Psychological warfare (PSYWAR), or the basic aspects of modernpsychological operations (PsyOp), has been known by many other names or terms, including Military Information Support Operations (MISO), Psy Ops,political warfare, "Hearts and Minds", andpropaganda.[1][2] The term is used "to denote any action which is practiced mainly by psychological methods with the aim of evoking a planned psychological reaction in other people".[3]
Various techniques are used, and are aimed at influencing a target audience'svalue system,belief system,emotions,motives,reasoning, orbehavior. It is used to induceconfessions or reinforce attitudes and behaviors favorable to the originator's objectives, and are sometimes combined withblack operations orfalse flag tactics. It is also used to destroy the morale of enemies through tactics that aim to depress troops' psychological states.[4][5]
Target audiences can begovernments,organizations,groups, andindividuals, and is not just limited to soldiers. Civilians of foreign territories can also be targeted by technology and media so as to cause an effect on the government of their country.[6]
Stories are said to be a key factor in a successful operation.[7] Mass communication such as radio allows for direct communication with an enemy populace, and therefore has been used in many efforts. Social media channels and the internet allow for campaigns of disinformation and misinformation performed by agents anywhere in the world.[8]
Currying favor with supporters was the other side of psychological warfare, and an early practitioner of this wasAlexander the Great, whosuccessfully conquered large parts ofEurope and theMiddle East and held on to his territorial gains by co-opting local elites into the Greek administration and culture. Alexander left some of his men behind in each conquered city to introduce Greek culture and oppress dissident views. His soldiers were paid dowries to marry locals[9] in an effort to encourageassimilation.
Genghis Khan, leader of theMongol Empire in the 13th century AD employed less-subtle techniques. Defeating the will of the enemy before having to attack and reaching a consented settlement was preferable to facing his wrath. The Mongol generals demanded submission to the Khan and threatened the initially captured villages with complete destruction if they refused to surrender. If they had to fight to take the settlement, the Mongol generals fulfilled their threats and massacred the survivors. Tales of the encroaching horde spread to the next villages and created an aura of insecurity that undermined the possibility of future resistance.[10]
Genghis Khan also employed tactics that made his numbers seem greater than they actually were. During night operations he ordered each soldier to light three torches at dusk to give the illusion of an overwhelming army and deceive and intimidate enemy scouts. He also sometimes had objects tied to the tails of his horses, so that riding on open and dry fields raised a cloud of dust that gave the enemy the impression of great numbers. His soldiers used arrows specially notched to whistle as they flew through the air, creating a terrifying noise.[11]
In the 6th century BCE GreekBias of Priene successfully resisted theLydian kingAlyattes by fattening up a pair of mules and driving them out of the besieged city.[12] When Alyattes' envoy was then sent to Priene, Bias had piles of sand covered with wheat to give the impression of plentiful resources.
During theGranada War, Spanish captain Hernán Pérez del Pulgar routinely employed psychological tactics as part of his guerrilla actions against theEmirate of Granada. In 1490, infiltrating the city by night with a small retinue of soldiers, he nailed a letter of challenge on the mainmosque and set fire to thealcaicería before withdrawing.[13]
In 1574, having been informed about the pirate attacks previous to theBattle of Manila, Spanish captainJuan de Salcedo had his relief force return to the city by night while playing marching music and carrying torches in loose formations, so they would appear to be a much larger army to any nearby enemy. They reached the city unopposed.[14]
Because psyops shape public opinion and public memory, the rise of the printing press and mass communication greatly increased the use of psyops for military advantage. During the Indian Wars of the 17th through 19th centuries, politicians, newspaper reports and fictional novels about Native Americans all conveyed the belief that tribes in the Northeast had "died out," and leaders of New England communities even gave speeches about the "last Indians" in New England, even as Native Americans continued to reside in these communities.[7]
The start of modern psychological operations in war is generally dated toWorld War I. By that point, Western societies were increasingly educated and urbanized, and mass media was available in the form of large circulationnewspapers and posters. It was also possible to transmit propaganda to the enemy via the use ofairborne leaflets or through explosive delivery systems like modified artillery ormortar rounds.[15]
At the start of the war, the belligerents, especially the British and Germans, began distributing propaganda, both domestically and on theWestern front. The British had several advantages that allowed them to succeed in the battle forworld opinion; they had one of the world's most reputable news systems, with much experience in international and cross-cultural communication, and they controlled much of theundersea communications cable system then in operation. These capabilities were easily transitioned to the task of warfare.
