ABSTRACT
In World War II propaganda constituted an essential instrument of 'political' or 'psychological' warfare the first term preferred in British use, the second in American. A document of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) hardly exaggerated when it identified broadcasting as the main difference in propaganda' between the Second World War and the First. A similar distinction was summed up by Hugh Dalton, in charge of British subversive activities as minister of Economic Warfare until early 1942. In the Middle East, where 'black' stations remained in Special Operations Executive (SOE) hands, the old rivalry between 'preachers' and 'practitioners' of subversion persisted. A 'functional' division of labour came about between the Ministry of Information (MOI) and the rest, the former being responsible for overt propaganda to allied and neutral countries, the latter for covert propaganda to enemy and enemy-occupied countries. This distinction proved both hard to maintain and a major obstacle to efficiency.
