jan. 19, 1943, Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower The War Years: II, ed. Alfred E. Chandler Jr., (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1970), 910.
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• Charles Collingwood broadcast transcript, Jan. 14, 1943, entry 136, box 6, RG 313, Records of Naval Operating Forces, NARA.
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• Harry C. Butcher to William Paley, Dec. 30, 1942, box 1, Harry C. Butcher Papers, Eisenhower Library.
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• Harry C. Butcher to Earl Gammons, Feb. 18, 1943, box 2, Harry C. Butcher Papers, Eisenhower Library.
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• Harry C. Butcher to William Paley, July 17, 1943, box 2, Harry C. Butcher Papers, Eisenhower Library.
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• Cloud and Olson, The Murrow Boys, 162.
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• Ibid.
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• Charles Collingwood broadcast transcript, “Radio Digest,” March 10, 1943, entry 499, box 2, RG 165, War Department Special and General Staffs, NARA.
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• Charles Collingwood broadcast transcript, “Radio Digest,” March 4, 1943, entry 499, box 2, RG 165, War Department Special and General Staffs, NARA.
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• Charles Collingwood broadcast transcript, “Radio Digest,” March 18, 1943, entry 499, box 2, RG 165, War Department Special and General Staffs, NARA.
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• John MacVane to Stanley Richardson, cable, March 10, 1943, box 1, folder 4, MacVane Papers, WHS.
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• T.J. Davis to Charles Collingwood, letter, March 28, 1943, WO204/5426, National Archives, Kew (London), United Kingdom.
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• Niles Trammell to John MacVane, letter, Dec. 24, 1943, box 1, folder 3, MacVane Papers, WHS.
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• Cloud and Olson, The Murrow Boys, 166.
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• J.V. McCormack to TROOPERS (AFHQ London), cable, May 18, 1943, WO 204/3718A, National Archives, Kew (London), United Kingdom.
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• “Collingwood's Beats,” Newsweek, Feb. 1, 1942, 60.
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• Cloud and Olson, The Murrow Boys, 158.
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• Office of War Information Survey #121, “The People Appraise Their War Information,” March 23, 1943, entry 162, box 1784A, RG 44, Office of Government Reports, NARA.
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• Denver National Opinion Research Center, “People's Attitudes Toward the Government's Information Policy” March 7, 1942, entry 151, box 1796, RG 44, Office of Government Reports, NARA.
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• For more such polling, see Office of War Information, “Intelligence Reports” assessing public opinion, entries 162–65, RG 44, Office of Government Reports, NARA.
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• “News and the Newsroom,” Broadcasting, March 15, 1943, 32.
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• Robert McLean address to International Circulation Managers Association, Oct. 23, 1944, box 47, folder 818, Robert McLean Papers, Associated Press Corporate Archives, New York.
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• “Surfeit with War on Radio,” Jan. 13, 1943, entry 174, box 1798, RG 44, Office of Government Reports, NARA.
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• While Collingwood and MacVane certainly took the lead, several other broadcasters also contributed to this reporting, including, as mentioned, Arthur Mann of the Mutual Broadcasting System (MBS) and Ralph Dunnett of the BBC.
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• Few recent studies of radio during the war, or of radio news more generally, treat the North African campaign, MacVane, or Collingwood specifically. Eric Barnouw, for his part, accords them scant attention. While he devotes a dozen pages to Murrow in London, the North African campaign merits only a paragraph, and even that largely a biographical sketch of Collingwood followed by an anecdote about the actress Kay Francis. MacVane receives no mention at all here or elsewhere. See Barnouw, The Golden Web, 185.
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• J.V. McCormack to PR First Army, memo, May 8, 1943, WO204/3718A, National Archives, Kew (London), United Kingdom.
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