Not Factual But Persuasive Enough
Joseph Pennell, Poster for the Fourth Liberty Loan Campaign, 1918
Wikimedia Commons
Wrecked ships are strewn in New York harbor, enemy bombers attack,
and the Statue of Liberty peers through the smoke at the burning city.
Once again, it mattered very little if it was true or false. The government was not above using the terror of the times to raise money for the war, as seen in the poster above. The image was pure propaganda, not prophecy. It was an impossible nightmare, concocted to scare people into again buying Liberty Bonds.
In 1918, and for years to come, massive air assaults would not be possible. There were too few bombers, which could not fly far enough, and could not carry many bombs. The bombs they could carry were too small to inflict widespread damage. What's more, there was no way for the short-range bombers of the day to leap-frog across the Atlantic.
A poster like this was the stick; the candy was a traveling display of "war trophies."
