El cine americano en España durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial : información y propaganda

Abstract

During World War II propaganda was a fundamental province. US launched a formidable propagandistic machine, being one of its less studied aspects the one refering to neutral countries. This study outlines a general view of the American propaganda in Spain during WWII, concentrating afterwards in motion-pictures. Hollywood movies had an important and icreasing importance in Spain as the war advanced. US newsreels - censored- were shown in Spain until the foundation of NO-DO (monopolistic newsreel of the Spanish State). From then (1943) the presence of US news filmed material in NODO increased until the end of the war. Propaganda documentaries had a wide difussion thank to US Embassy efforts. But, what Spanish audience wanted after the Civil War was Hollywood movies. This tremendously important propaganda weapon had a lot of difficulties for its difussion: comercial, censorship, etc. Notwithstanding, motion-pictures played a fundamental role in US propaganda activities in Spain during WW II. This work is based fundamentally on original files of the National Archives in Washigton DC.