Steady Improvements

The campaign to sell voluntary repatriation was not the administration's only PR success in 1952. As the war persisted, officers and officials at all levels made big improvements in their publicity efforts. Many learned from earlier mistakes. In the Far East, senior officers also established more effective bureaucratic structures and brought in more personnel to help deal with reporters. On the ground in Korea, the changing nature of the war also eased the military's task. As the fighting bogged down in stalemate, it became less newsworthy. For the first time, the military also had enormous control over what reporters saw. And at the same time, they were now in a position to alleviate the two practical problems that had soured military‐media relations in 1950: appalling billets and antiquated communications. In Washington, meanwhile, officials undertook numerous information campaigns that helped sustain a measure of support for the war.

Administration (probate law) · Bureaucracy · Economics · Management · Political science · Public relations · Publicity · Repatriation · Stalemate · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · Law · Public Administration · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies