Propaganda in Warfare: 10 Historical Examples and Their Impact

War is not fought on the battlefield alone. Long before the first shot is fired, and long after the last soldier has gone home, a second, silent war is waged—a war for the hearts and minds of the people. This is the war of propaganda, the systematic effort to shape perceptions, manipulate emotions, and direct behaviour to achieve a strategic goal. In the context of warfare, its aims are brutally clear: to justify one’s own cause as righteous, to portray the enemy as monstrous and evil, to galvanize support on the home front, to break the morale of opposing forces, and to persuade neutral parties to take a side.

From ancient carvings on rock faces to modern memes shared in an instant, the tools of propaganda have evolved, but its core principles remain unchanged. It is an indispensable, powerful, and often terrifying weapon in the arsenal of any warring power. By examining key moments in history, we can see how words and images have been marshalled for battle, proving time and again that the first casualty of war is, almost always, the truth.

1. The Achaemenid Empire: The Behistun Inscription

To understand that propaganda is as old as empire itself, one need only look to the massive Behistun Inscription, carved into a limestone cliff face in western Iran around 522 BC. Commissioned by Darius the Great of Persia, this monumental piece of public relations work was created to legitimize his rule after he seized power in a period of civil war. The inscription, written in three languages, tells a dramatic story of how Darius, with the divine blessing of the god Ahura Mazda, defeated a series of nine “liar kings” who had illegitimately claimed the throne.

The genius of the inscription lies in its masterful framing. It portrays Darius not as a usurper, but as the rightful restorer of order and truth, sanctioned by the gods. The defeated rivals are systematically demonized as deceivers who brought chaos to the land. By carving this narrative into a permanent, highly visible landmark along a major trade route, Darius created an enduring piece of state propaganda. Its impact was profound: it solidified his contested claim, unified a vast and diverse empire under a single, divinely-sanctioned narrative, and served as a powerful warning to any future challengers.

2. The Roman Empire: Imperial Coinage and Public Triumphs

The Roman Empire was a master of mass communication and understood the power of constant, repetitive messaging. While grand arches and columns celebrated victories, their most effective propaganda tool was small enough to fit in your pocket: the coin. Roman coins were not just currency; they were handheld metal billboards. Each coin was stamped with the emperor’s portrait, reinforcing his authority with every transaction. The reverse side was often used to broadcast political messages and celebrate military victories with slogans like “VICTORIA” or images of conquered foes. This ensured that even in the most remote corners of the empire, the emperor’s power and Rome’s military might were a part of daily life.

This was complemented by the spectacular “Triumph,” a massive parade granted to victorious generals. The general would ride through Rome in a chariot, followed by his legions, carts laden with captured treasure, and the most dramatic element—the captured enemy leaders and their families, paraded in chains. The Triumph was a visceral, unforgettable piece of political theatre, designed to demonstrate the futility of resisting Rome and to justify the state’s endless military expansion to the domestic population.

3. The American Revolution: “Common Sense” and The Boston Massacre Engraving

Propaganda was a critical weapon in turning a colonial tax dispute into a full-blown revolution. In January 1776, Thomas Paine published his pamphlet, “Common Sense.” Written in plain, powerful language that anyone could understand, it dismantled the arguments for reconciliation with the British Crown and presented a fiery, compelling case for American independence. It moved the debate from the salons of the elite to the taverns and town squares, transforming a fringe idea into a popular cause.

Equally powerful was Paul Revere’s 1770 engraving of the Boston Massacre. His depiction was a masterful piece of visual propaganda. It showed a line of well-organized British soldiers callously firing on a peaceful, unarmed, and helpless crowd of colonists. The reality of the event was far more chaotic and complex—the soldiers were being taunted and pelted with objects—but Revere’s image simplified it into a clear narrative of brutal oppression versus innocent liberty. This engraving was widely distributed and inflamed anti-British sentiment throughout the colonies, turning the incident into a potent symbol of British tyranny and a rallying cry for rebellion.

4. World War I: The “Destroy This Mad Brute” Posters

World War I marked the birth of modern, industrial-scale propaganda. As the initial enthusiasm for the war faded, governments on all sides turned to professional artists and advertisers to create a torrent of posters, films, and pamphlets. A key technique was the aggressive demonization of the enemy, and few examples are as stark as the American recruitment poster titled “Destroy This Mad Brute.” The poster depicts Germany as a monstrous, drooling ape—a “gorilla” of German militarism—wearing a spiked helmet and carrying a bloodied club, while clutching a half-naked, fainting woman.

This imagery was designed to bypass rational thought and tap directly into primal fears. It dehumanized the entire German nation, portraying them not as soldiers like themselves, but as savage beasts who threatened to destroy civilization and violate the purity of American women. This type of atrocity propaganda, often based on exaggerated or fabricated stories of German actions in Belgium, was incredibly effective at stirring hatred, boosting recruitment, selling war bonds, and creating a public mindset where a negotiated peace seemed impossible.

5. Nazi Germany: “Triumph of the Will” and The Eternal Jew

No regime in history has ever wielded propaganda with such sinister and devastating effectiveness as Nazi Germany under Joseph Goebbels. The Nazis understood that film was a uniquely powerful medium for creating emotional reality. Leni Riefenstahl’s 1935 film, “Triumph of the Will,” a documentary of the previous year’s Nuremberg Rally, is a chilling masterpiece of political filmmaking. Using innovative camera angles, dramatic music, and sweeping aerial shots, Riefenstahl transformed a political rally into a quasi-religious spectacle, portraying Adolf Hitler as a messianic saviour arriving from the heavens to redeem Germany.

