ABSTRACT
One of the first examples of an attempt by the press to influence US foreign policy preceded the Spanish-American War over Cuba at the end of the nineteenth century. The bellicose headlines printed by the American newspaper tycoons, William Randolph Hearst (New York Journal) and Joseph Pulitzer (New York World), clearly helped to push the US into the conflict by influencing public opinion. This event demonstrated to politicians and newspaper owners the enormous impact that journalism could have upon foreign policy. As noted earlier President Wilson failed to rally public support in his unsuccessful campaign to have the US join the League of Nations in 1919. Learning from his mistakes, President Roosevelt ran a much better prepared public campaign to persuade Americans that the US should join the United Nations in 1945. But Roosevelt also found it difficult in the period between September 1939 and December 1941 to persuade Americans to join the allied war effort in the face of media skepticism and even hostility. This changed overnight as a result of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
