The idea behind Operation Coffeecup, as the name hints, was to arrange a series of coffee-klatches hosted by the members of the Womans Auxiliary. The Auxiliary members receiving the Operation Coffeecup materials were instructed to downplay the purpose of the get-to-gathers, depicting them as sort of spontaneous neighborhood events: Drop a note—just say Come for coffee at 10 a.m. on Wednesday. I want to play the Ronald Reagan record for you.20
The idea of using women in this way—as the grass-roots defenders of medical care—tapped into a long tradition of what historians now typically call maternalist approaches to social reform. From the earliest days of the Revolutionary Period when the mothers of the Republic were thought to be special repositories of civic virtue, to the settlement movement and the campaign for Mothers Pensions during the Progressive Era, Americans have often viewed women as providing a kind of motherly succor that gives them a special claim to authority on matters relating to social welfare. Thus it was a clever tactic to have the members of the Womans Auxiliary and their friends and neighbors write the first-person grassroots letters to members of Congress, rather than having the largely male physician-members of the AMA do so.
The attendees at these coffees were trained and encouraged in writing apparently spontaneous letters to members of Congress expressing their strong opposition to the pending King-Anderson bill. It was essential, the attendees were instructed, that their letters appear to be the uncoordinated, spontaneous, expressions of a rising tide of public sentiment. If the letters were perceived as being part of an organized campaign—the organizers of the organized campaign told the attendees—they would be dismissed by members of Congress, who were routinely inundated with such mail.21
The kit of materials sent to each Auxiliary chapter contained:
A cover letter, informing the attendees that the chips are down, in the next months Americans will decide whether or not this nation wants socialized medicine;
A list of members of Congress;
A ten-point check-list on how to write effective letters to Congress;
A set of instructions to hosts in what Operation Coffeecup was and how it was to be carried out,
including Provide guests with stationery, pens and stamped envelopes. Dont accept an Ill do it tomorrow reply—urge each woman to write her letters while shes in your house—and in the mood!;
A report form listing the number of attendees, the number of times the accompanying record was played, and the number of letters written.
All of this material was packaged as inserts to an LP vinyl recording entitled Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine. The 19-minute recording featured a 2,000-word, 11-minute, impassioned address by Reagan, followed by an 8-minute follow-up by an unnamed announcer. Reagans work on behalf of the AMA was, listeners were assured, unpaid (although there was no mention of the fact that Reagans father-in-law was a top official of the AMA) and was motivated only by his own strong political convictions on the issue.
The record was the focus and the central product of Operation Coffeecup. It was the motivational message from Reagan that was expected to inspire the attendees to write those spontaneous letters to Congress. The AMA pressed 3,000 copies of Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine and distributed them to AMA Womans Auxiliary members nationwide. The resulting letters to Congress, the AMA boasted, were legion.22 At the June 1962 convention each state President presented the highlight accomplishments of her state during the preceding year. The convention was told that Operation Coffeecup spurred many members-at-large to personal action, and one state president reported that one of her auxiliary members was personally responsible for getting 250 people to write letters to Congress opposing the King-Anderson bill.
Full article: http://www.larrydewitt.net/Essays/Reagan.htm
Loading...
One of the greatest works of propaganda every written and performed.
0gods 3 months ago
welfare is also great, it enables us to bludge of uneducated fools who support capitalist interests
COMMUNISTPHILOSOPHY 8 months ago
@townhall05446 - actually, the wealth flows from the blue states to the red because we make more money. so you can shout all you want to about your independence, but the fact remains, we're paying for your stop signs, your highways, and everything else that's federally funded. sorry to break it to you.
onapier 1 year ago
Geez ChillyBrrr, you are one nasty, filthyminded piece of trash. Your posts make that abundantly clear, but no surprise coming from the left as you do. Go crap your opinions on an Obama video.
townhall05446 1 year ago
Tell you what ChillyBrrr, you split the country into conservative vs. liberal areas, and the conservatives will get by fine. The liberals will be overrun with people who want to share nothing what-so-ever except the 'wealth'. They don't want to share the work, the responsibility, the giving, they want to share only the wealth of others. Your name-calling and vulgarity are in keeping with the left.
townhall05446 1 year ago
@meldrape It's actually red-state conservatives who live off liberals. Lazy, stupid, igonorant sloth. They are just jealous because liberals don't fuck their children, and are educated. :)
ItsChillyBrrr 1 year ago
@stama9 Reagan and his filthy, stupid, cock-sucking cow of a wife Nancy can both rot in hell. :) After the feminazi dies, of course. Why are conservative women such gruesome, ugly, worthless things? LOL
ItsChillyBrrr 1 year ago
@frellthat Exactly.......Reagan was SO stupid, even Thatcher said so. Immoral, stupid, cowardly and a failure as a father as well. What a cowardly shit. I love how he and his friends played his own base for FOOLS. They lived high off the hog, whilst middle class Republicans suffered. FUNNY!!!! You get what you pay for. LOL
ItsChillyBrrr 1 year ago
@x170063 Learn how to READ, conservative, or are you Reaganazis too LAZY? Geez, how dumb are you? The idiot Reagan failed YOU and YOURS with YOUR permission. The man failed your country. Pick up the real history books, boys, you conservatives need some real knowledge. Geez, didn't your lazy-assed parents value education? LOL
ItsChillyBrrr 1 year ago
@ItsChillyBrrr Were you even aware during the Reagan years? He cut taxes, brought back prosperity and crushed the Soviet Union without firing a shot. I suggest you read some history books.
x170063 1 year ago