The flip side of this glorification was the vicious dehumanization of the “enemy within.” The 1940 film “The Eternal Jew” was a vile piece of antisemitic propaganda that used pseudo-documentary techniques to portray Jewish people as a parasitic, unclean, and corrupting race. By juxtaposing images of Jewish people in European cities with swarms of rats, the film aimed to strip them of their humanity entirely. “Triumph of the Will” built the cult of personality that enabled Hitler’s power, while films like “The Eternal Jew” poisoned public opinion and laid the psychological groundwork for the Holocaust.

6. Soviet Union: The Myth of the “Odessa Steps”

The early Soviet Union saw propaganda not just as a tool of the state, but as the very essence of it. Under the banner of “agitprop” (agitation and propaganda), the Bolsheviks sought to create a new revolutionary culture and history. Film was central to this project, and director Sergei Eisenstein was its master. His 1925 film, “Battleship Potemkin,” dramatized a 1905 naval mutiny against the Tsar. Its most famous scene, the “Odessa Steps” sequence, is one of the most powerful pieces of propaganda ever put to film.

The scene depicts waves of Cossack soldiers marching emotionlessly down a vast flight of steps, firing indiscriminately into a crowd of innocent and unarmed civilians, including women and children. A baby in a carriage tumbles down the steps amidst the carnage. The sequence is so masterfully shot and edited that for decades, many people around the world believed it to be actual newsreel footage of a real historical event. It never happened. The massacre was a complete fabrication by Eisenstein, designed to create an unforgettable image of the Tsarist regime’s monstrous cruelty and to retroactively justify the violence of the Bolshevik Revolution.

7. World War II America: “Rosie the Riveter” and Mobilizing the Home Front

While Allied propaganda also demonized the enemy, some of its most effective work was focused inward, on mobilizing the home front. As millions of men left to fight overseas, the United States faced a critical labour shortage in its armaments factories. In response, the government launched a massive campaign to recruit women into the industrial workforce, a role they had traditionally been excluded from. The most enduring symbol of this campaign was “Rosie the Riveter.”

Through posters, songs, and films, Rosie was portrayed as a strong, competent, and patriotic woman, stylishly doing her part for the war effort. The message was clear: working in a factory was not just a job, it was a patriotic duty. The campaign was a phenomenal success, and the number of women in the American workforce grew by millions. At the same time, campaigns like “Loose Lips Sink Ships” used fear and a sense of shared responsibility to caution citizens against careless talk that might endanger troop movements. This type of propaganda was crucial for unifying the nation and harnessing its full industrial and social might for the war.

8. The Cold War: “Duck and Cover” and Radio Free Europe

During the Cold War, propaganda became a central weapon in the ideological struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union. On the American home front, the government sought to manage the existential dread of nuclear annihilation. The 1951 civil defence film “Duck and Cover,” featuring Bert the Turtle, was shown to millions of schoolchildren. On the surface, it was a simple safety drill. But its deeper purpose was psychological: to normalize the idea of surviving a nuclear attack, thereby making the government’s policy of nuclear deterrence seem more rational and manageable.

Meanwhile, the U.S. aimed its propaganda outward. Radio Free Europe, a U.S.-funded broadcast service, beamed Western news, analysis, and cultural programming—including banned jazz and rock and roll music—into the information-starved countries of the Eastern Bloc. It directly challenged the state-controlled media monopolies of the communist regimes. While “Duck and Cover” tried to contain fear at home, Radio Free Europe worked to undermine Soviet authority abroad by providing an alternative vision of the world and fostering a desire for freedom.

9. The Vietnam War: The First “Living Room War”

The Vietnam War forever changed the relationship between warfare and the media. It was the first major conflict to be systematically televised, bringing graphic, uncensored images of combat, casualties, and chaos into American living rooms every night. This new reality created a “credibility gap.” The optimistic reports and official narratives coming from military leaders and politicians in Washington often stood in stark contrast to the brutal reality viewers were seeing on their screens. The infamous Tet Offensive, for example, was a military disaster for the North Vietnamese, but the televised images of fighting inside the U.S. Embassy compound made it look like a devastating American defeat, shattering public confidence. This disconnect between official propaganda and televised truth massively fueled the anti-war movement and ultimately eroded the political will to continue the war. It demonstrated that in the television age, controlling the narrative had become more complex and challenging than ever before.

10. The War on Terror and The Digital Age: A New Battlefield

In the 21st century, the battlefield of propaganda has moved online, becoming decentralized, instantaneous, and chaotic. During the early stages of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the U.S. military pioneered the practice of “embedding” journalists within military units. While this provided unprecedented access, it also risked creating a narrative that was inherently sympathetic to the soldiers with whom the journalists shared daily life and danger.

At the same time, insurgent groups like Al-Qaeda and later ISIS mastered the use of the internet. They bypassed traditional media entirely, using social media, online forums, and slickly produced videos—including horrific beheading tapes—to recruit followers, spread terror, and project an image of strength. Today, this digital battlefield is even more complex, dominated by state-sponsored troll farms, automated bot networks, and the rapid spread of memes and disinformation designed to sow division and confusion. In this new era, the lines between state propaganda, foreign interference, and domestic “fake news” have become dangerously blurred, making every citizen a potential target in a global information war.

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