The British also had adiplomatic service that maintained good relations with many nations around the world, in contrast to the reputation of the German services.[16] While German attempts to foment revolution in parts of theBritish Empire, such asIreland andIndia, were ineffective, extensive experience in theMiddle East allowed the British to successfully induce the Arabs torevolt against theOttoman Empire.
Aerial leaflets were dropped over German trenches containing postcards fromprisoners of war detailing their humane conditions, surrender notices and general propaganda against theKaiser and the Germangenerals. By the end of the war,MI7b had distributed almost 26 million leaflets. The Germans began shooting the leaflet-dropping pilots, prompting the British to develop unmanned leaflet balloons that drifted acrossno-man's land. At least one in seven of these leaflets were not handed in by the soldiers to their superiors, despite severe penalties for that offence. Even GeneralHindenburg admitted that "Unsuspectingly, many thousands consumed the poison", andPOWs admitted to being disillusioned by the propaganda leaflets that depicted the use of German troops as merecannon fodder. In 1915, the British began airdropping a regular leaflet newspaperLe Courrier de l'Air for civilians in German-occupied France and Belgium.[18]
At the start of the war, the French government took control of the media to suppress negative coverage. Only in 1916, with the establishment of the Maison de la Presse, did they begin to use similar tactics for the purpose of psychological warfare. One of its sections was the "Service de la Propagande aérienne" (Aerial Propaganda Service), headed by Professor Tonnelat andJean-Jacques Waltz, an Alsatian artist code-named "Hansi". The French tended to distribute leaflets of images only, although the full publication ofUS PresidentWoodrow Wilson'sFourteen Points, which had been heavily edited in the German newspapers, was distributed via airborne leaflets by the French.[15]
TheCentral Powers were slow to use these techniques; however, at the start of the war the Germans succeeded in inducing theSultan of theOttoman Empire to declare 'holy war', orJihad, against the Westerninfidels. They also attempted to foment rebellion against theBritish Empire in places as far afield asIreland,Afghanistan, andIndia. The Germans' greatest success was in giving the Russian revolutionary,Lenin, free transit on a sealed train fromSwitzerland toFinland after the overthrow of theTsar. This soon paid off when theBolshevik Revolution tookRussia out of the war.[19]
Germany'sFall Grün plan of invasion of Czechoslovakia had a large part dealing with psychological warfare aimed both at the Czechoslovak civilians and government as well as, crucially, at Czechoslovakia's allies.[20] It became successful to the point that Germanygained the acquiescence of the British and French governments to the German occupation of Czechoslovakia without having to fight an all-out war, sustaining only minimum losses incovert war before theMunich Agreement.[citation needed]
Map depicting the targets of all the subordinate plans ofOperation Bodyguard.
During World War II, the British made extensive use of deception – developing many new techniques and theories. The main protagonists at this time were 'A' Force, set up in 1940 underDudley Clarke, and the London Controlling Section, chartered in 1942 under the control of John Bevan.[21][22] Clarke pioneered many of the strategies of military deception. His ideas for combining fictional orders of battle, visual deception anddouble agents helped define Allied deception strategy during the war, for which he has been referred to as "the greatest British deceiver of WW2".[23]
During the lead-up to the Alliedinvasion of Normandy, many new tactics in psychological warfare were devised. The plan forOperation Bodyguard set out a general strategy to mislead German high command as to the date and location of the invasion, which was obviously going to happen. Planning began in 1943 under the auspices of theLondon Controlling Section (LCS). A draft strategy, referred to as Plan Jael, was presented to Allied high command at theTehran Conference.Operation Fortitude was intended to convince the Germans of a greater Allied military strength than was the case, through fictionalfield armies, faked operations to prepare the ground for invasion and "leaked" misinformation about the Allied order of battle and war plans.
