Secrets of Victory

The Office of Censorship (oc) oversaw American newspapers, magazines, films, and radio broadcasts from the weeks following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 until the defeat of the Japanese in August 1945. At its height it employed a staff of over ten thousand. Most important, it established a precedent for the way in which the United States government would treat freedom of the press during war. Michael S. Sweeney, a former journalist and assistant professor of journalism at Utah State University, has written the most comprehensive history of the Office of Censorship and its director, Byron Price, to date. Because the OC oversaw the American media—with the exception of military censors in the theaters of operations—it became the largest censorship operation in U.S. history. It achieved enormous success, moreover, without employing draconian measures; Price and the OC successfully administered a system of voluntary censorship. The exploration of how Price constructed and administered this system of voluntary regulations without demanding government control forms the core of this book. Sweeney concludes that Price became “a censor who worked for press freedom” and that he could do so because of the broad national support of the war, the cooperation of the military, the support of the journalists themselves, and the even-handed and intelligent approach taken by Price

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