‘We Bring You Home’: The American Forces Network and US Militarism Post-WWII

FAIN: FEL-281407-22

Stacy Takacs
Oklahoma State University (Stillwater, OK 74078-1016)

Research and writing leading to a book on the history of the American Forces Network.

For over 75 years, the US military has run a global broadcast network designed to provide information and a “touch of home” to troops serving overseas. This monograph examines the origins, operations, and reception of the American Forces Network (AFN) overseas. My objectives are (1) to detail the history of this military network and the private-public partnerships that make it run; (2) to investigate AFN’s role in habituating US and other citizens to an increasingly militarized US foreign policy post-World War II, and (3) to show how AFN functioned, both formally and informally, as a tool of public diplomacy during the Cold War. The study fills a gap in US broadcast history and contributes to debates over the relationship between militarism and empire, hard versus soft power, in the fields of American Studies, critical military studies, public diplomacy, and the history of US foreign relations.