The Public Relations Operations of the French Resistance in World War II

This article is intended as a contribution to French public relations (PR) and media history. It describes the clandestine media relations operations of the French Resistance in World War II as undertaken by the Bureau d'Information et de Presse (BIP), which was established in April 1942 by the Resistance leader Jean Moulin and led by the ex-journalist Georges Bidault, who went on to be foreign minister and then Prime Minister in post-war France. Beyond a descriptive narrative of the BIP, the article attempts an evaluation of the role of the BIP in the Resistance and suggests that Resistance historiography has emphasized armed action and largely overlooked the BIP's importance. The article proposes that the BIP undertook a sophisticated form of public relations activity on behalf of the Resistance leadership and that this work played a significant role in building support for the French Resistance movement up until the liberation of France in 1944.

• http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hprr20/cu...