'Watchmen' Episode Two Reflects the Real German Propaganda Used On American Soldiers
Watchmen's second episode opens once again with a flashback. This time, it appears to be before the Tulsa Race Massacre in 1921 where Episode One opened. We see a German woman called upon by a superior officer to write a propaganda flyer to be dropped by planes over American soldiers. The flyer is directed toward black American troops, and questions their loyalty to the United States and Democracy. One of these flyers, we see, is picked up by Will Reeves's father, andultimately becoming the sheet of paper that he writes a "Watch Over This Boy" note on while he flees the Tulsa Race Massacre.
"What is Democracy?" the flyer asks. "Do you enjoy the same rights as the white people in America? Or are you treated over there as second class citizens?"
This reflects actual propaganda used by Germany during the first and second World Wars to chip away at the patriotism of black American soldiers. As the Holocaust Museum notes, during WWII, Nazi Germany dropped flyers to American troops that read: “There have never been lynchings of colored men in Germany. They have always been treated decently. So you don’t have to be afraid to be with Germans.”
As a Medium post from the museum notes:
The Nazis were virulent racists who viewed history as a biologically driven struggle for survival and dominance between various peoples. They identified black people as an inferior, alien race that threatened the future existence of Western society. But that didn’t stop them from trying to exploit racial tensions among US forces to encourage desertion in the closing days of World War II. Creating wedges between people had been a Nazi strategy since the party’s inception.
Though the timing might not add up perfectly to what we see, the techniques are indeed accurate.
This opening also serves an interesting purpose in Damon Lindelof's Watchmen. The series is positioning white supremacy as the ultimate villain in America in 2019—much like how nuclear war was the real threat in 1986. So, to show the tactics that Germany used to convert American troops provides a new perspective on the definition of a villain.
So often we view the world wars as the last clear distinction between good and evil in the world. This isn't to make early 20th century Germany look like the heroes—this is simply to provide a different angle. America was also guilty of horrifying atrocities, and from an alternate perspective, this country could be perceived as evil for its treatment of people of color throughout its history. There aren't good guys and bad guys in Watchmen. And this opening provides a disturbing reminder of that.
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