Elaboratenaval deceptions (OperationsGlimmer,Taxable andBig Drum) were undertaken in the English Channel.[24] Small ships and aircraft simulated invasion fleets lying off Pas de Calais, Cap d'Antifer and the western flank of the real invasion force.[25] At the same timeOperation Titanic involved theRAF dropping fake paratroopers to the east and west of the Normandy landings.
The deceptions were implemented with the use of double agents, radio traffic and visual deception. The British "Double Cross" anti-espionage operation had proven very successful from the outset of the war,[26] and the LCS was able to use double agents to send back misleading information about Allied invasion plans.[27] The use of visual deception, including mock tanks and other military hardware had been developed during theNorth Africa campaign. Mock hardware was created forBodyguard; in particular, dummy landing craft were stockpiled to give the impression that the invasion would take place nearCalais.
The Operation was a strategic success and theNormandy landings caught German defences unaware. Continuing deception, portraying the landings as a diversion from a forthcoming main invasion in the Calais region, led Hitler into delaying transferring forces from Calais to the real battleground for nearly seven weeks.[28]
The United States ran an extensive program of psychological warfare during theVietnam War. ThePhoenix Program had the dual aim of assassinating National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (NLF orViet Cong) personnel and terrorizing any potential sympathizers or passive supporters. During the Phoenix Program, over 19,000 NLF supporters were killed.[29] InOperation Wandering Soul, the United States also used tapes of distorted human sounds and played them during the night making the Vietnamese soldiers think that the dead were back for revenge.
The Vietcong and their forces also used a program of psychological warfare during this war. Trịnh Thị Ngọ, also known as Thu Hương andHanoi Hannah, was a Vietnamese radio personality. She made English-language broadcasts for North Vietnam directed at United States troops. During the Vietnam War, Ngọ became famous among US soldiers for her propaganda broadcasts on Radio Hanoi. Her scripts were written by the North Vietnamese Army and were intended to frighten and shame the soldiers into leaving their posts. She made three broadcasts a day, reading a list of newly killed or imprisoned Americans, and playing popular US anti-war songs in an effort to incite feelings of nostalgia and homesickness, attempting to persuade US GIs that the US involvement in the Vietnam War was unjust and immoral.[30] A typical broadcast began as follows:
How are you, GI Joe? It seems to me that most of you are poorly informed about the going of the war, to say nothing about a correct explanation of your presence over here. Nothing is more confused than to be ordered into a war to die or to be maimed for life without the faintest idea of what's going on.[31]
TheCIA made extensive use ofContra soldiers to destabilize theSandinista government inNicaragua.[32] The CIA used psychological warfare techniques against thePanamanians by delivering unlicensed TV broadcasts. The United States government has used propaganda broadcasts against theCuban government throughTV Marti, based inMiami, Florida. However, the Cuban government has been successful at jamming the signal of TV Marti.
In theIraq War, the United States used theshock and awe campaign to psychologically maim and break the will of theIraqi Army to fight.
In 2022,Meta and theStanford Internet Observatory found that over five years people associated with the U.S. military, who tried to conceal their identities, created fake accounts on social media systems includingBalatarin,Facebook,Instagram,Odnoklassniki,Telegram,Twitter,VKontakte andYouTube in an influence operation in Central Asia and the Middle East. Their posts, primarily in Arabic, Farsi and Russian, criticized Iran, China and Russia and gave pro-Western narratives. Data suggested the activity was a series of covert campaigns rather than a single operation.[36][37]
In operations in the South and East China Seas, both the United States and China have been engaged in "cognitive warfare", which involves displays of force, staged photographs and sharing disinformation.[38][39][40] The start of the public use of "cognitive warfare" as a clear movement occurred in 2013 with China's political rhetoric.[41]
Daniel Lerner divides psychological warfare operations into three categories:[44][page needed]
White propaganda (omissions and emphasis): Truthful and not strongly biased, where the source of information is acknowledged.
