The title card of a Universal Newsreel story dated 3 June 1946 reads "EISENHOWER SAYS WE MUST BACK VICTORY," with announcer Ed Herlihy credited beneath. The film is in the National Archives' Universal Newsreel Collection, copied on the Internet Archive.
The card
This is a single frame: the title card of one Universal Newsreel story. A globe emblem sits above the words; the archive does not transcribe it. Beneath the headline is the credit for the newsreel's announcer.
EISENHOWER
SAYS WE MUST
BACK VICTORY
-Ed Herlihy-
A studio's newsreel, now a government holding
The maker is Universal Newsreel (Universal-International News), which the record notes was later donated to the National Archives. The issuer type is media, so this is a private company's product, not a federal release. The rights line says the copyright was deeded to the United States in 1974. The archive's copy is an Internet Archive item taken from the Universal Newsreel Collection, dated 3 June 1946.
The record lists the audience as the domestic public and the purpose as "Recruit." The themes are war and the military, and the home front. The archive identifies Eisenhower as the Army Chief of Staff and Herlihy as the newsreel's announcer.
What the card does on its own
The archive tags testimonial. The card puts a general's name at the head of the item and attaches it to a demand phrased for everyone: "WE MUST." What backing victory meant in this story, and what Eisenhower actually said, is not in the record; the archive has the card and not a transcript of the narration. A reader should not supply one.
The point that can be made from the card is about form. The card is Universal's product, so the six words report Eisenhower's view in a form the studio put on screen. A headline that compresses a general into a slogan is still journalism, and a free press may write it; the viewer was entitled to ask whether the film bore it out.
A later card from the same company, Gen. Clay / Reds Underestimate Our Airlift To Berlin, released on 21 October 1948, also credits Ed Herlihy. The atomic-age hub covers civil defense messaging from 1945 on.
Sources
- FRAME object record, Universal-International News title card: 'Eisenhower Says We Must Back Victory', 3 June 1946. Universal Newsreel (Universal-International News). Source classed as openly identified.
- Universal Newsreel Collection, U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, via the Internet Archive, item 1946-06-03_Eisenhower_Says_We_Must_Back_Victory, retrieved by the archive 2 October 2026. Rights as recorded: U.S. Government-held newsreel (copyright deeded to the U.S., 1974).