Psychological Warfare Page: 6 of 12
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of the world today. These men can and do influence to a great degree the
thinking of those people, making friends of them who in time of war will
be on our side,
The reasons, then, that we use psychological warfare are to protect our-
selves against enemy propaganda, to build worldwide respect for the strengths
of U.S. Air Power and to win friends by application of proper influence in
foreign countries.
How do we use psychological warfare? First, we must study the people of
each nation. What form of government do they have? Is it one that they
chose for themselves,or is it one that was forced upon them? Their back-
ground is very important to us -- knowing their customs, race and religion.
By knowing how they live, what they believe in and what we have in common
with them; we can pick the correct key for the lock on any particular
door we want to open. Making a special study of each country along such
lines will be the job of trained specialists at higher headquarters. They
will read material published in the newspapers and magazines of these
countries and study reports based on personal contact with all levels of
society within them, finally determining how much and what kind of adverse
propaganda (if any) is' being put out in a country, directed toward creating
confusion and distrust among the democratic nations who are our friends.
We must determine where the weak points are in the society of such nations,
and how to best take advantage of them. For example, in the summer of 1945,
the provisions of the Potsdam ultimatum were fed to Japan via radio and
leaflet. There was an ominous warning of heavy blows to come. Then the
atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, followed by a Propaganda barrage
describing what it was and what it did. Russia entered the war against
Japan., Another atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Japanese morale, already
weakened by years of land, sea and air defeat, was undermined to the extent
that the ijill to prosecute the war ceased. Psychological warfare, however,
can go much farther than this and need not always be used in conjunction with
a major new weapon, as was the atomic bomb.
It is possible to pick out a single weakness in a minority group of people--
one incident-and exploit it, creating a low of faith in this group by their
followers. On the other hand, the strong points of an enemy's propaganda
defense may be the object of a sustained psychological warfare attack aimed
at creating doubt and loss of confidence in the minds of the leaders. This
is done primarily by radio broadcasts exposing the unwise decisions of mili-
tary and political leaders, reminding them of what has happened to other
nations, within the past 100 years, which has provoked war against the Demo-
._rti na s by the same methods.
.iLO3?oqc ~ started by. friendly personnel within the country may ,be used.
Demonstration and distribution of written material are also effective methods
of creating resistance. The ultimate success, however, of psychological
warfare, and this is very important, will depend on influencing people in
ways that will promote their own well-being, based on truth. The democratic
principles of equality and justice, domestic tranquility, more perfect union
and general welfare are democratic principles of which Thomas Jefferson said,
"We hold these truths to be self-evident. Information released, aimed.'
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United States. Air Force. Psychological Warfare, paper, April 1962; [Universal City, Texas]. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth907150/m1/6/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting National WASP WWII Museum.