An unworkable policy which encourages the enemy to fight to the last gasp: The depiction in British and American newspapers of the Allied policy of unconditional surrender for Germany, 1943-1945

Part of a project to present case studies of newspaper treatment of significant political controversy during the Second World War, this example considers reporting and analysis of the western allies’ insistence that Germany must surrender unconditionally. Political and military critics attributed to the policy of unconditional surrender the power to prolong German resistance and increase the death toll among servicemen and civilians. German opponents of Hitler believed it undermined their cause. Recent scholarship has explored connections between the demand for Germany’s complete capitulation and the origins of the Cold War. This paper examines a structured sample of newspaper coverage of the policy in Britain and the United States. It describes the controversies that surround it and discerns through qualitative content analysis the extent to which newspapers placed them in the public sphere.