Psychological Warfare Page: 3 of 12
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gical warfare as it concerns the Air Force, and its use with other
operational measures of military nature for specific strategic or tactical
purposes.
Tuning such tactics against an enemy has been accomplished many times in the
past. In fact the Biblical reference wherein "Gideon employed shock action
with his lamps and trumpets against the Midianites" is an example where
psychological warfare is felt, not seen, and its effect is reflected in the
form of low morale, fear, discouragement, nervous tension and confusion.
Ideals, if they are presented in exactly the right manner, can penetrate
any line of defense, to take hold there and grow. A popular example of this
is modern advertising in our country which, incidently, in terms of money
spent, is the biggest private business in the United States.
Baseball and football champions have been selling breakfast cereal to
millions of people in the nation for years, not because the people like it
especially, but because the champions claim to eat it every day. Millions
of women buy a particular brand of soap because it produces "the skin you
love to touch." The principles involved result in influence over people,
causing them, as the psychologists say, to "react in a given manner." The
same principles are used in psychological warfare.
Do you remember the Bible story about David and Goliath? The Jewish army
commanded by Saul was faced by a superior force of Philistines whose champion
wTas Goliath. David, a shepherd boy unarmed except for a sling, challenged
aliath and slew him with a stone before the eyes of the astounded Philistine
JLorde. The astonishment of the enemy quickly turned to terror, and they fled
the field of battle.
Whether fable or fact, the story of the Trojan Horse is a story worth
remembering. Troy had long been held in a state of siege by the Greeks who
were attempting to avenge the Trojan kidnapping of the Grecian beauty, Helen.
After many years of fighting,the idea for the horse was conceived. A basic
knowledge of the psychology and religion of the Trojan people was necessary
before such an operation could be executed. Of course, as the story goes,
the Horse was placed before the gates of Troy, and the Greeks boarded their
ships and sailed from sight. Believing the Horse an offering, the overjoyed
Trojans pulled it inside the city's walls. That night, after the Greek ships
returned to the Trojan shores, the men secreted inside the Horse emerged and
opened the gates of Troy. The alarm was sounded, the Trojans awakened to
find the enemy inside the city, and demoralization was complete.
In the middle of the 15th Century, Johannas Gutenburg, is credited with
the invention of the printing press. Here was the first of many inventions
that was to bring about an accelerated evolution in mass thinking. By the
latter part of the 18th Century, printed material had gained a responsible
place as influential media of propaganda. Both the Colonial and -British
forces at Bunker Hill used a fore-runner of the present tactical leaflet.
The Colonial Leaflets,for example, were designed to discourage British mer-
cenary soldiers. The leaflets emphasized the British Army's poor pay, bad
food, uncertain health and lack of personal freedom as compared to the con-
ditions in the Revolutionary Army.
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United States. Air Force. Psychological Warfare, paper, April 1962; [Universal City, Texas]. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth907150/m1/3/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting National WASP WWII Museum.