Committee on Public Information
| CPI Creel Committee |
|
 Committee on Public Information in 1916 |
|
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | April 13, 1917 |
| Dissolved | August 21, 1919 |
| Superseding agencies |
|
| Jurisdiction | United States Government |
| Headquarters | Washington, D.C. |
| Employees | significant staff plus over 75,000 volunteers |
| Agency executives |
|
| Parent agency | Executive Office of the President |
| Child agencies |
|
The Committee on Public Information, also known as the CPI or the Creel Committee, was an independent agency of the government of the United States created to influence U.S. public opinion regarding American participation in World War I. Over just 26 months, from April 14, 1917, to June 30, 1919, it used every medium available to create enthusiasm for the war effort and enlist public support against foreign attempts to undercut America's war aims. It primarily used propaganda techniques to accomplish these goals.
President Woodrow Wilson established the Committee on Public Information (CPI) through on April 13, 1917. The committee consisted of George Creel (chairman) and as ex officio members the Secretaries of: State (Robert Lansing), War (Newton D. Baker), and the Navy (Josephus Daniels).
Creel urged Wilson to create a government agency to coordinate "not propaganda as the Germans defined it, but propaganda in the true sense of the word, meaning the 'propagation of faith.'" He was a journalist with years of experience on the Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News before accepting Wilson's appointment to the CPI. He had a contentious relationship with Secretary Lansing.
The purpose of the CPI was to influence American public opinion toward supporting U.S. participation in World War I via a prolonged propaganda campaign. The CPI at first used material that was based on fact, but spun it to present an upbeat picture of the American war effort. In his memoirs, Creel claimed that the CPI routinely denied false or undocumented atrocity reports, fighting the crude propaganda efforts of "patriotic organizations" like the National Security League and the American Defense Society that preferred "general thundering" and wanted the CPI to "preach a gospel of hate."
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