Bruce Lannes Smith (11 December 1909 in Webster Groves, Missouri – 1987) was an American political scientist, communication theorist, and propaganda specialist.
His primary research focus was the various uses and techniques of propaganda and persuasion employed by governments that were considered enemies of the United States.
From 1941 to 1944 he worked as an analyst in the Organization and Propaganda Analysis Section of the United States Department of Justice War Division.
Subsequently, he was Attaché and US Political Advisor for the Federal Republic of Germany at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force in France.
After the Second World War he worked as a lecturer again; in 1949–1950 he was associate professor at the Foreign Service Institute at the State Department in Washington, D.C., but had to leave the post in the McCarthy era because of its supposedly "left-liberal" sentiments.