Grey propaganda (omissions, emphasis and racial/ethnic/religious bias): Largely truthful, containing no information that can be proven wrong; the source is not identified.
Black propaganda (commissions of falsification): Inherently deceitful, information given in the product is attributed to a source that was not responsible for its creation.
Lerner says grey and black operations ultimately have a heavy cost, in that the target population sooner or later recognizes them as propaganda and discredits the source. He writes, "This is one of the few dogmas advanced by Sykewarriors that is likely to endure as an axiom of propaganda: Credibility is a condition of persuasion. Before you can make a man do as you say, you must make him believe what you say."[44]: 28 Consistent with this idea, the Allied strategy in World War II was predominantly one of truth (with certain exceptions).[citation needed]
InPropaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes,Jacques Ellul discusses psychological warfare as a common peace policy practice between nations as a form of indirect aggression. This type of propaganda drains the public opinion of an opposing regime by stripping away its power on public opinion. This form of aggression is hard to defend against because no international court of justice is capable of protecting against psychological aggression since it cannot be legally adjudicated.
"Here the propagandists is [sic] dealing with a foreign adversary whose morale he seeks to destroy by psychological means so that the opponent begins to doubt the validity of his beliefs and actions."[45][46]
According toBoaz Ganor, terrorism weakens the sense of security and disturbs daily life, damaging the target country's capability to function. Terrorism is a strategy that aims to influence public opinion into pressuring leaders to give in to the terrorists' demands, and the population becomes a tool to advance the political agenda.[42]
According toU.S. military analysts, attacking the enemy's mind is an important element of thePeople's Republic of China's military strategy.[47][48][49] This type of warfare is rooted in the Chinese Stratagems outlined bySun Tzu inThe Art of War andThirty-Six Stratagems. In its dealings with its rivals, China is expected to utilizeMarxism to mobilizecommunist loyalists, as well as flex its economic and military muscle to persuade other nations to act in the Chinese government's interests. The Chinese government also tries to control the media to keep a tight hold on propaganda efforts for its people.[49] The Chinese government also utilizescognitive warfare againstTaiwan.[50]
TheCentre interarmées des actions sur l'environnement is an organization made up of 300 soldiers whose mission is to assure to the four service arm of theFrench Armed Forces psychological warfare capacities. Deployed in particular to Mali and Afghanistan, its missions "consist in better explaining and accepting the action of French forces in operation with local actors and thus gaining their trust: direct aid to the populations, management of reconstruction sites, actions of communication of influence with the population, elites and local elected officials". The center has capacities for analysis, influence, expertise and instruction.[51]
In theGermanBundeswehr, theZentrum Operative Kommunikation is responsible for PSYOP efforts. The center is subordinate to the Cyber and Information Domain Service branch alongside multiple IT and Electronic Warfare battalions and consists of around 1000 soldiers. One project of the German PSYOP forces is the radio stationStimme der Freiheit (Sada-e Azadi, Voice of Freedom),[52] heard by thousands ofAfghans. Another is the publication of various newspapers and magazines inKosovo andAfghanistan, where German soldiers serve withNATO.
TheIsraeli government and its military make use of psychological warfare. In 2021, Israeli newspaperHaaretz revealed that "Abu Ali Express", a popular news page onTelegram andTwitter purportedly dedicated to "Arab affairs", was actually run by a Jewish Israeli paid consultant to theIsrael Defense Forces (IDF). The IDF's psyops account had been the source of a number of noteworthy reports that were afterwards cited by the Israeli and international media.[58]
The British were one of the first major military powers to use psychological warfare in the First and Second World Wars. In the currentBritish Armed Forces, PsyOps are handled by the tri-service15 Psychological Operations Group. (See alsoMI5 andSecret Intelligence Service). The Psychological Operations Group comprises over 150 personnel, approximately 75 from the regular Armed Services and 75 from the Reserves. The Group supports deployed commanders in the provision of psychological operations in operational and tactical environments.[59][60]
The Group was established immediately after the 1991Gulf War,[61] has since grown significantly in size to meet operational requirements,[62] and since 2015 has been one of the sub-units of the77th Brigade, formerly called the Security Assistance Group.[63]
In June 2015, NSA files published byGlenn Greenwald revealed details of theJTRIG group at British intelligence agencyGCHQ covertly manipulating online communities.[64] This is in line with JTRIG's goal: to "destroy, deny, degrade [and] disrupt" enemies by "discrediting" them, planting misinformation and shutting down their communications.[65]
In March 2019, it emerged that the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) of the UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) is tendering to arms companies and universities for £70M worth of assistance under a project to develop new methods of psychological warfare. The project is known as the human and social sciences research capability (HSSRC).[66]
U.S. Army soldier hands out a newspaper to a local inMosul,Iraq.U.S. Army loudspeaker team in action in Korea
The term psychological warfare is believed to have migrated from Germany to the United States in 1941.[67] During World War II, the United StatesJoint Chiefs of Staff defined psychological warfare broadly, stating "Psychological warfare employsany weapon to influence the mind of the enemy. The weapons are psychological only in the effect they produce and not because of the weapons themselves."[68] TheU.S. Department of Defense (DoD) currently defines psychological warfare as:
"The planned use of propaganda and otherpsychological actions having the primary purpose of influencing the opinions, emotions, attitudes, and behavior of hostile foreign groups in such a way as to support the achievement of national objectives."[69]
This definition indicates that a critical element of the U.S. psychological operations capabilities includes propaganda and by extensioncounterpropaganda. Joint Publication 3–53 establishes specific policy to use public affairs mediums to counter propaganda from foreign origins.[70]
The purpose ofUnited States psychological operations is to induce or reinforce attitudes and behaviors favorable to US objectives. TheSpecial Activities Center (SAC) is a division of the Central Intelligence Agency'sDirectorate of Operations, responsible for Covert Action and "Special Activities". These special activities include covert political influence (which includes psychological operations) and paramilitary operations.[71] SAC's political influence group is the only US unit allowed to conduct these operations covertly and is considered the primary unit in this area.[71]
A U.S. Army field manual released in January 2013 states that "Inform and Influence Activities" are critical for describing, directing, and leading military operations. Several Army Division leadership staff are assigned to “planning, integration and synchronization of designated information-related capabilities."[72]
Journalist and fiction writerP.W. Singer, author ofWired for War, teaches military leaders about how to incorporate "useful fiction" stories and narrative structure into military psyops.[73]
In September 2022, the DoD launched an audit of covert information warfare after social media companies identified a suspected U.S. military operation.[74]
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^Hruška, Emil (2013),Boj o pohraničí: Sudetoněmecký Freikorps v roce 1938 (1st ed.), Prague: Nakladatelství epocha, Pražská vydavatelská společnost, p. 9
^Ambrose, Stephen E. (1981). "Eisenhower, the Intelligence Community, and the D-Day Invasion".The Wisconsin Magazine of History. Vol. 64, no. 4. Wisconsin Historical Society. p. 269.ISSN0043-6534.
^Ellul, Jacques (1973).Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes, p. xiii.Trans. Konrad Kellen & Jean Lerner. Vintage Books, New York.ISBN978-0-394-71874-3.
^Jolly, Stephen (October 2000). Minshall, David (ed.). "Wearing the Stag's Head Badge: British Combat Propaganda since 1945".Falling Leaf (170):86–89.ISSN0956-2400.
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