Throughout history, one of the key ingredients in waging an unjust war is the tight-fisted control of information to those whose support the tyrant was required to retain. In order to wage an unjust war, and to make one’s actions appear not only acceptable but justifiable, the tyrannical force needs to lay a continuing foundation of false beliefs upon which to operate.
Perhaps the most dramatic example of this is what occurred under the Third Reich in Germany during World War II. Adolph Hitler is famous for "the Big Lie" theory, which basically involves telling a lie so enormous that nobody would ever believe you would risk making up something so preposterous.
The Nazi propaganda machine followed the strategy of mis-information to a tee. First of all, it needed a scapegoat. For this, they found the Jews. Secondly, they needed an event. For this, they had the Treaty of Versailles, which they famously thought was unfair and laid a harsh burden upon Germany for starting World War I (which it did, and which they did)!
Armed with a focal point and a scapegoat, the Nazi propaganda machine spun into high gear, attempting to "spin" the story to fit its desired ends. In doing so, the Nazis certainly satisfied the "Big Lie" theory, acting like they were only doing what was justified when in fact they were doing what was unimaginable.
It all began with economics. First, the Nazis blamed their financial woes on the Jews. Instead of having to face the fact that they had started a World War, and were caught up in a depression that had not only engulfed Germany, but the entire world, the Nazis instead found it convenient to blame the Jews. Instead of facing their own responsibility for the mess they were in and working on solutions, they found someone to blame.
Next the Nazis built up the concept of "protection" from their enemies. They understo
od the power of fear in making people take leave of their common sense, and they played upon it shamelessly. After all, it is not easy to entice an entire civilization to butcher another (or to at least turn its head while it is happening), so to accomplish this, they needed to strike fear in the heart of the average German citizen. This was accomplished by talking about the power of Germany’s enemies, and the need to "protect" the people from these terrible enemies. After all, hadn’t Germany’s enemies devastated the businesses of a number of German citizens? Hadn’t the enemies of Germany jeopardized the livelihoods of thousands of German people? The Nazi party had gone to war because it had to, in order to protect the interests of innocent German citizens everywhere. Wasn’t the economic decline felt by Germany the fault of someone else?
Further, the Nazi propaganda machine was designed to build morale, even when the Nazi cause was failing miserably, when the world was finding out about its shady, hidden operations, and when its armies were being crushed in the field. The way this was done was by very craftily telling the German people over and over again that the Nazis were winning. No matter what happened in the court of world opinion, the Nazi government would tell its trapped citizens that it was winning, and that anything that didn’t appear to be a victory was either lies from its enemies, rumors, reverse-propaganda, or the like. As long as the Nazi government could "spin" events into appearing to be victories, it thought it could keep its people fooled.
This whole strategy worked very well for a time. But a house of cards cannot stand forever. As the Allied armies pushed further into the German interior, and as the losses became more and more substantial, and as the failed ideology of blaming a nation’s entire host of problems on a small group of people began to play itself out, the world was finally allowed a glance into a horror it could not have conceived. As the truth became known, it was so despicable, so terrible, so horrifying, that one wonders how monstors like Joseph Goebbels (one of Germany’s head propagandists), could sleep at night. The lies, the mistreatment of an innocent people, the butchery, are a stain on Germany’s (and mankind’s) history that will never be erased or forgotten. 
Goebbels and Hitler and the Nazis are all dead and gone. But the legacy of their lies remain. And that becomes a lesson for any leader:
Lies outlive spin.
And as the Bible says, be sure that the truth will find you out.
Leaders everywhere can learn a valuable lesson from this negative example. Leaders deal in truth, honesty, integrity, character, and what author Jim Collins calls "confronting brutal reality." Anything less than this is not leadership. And if it’s not leadership, it’s not worthy to be followed.
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