I think the most important point that's not been mentioned so far in this thread is how both the Nazi and Allied governments used propoganda to motivate their populations. In England, German soldiers were portrayed on posters as quazi-neanderthal apes that killed babies with their bayonettes. In Germany, Jews were portrayed on posters as having many of the same characteristics as rats.

With a free media and television, both sides of any conflict are presented to the public on both sides of a border, so the use of propoganda is no longer available to any government to motivate their population to do anything. A good example of that is the Al Jazira television network that interviews both sides of conflicts (primarily in the middle east).

The only thing that bothers me is that I still see examples of governments lying to their people in order to get the populations support to do what that government wants.

1. In the USA, the most obvious example was when the US government said that prescription drugs imported from Canada weren't as safe as US drugs. In fact, in many of those cases, the drugs sold in Canada and those sold in the US were made in the same factories in Canada, and the only difference was the packaging or just the labels on the packaging. It wasn't until a US Senator or Congressman decided to investigate the matter for himself that the US Pharmaceutical Lobby in Washington fell silent because they knew that what he would uncover would prove what they were saying wasn't true.

2. In Canada, a recent example was when John Baird, the Canadian minister for Foreign Affairs said that Canada would not accept the results of a referendum in Eastern Ukraine because of the presence of Russian backed troops in that area. The inuendo was that people would vote to join Russia for fear of being shot. In that case, Baird was counting on the Canadian public to be ignorant enough about Ukrainian politics to accept that arguement as being a valid one. In recent months, Ukrainians have elected a leader who is acceptable to both eastern and western Ukraine. There are still differences in sentiment between Eastern and Western Ukraine, but neither side wants to see the country break apart. You no longer hear the Canadian nor the US government criticizing the Ukrainian election because the leader that was elected isn't pro-east nor pro-west. He's 100% pro-Ukraine.