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by Erin E. Thompson, USAICoE Staff Historian
MID ESTABLISHES GROUP FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDIES
On Jun. 25, 1941, the Military Intelligence Division (MID) established the Special Studies Group (SSG) to study the psychology of the United States and allied, neutral, and enemy nations. Its purpose was to create effective counterpropaganda and plan psychological operations.
In the early 1940s, the War Department became increasingly aware of concerted propaganda efforts being perpetuated by the Axis powers in Latin and North America. The MID was instructed to investigate these activities and prepared two studies on the matter in July and November 1940. The MID determined that developing counterpropaganda to combat the misinformation and rhetoric being presented to American audiences was in the nation’s best interest.
In early 1941, Assistant Secretary of War John J. McCloy expressed interest in developing a group within the War Department G-2 dedicated to military propaganda and psychology. According to a memo directed to the MID on Jun. 16, 1941, this group would “study the psychology of our own people and forces, of those neutral countries, and of hostile or enemy-controlled countries to determine the effect of propaganda or of proposed operations on that psychology.” On Jun. 25, McCloy’s idea was realized with the creation of the MID’s Special Studies Group.
Command of this new group was given to Lt. Col. (later Col.) Percy G. Black, who had served as the military attaché in Berlin from 1937–1939. Colonel Black’s experiences exposed him to Germany’s exhaustive psychological operations designed to cultivate support from the civilian population and ensure military success across central Europe. Colonel Black desired the SSG to function as an advisor to both the War Department on matters of propaganda and psychological warfare policy and to military commanders wishing to exploit the results of such operations.
The SSG was one of several military and civilian psychological studies groups developed in the early 1940s. The problem of overlapping jurisdictions and assigned missions led to interagency rivalries, particularly with the newly established Coordinator of Information (COI) office directed by Col. William J. Donovan. While the SSG functioned primarily as a policy and advisory agency, it frequently failed to elicit much respect from military planners or assert any authority over civilian agencies’ operations. However, the SSG found success in its detailed analyses of Axis propaganda aims and methods and provided several useful studies on the offensive use of counterpropaganda and psychological warfare.
In December 1941, Brig. Gen. John Magruder, a special observer in China, reported to the MID that Japanese propaganda was damaging effective resistance efforts in China. General Douglas MacArthur further noted similar problems developing in the Philippines. The SSG and COI joined forces in a surprising display of interagency cooperation and, according to MID historian Col. Bruce W. Bidwell, “without any prior arrangements … succeeded in having President Roosevelt’s historic freedom pledge to the Philippine people published in a Manila ‘extra’ less than four hours after the message had first arrived in Washington.” This successful employment of positive propaganda to counteract Japanese oppression demonstrated the valuable nature of the SSG’s research.
By the end of 1941, the War Department realized its psychological warfare efforts required centralization. This led to the creation of the Joint Psychological Warfare Committee under the command of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in March 1942. Colonel Black served as a representative of the MID on this new committee. That same month, the SSG was renamed the Psychological Warfare Branch and placed under the direction of the Military Intelligence Service, the operational arm of the MID. Colonel Black remained in charge of the organization until July 1942, when he was appointed assistant chief of staff, G-2, for Headquarters, Western Task Force, during the Operation TORCH landings on the coast of North Africa.
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| Date Taken: | 06.20.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 06.20.2025 16:19 |
| Story ID: | 501166 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 21 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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