Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2008, History (Arts and Sciences)

This thesis chronicles the creation of Project HOPE, an American humanitarian nongovernmental organization, and the first voyage of its hospital ship, known as the S.S. Hope, to Indonesia. Through extensive archival research, including access to the largely unused Project HOPE archives, this study concludes that, at least from 1958 to 1961, this humanitarian venture was also a propaganda campaign during the total Cold War, the all-encompassing ideological struggle for national survival between the United States and the Soviet Union. As domestic propaganda, Project HOPE tried to get ordinary Americans to participate in the Cold War, build up their morale for the long struggle, expose them to world affairs, and gain their support for the global expansion of U.S. power. As foreign propaganda, Project HOPE aimed at containing communist expansion by securing friends for the United States through a positive demonstration of the material advantages of American-style freedom. This thesis also argues that Project HOPE was part of the “State-private network,” a web of organizations that received support from the U.S. government while spreading propaganda on behalf of the United States.

Committee: Chester Pach (Advisor) Subjects: