The U.S. Eighth Air Force and its British World War II hosts: A history of international public relations.

摘要

During the titanic struggle that was World War II, thousands of young men and women came from the United States to Great Britain to form what was to be the mightiest air armada the world had ever seen. This armada, the U.S. Eighth Air Force, was obligated by the nature of their mission, the availability of airfields and the design strengths and limitations of their aircraft to support and fly missions against Nazi Germany from the fields of England. As the Eighth Air Force was the most potent striking force potentially available to the United States in the early days of the U.S. involvement in the war, there was a strong commitment to supplying personnel and material to this organization in the shortest time possible. This meant that thousands of Americans, from every part of the United States, were transported into the midst of a well-populated foreign country from which to conduct their war. What the U.S. and British authorities attempted to provide as a means of preserving domestic tranquility for the British residents and morale support for the personnel of the Eighth Air Force while also seeking to build positive public relations between the two groups is the focus of this study.;This paper proposes to discuss the issues relating to the reasons for bringing U.S. airmen and support personnel to Britain, the potential and real problems created by such a deployment, the programs both British and American authorities employed to enhance cross-cultural relations and U.S. air forces personnel morale, and the obstacles these programs faced.;The scope of the total public relations efforts was significant in its size, the political level of attention and the effect on Anglo-American relations during the war. In the end, however, it appears that the efforts of highly organized British government programs probably had less consequence than existing cultural dynamics and the simple decency inherent in the peoples of the two lands.