In April of 1917 the US Government had a problem. It had just declared war on Imperial Germany, less than six months after re-electing President Wilson who's entire campaign theme was "He Kept Us Out of the War..."

The problem wasn't the political flip-flop, but rather the fact that roughly a third of all American Citizens were either immigrants from or descended from immigrants from... you guessed it... Imperial Germany. Those American Citizens, including one who lived in Hollywood, were not convinced that this "War to Save Democracy" was anything other than a war to destroy their homelands and cultures.

The President pondered what to do about the fact that support among the citizenry for this war was tepid, at best. He needed to whip up a war fighting spirit and furor that would carry Americans across the sea, to stand in Paris, and say those words, "Lafayette, nous sommes là!" (Lafayette, we are here!)

Wilson's good friend and confidant, George Creel, had an idea. It was an idea to "propagate the faith" in the American version of the truth and get Americans fired up to take on the Germans.

What was that idea? It would become known as... The Committee on Public Information. George Creel would go on to lead the effort to inform and coerce millions of American Citizens to support the Great War.