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Committee for National Morale
The Committee for National Morale, a private and non-profit organization, was founded July 1940 during World War II. The committee was put into place and was supported by the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration. The committee attempted to apply anthropology and psychology amongst other sciences, to solve the problems of morale during the time of war that the nation faced.

History
The committee was put into effect to evaluate and resolve issues of morale that the country was facing. It also provided methods to counter foreign forms of propaganda and recommended psychological offenses The committee was composed of various different experts among those were journalists, psychologists, sociologists, political scientists, and many more experts in their respective area of study. These experts collected data, came up with basic propositions and shared their results about morale and propaganda. Members of the committee believed that propaganda and the issues that were created could not be left to the regular journalists and politicians to misinterpret, they were the responsibility of experts that knew how to manipulate the public. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was a strong supporter of psychological warfare and believed that it was just as important as the actual war. President Roosevelt agreed with the committees ideals and beliefs and provided the funds necessary for what he called a “super morale agency”. Although having strong support from the president and his administration, the committee was dissolved because there was no way to create one national propaganda policy until having an interventionist policy and it was very difficult to get the messages accepted by all the public. After failed attempts of compromise by opposing sides, the Office of Civilian Defense was created. President Roosevelt created the Office of Civilian Defense due to the fear that roamed of the possibility that Germany would begin to bomb United States territory because of how easily Germany bombed Britain.

Art and Culture
Art was a major focus of the committee. Propaganda was a method that the committee analyzed to try and improve overall morale and to use against foreign enemies. Artists helped with the addition of American propaganda exhibits in museums that conveyed the ideals and beliefs shared by the committee. For example, Bauhaus artists helped implement the idea of a democratic personality in American society with their exhibit in Museum of Modern Art in New York. People were free to interpret the art the way they wanted to which was the idea of being democratic individuals. The committee helped create the culture for the 1940s to the 1960s in that they made people feel as free individuals through the art, propaganda, and overall message of a democratic society. During World War II, it was difficult to get African Americans to enroll. Arthur Upham Pope challenged that it is said that all men and women are equal in the United States, but is everyone actually equal? He also stated that there is racial and religious prejudice throughout the country and the nation has to overcome that in order to obtain the teamwork it needs in time of war. Government and the comittee promoted African American participation and achievement in military through posters,art, and films to increase the enrollment numbers. The White Book of the United States Foreign Policy was written and prepared by members of the Committee for National Defense. President of the committee, George Fielding Eliot, addresses in his foreword that the book about foreign policy serves to calm the American people and settles any doubt that may be present about having to fight in the war or about German propaganda. The book serves to calm and inform the people about the foreign policies of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in this time of war that has created a sense of uncertainty. The book outlines the foreign policies of the early 1940s and informs people of current situations in the world of politics and time of war.

Members
The committee’s president was Major George Fielding Eliot who was a second lieutenant in the Australian army and wrote around fifteen books on political matters and military from 1930 to the 1960s. The main leader and most known of the committee was Arthur Upham who was an archaeologist and historian of Persian art and the chairman of the committee. The vice presidents were Robert P. Bass, Mrs. J. Borden Harriman, Dr. Frank Kindon, Gifford Pinchot, Herbert Bayard Swope. After that there was a secretary, chairman of executive committee, editor, and a board of trustees. In all there were over one hundred members that were specialists in relevant fields such as psychology, sociology, political science, foreign affairs, propaganda, and many respected journalists at that time.

Duties and Accomplishments
The committee basically had a short list of duties: to find the major issues of national morale by performing research and fact finding, publicizing and sharing their results to both specialists and the public, and create propositions of morale for everyday situations, and planning and initiating measures that would protect and increase the nation’s morale in all groups of American people. The committee would also interview highly educated people from different cultures in order to get data to compare cultures.The committee had many books written. Among those works was a five hundred page report on morale, a survey and bibliography called “German Psychological Warfare” which examined Germany’s use of propaganda and psychology and proposed to go after Hitler psychologically because of his personality. There was also a study of Germany’s modern warfare named “The Axis Grand Strategy-Blueprints for the Total War and many independent research project conducted by the individual members of the committee.

List of Works (1940-1944)

 * White book of the United States foreign policy, 1932-1942 by Committee for National Morale
 * Civilian Morale Number of the Journal of Educational Sociology by Committee for National Morale
 * Arthur Upham Pope papers by Arthur Upham Pope
 * Morale Factors in Collapse of France 1940
 * Programme [and bulletin] by Committee for National Morale
 * German Propaganda Expenditures and some sources of the propaganda ministry's income
 * Axis-controlled "Neutral" news sources : with a check-list of newspapers and news agencies in neutral countries, owned, controlled or influenced by Germany, Italy and Japan
 * The Axis Grand Strategy; Blueprints for the Total War
 * German Psychological Warfare
 * America Organizes to Win the War