Truth as a Weapon

In his speech at the dedication of Hoover Tower in June 1941, Herbert Hoover emphasized the role of propaganda in igniting and fueling the First World War. “Here lies the proof which comes with retrospect,” Hoover remarked about the documents housed in the Tower “that propaganda moves by tainting of facts, suppressing the facts, by synthetic facts, as well as perversion of facts. Here is the proof of organized promotion of hate, fear, and dissension.”

Propaganda in various forms—posters, handbills, pamphlets, and other such fugitive documents—remains a specialty of the Hoover Library & Archives, most famously in its vast collection of political posters. Hoover and his institution’s enduring dedication to the search for truth is epitomized by its acquisition of the archives of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. These collections document how a stalwart defense of the truth helped bring down the Soviet Communist empire.

Jazz Ambassadors

A unique part of the RFE/RL collection is the material from the Jazz Ambassadors program created by the US State Department in 1956. The State Department sent a group of popular American jazz musicians to countries in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union to play Western jazz music and, by extension, to present a visual challenge to Soviet propaganda about racial tensions in the United States. Some of the musicians included Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Phil Woods, Oscar Peterson, and Benny Goodman.

Western music, and jazz in particular, became a popular form of resistance against the Communist regimes, especially in Eastern Europe. The fluidity and creativity of improvisational jazz and its Western origins went against Soviet ideology: with its solos highlighting individual musicians and improvisational techniques, jazz served as a metaphor for the freedom and autonomy afforded by democratic societies like the United States.

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