The Dark World of Psychological Warfare | Secrets Of War | Timeline

one of the great privileges of working at history here and making films together with our team at timeline is the access we get to extraordinary historical locations like this one stonehenge i'm right in the middle of the stone circle now it is an absolutely extraordinary place to visit if you want to watch the documentary like the one we're producing here go to history hit tv it's like netflix for history and if you use the code timeline when you check out you'll get a special introductory offer see you there [Music] here psychological warfare this term conjures up dark images of lies and brainwashing it's a shadowy and little understood part of military operations equal parts creative artistry and analytical science trained soldiers create manipulative messages in secret and then release them for mass consumption many believe these words and pictures unfairly convince decent people to betray their friends and their country but the value of persuasion in times of conflict has been recognized for thousands of years the ancient chinese military strategist sun tzu who wrote the art of war over 2000 years ago said one need not destroy one's enemy one need only destroy his willingness to engage in modern warfare psychological warfare specialists use leaflets loudspeaker broadcasts and radio messages in hopes that the pen will be mightier than the sword although persuasion is impossible to measure precisely it appears that these compelling arguments along with conventional firepower have helped save countless lives while shortening wars lying in order to irrefutably brand your enemy as evil and deserving of destruction has always been tempting [Music] but surprisingly psychological warfare's most successful ingredient has actually been the truth [Music] let's not be mistaken psychological warfare is manipulation but it is manipulation that's based to the maximum extent possible on the use of truth because in the long run that is going to determine whether or not your message is credible because if you're caught out in a lie the credibility of your message and therefore of your organization is going to be severely eroded today the united states is recognized as the world leader in military psychological warfare here at fort bragg north carolina teams of u.s army soldiers are constantly refining their complex skills and creating messages aimed at a variety of audiences [Music] mobile production units and armed loudspeaker teams trained to deliver these messages to the most remote and dangerous parts of the world all of these duties fall under the larger umbrella of psychological operations as their objectives extend well beyond the battlefield we have people every day down in latin america supporting neighboring countries encounter drug operations we also work with refugee control we deploy to support humanitarian relief missions but when we've been in the operations where we do have combat we've been there right alongside with the other combat forces this challenging field contains many specialties communications that are intended to raise the morale of allied troops or friendly civilian populations are known as cohesive [Music] those designed to lower your opponent's morale are divisive strategic messages reach general audiences far behind the front lines and focus on long-term results but the primary mission of psychological warfare specialists is to lower the morale and decrease the efficiency of the enemy soldier on the immediate tactical battlefield and persuading the enemy to surrender is the ultimate challenge battlefields are terrifying places and they're usually occupied no matter how well trained the soldiers are by terrified people and so trying to insert messages to induce them to surrender or to desert or just to give up and walk away from the battlefield is a terribly difficult thing to do just as in advertising understanding the target audience of a particular message is critically important civilian analysts who've devoted their careers to studying the history and culture of a particular country or region of the world help the soldiers shape their messages which are also known as propaganda more current information can also come from intelligence agents behind enemy lines and by interrogating prisoners of war pooling these secretive resources provides the best chance for words to be stronger than bullets but even minor mistakes in the world of psychological warfare can carry disastrous consequences and some of the biggest embarrassments in the history of psychological warfare have come about because the person or the organization attempting to persuade another audience made some really big goofs because they didn't understand the idioms and the language for example in the persian gulf war in 1991 iraqi leaders were anxious to try and lower the morale of american soldiers who were fighting in a strange land thousands of miles from home a female iraqi broadcaster nicknamed baghdad betty tried to appeal to the predominantly male american troops baghdad betty had suggested that while they were in the desert their wives and sweethearts were at home sleeping with all sorts of movie stars ranging from mel gibson to bart simpson they clearly didn't know bart simpson was a cartoon character the modern systematic use of psychological warfare began to emerge during world war one some messages were floated across the lines tied to small balloons but airplanes provided a more accurate way of dropping leaflets on the enemy [Music] the german army was actually the first to distribute leaflets beginning in the fall of 1914 on the battlefields in france the british were hesitant to respond with similar attempts at persuasion you have to remember psychology advertising were still in their infancy and so people thought that interfering with thought processes was almost uh almost against god's will and so they were very suspicious of psychological warfare the human mind was not as fully understood as it is today lord northcliff who owned the london times and daily mail newspapers wanted to lead a psychological warfare retaliation at first convincing british military leaders was difficult as one general plainly said the thing was to kill germans [Music] but by march 1915 the british began dropping leaflets over the german front lines both sides used similar themes such as portraying the enemy's leaders as self-serving burdens on the common soldier to increase dissension in the ranks but since the war degenerated into a stalemate it was hard for any army to gain a distinct advantage as the allied navies constricted the amount of supplies that reached germany and as large amounts of men and materiel from america arrived in france in 1917 the tide of war began to turn the morale of allied soldiers began to rise while the germans morale continued to sink making them more vulnerable to psychological warfare when some captured german prisoners of war revealed that they'd had very little food american and british propagandists quickly swung into action one of the most effective was the food leaflet it said german prisoners of war received the same rations as american soldiers and they listed in mouth-watering detail what the american soldier was eating then and many soldiers come in with this leaflet in their hands a clear sign that these words and pictures were successful was the fact that german officers began to punish soldiers for reading allied leaflets or just for having them in their pockets allied victories on the battlefield combined with continued german supply problems and the eventual ousting of kaiser wilhelm all helped end the war by november 1918. general eric von ludendorff one of the most senior members of the german general staff remarked that we were as hypnotized by the enemy propaganda as a rabbit is by a snake [Music] a much lower ranking member of the german army a common infantryman had also paid close attention to the allies success in world war one propaganda would become one of the cornerstones for his rise to power the foundation upon which he would build his dream of world conquest following the german defeat in world war one adolf hitler marveled at the allies successful use of propaganda in his book mein kampf he wrote our soldiers learned to think the way the enemy wanted them to think throughout the 1930s hitler and his information minister joseph goebbels became masters of strategic and political propaganda both within germany and on an international scale [Music] but once world war ii began in 1939 their focus remained more on civilian propaganda rather than on tactical psychological warfare [Music] the british had dismantled their successful propaganda program after world war one and had to quickly scramble to resurrect their capabilities when world war ii began in the first few years of the war the british were more willing to use black propaganda deceptive messages that claimed to come from one country but actually originated in another a british propagandist named sefton delmer played a german radio character that claimed to be making broadcasts from an official german station inside that country he attacked churchill and the royal family to attract an audience and gain credibility but he also subtly criticized the nazi party and promoted the idea that it was acceptable for german citizens to disagree with hitler [Music] colorful personalities such as delmar's were common in a field where imaginative thinkers were forced to work in the structured world of the military the british broadcasting corporation or bbc was often used to deliver psychological warfare messages since many german soldiers in france listened to this radio station [Music] as the germans prepared for a possible invasion across the english channel in the summer of 1940 broadcasters mockingly offered to teach the invaders english phrases that they might soon need examples such as i am burning and my boat is sinking or repeated over and over again the british were employing the truth in these messages since they did have a system in place to literally set the ocean on fire by releasing an igniting oil offshore as well as on beaches but what they didn't tell the germans was that this was only a limited capability covering a small fraction of england's southern coastline this was a prime example of what another british propagandist richard crossman termed selective truth meaning the truth but not necessarily the whole truth often what was left out of messages was just as important as what was left in american psychological warriors first saw action during the north africa campaign in november 1942 where they worked jointly with their british counterparts in fact allied persuasion efforts fell to a hodgepodge group from four different agencies in the two countries [Music] general dwight eisenhower commander of the north african landings turned to brigadier general robert mcclure to sort out the confusion he had been the military attache in london prior to this time so he knew the british allies one of the reasons why mcclure was selected as the man for the job because one of the duties that he had as a military at sha was press relations it's not because he had extensive background in psychological warfare no one did mcclure's men stumbled through much of the north african campaign surrender appeals were sometimes dropped on german units that had recently enjoyed several battlefield victories if we are losing i'd say we're in retreat then just basically forget about if the other side's on a roll you're not going to have much success you might as well save your energy and shut down [Music] by the time the allies advanced into italy in july 1943 their psychological warfare efforts had improved but even when messages were properly prepared and delivered when enemy morale was sufficiently low failure was still possible credibility was essential as the allies learned after dropping one particular leaflet it promised surrendering germans the same food that american soldiers received such as bacon and eggs the americans weren't misrepresenting facts but german forces didn't believe that u.s troops could possibly have access to luxuries like bacon and eggs during wartime even though the message was true it backfired and made german soldiers more suspicious of future allied persuasion efforts when general eisenhower was named supreme allied commander and charged with retaking western europe in 1943 he again put brigadier general mcclure in charge of all psychological warfare activities [Music] the man who had fallen into this field by accident had become a true believer in the power of persuasion in combat he was able to finally convince the air force to dedicate a special squadron to drop leaflets aerial leaflets that was not an easy task when the air force felt that their primary purpose was to drop bombs and explode not paper [Music] once the allies established a foothold on the continent in june 1944 their psychological warfare operations swung into action in addition to dropping leaflets loudspeaker teams advanced with the front-line troops to deliver messages in german that could be tailored to immediate battlefield situations loudspeaker teams are right on the scene some of the most important things they did was to go to bunkers where the germans were holed up and say look you're surrounded you have no way of getting out if you surrender you'll be treated honorably and that often worked loud speakers were also mounted on tanks to offer more protection and to reduce casualties among these specialized soldiers [Music] the germans tried to persuade allied soldiers with radio broadcasts and leaflets but their efforts were mostly ineffective they were retreating and their battlefield propaganda often contained awkward english phrases when they tried to inspire loneliness in american soldiers they overplayed perceived notions of anti-semitism in the u.s by portraying american wives or girlfriends falling into the arms of lecherous jews as the allied advance continued the american psychological warriors did resort to fictional propaganda in november 1944. in order to counter declining morale german propagandists dropped a series of encouraging cohesive leaflets to their own soldiers from a fictional friend known as scorpion so we made duplicate copies of the scorpion in which we were saying things like um if your officers don't exhibit sufficient national social zeal you can shoot them well eventually field martial model caught on that we were using the the scorpion and he told his own people to shut down i said if you can be made fools that easily by the americans then you might as well go out of business as the situation became increasingly hopeless and supplies began to run short more and more german soldiers decided to surrender and live rather than fight and die the safe conduct pass was the primary message designed to make surrender seem acceptable this virtual ticket out of the war provided an enemy soldier with specific instructions on how to give himself up he needs to know how to surrender and he needs to be assured that he will not be shot by the other side and that he can surrender safely and so one of the most effective methods of getting that message across was the safe conduct pass cultural factors were still important even with this type of straightforward appeal the germans really respected order and discipline and structure so what actually happened was a leaflet was designed to appear to be an order and the order was signed by general eisenhower requesting that they surrender as soon as possible the allies waged an effective psychological warfare campaign in support of more traditional military weapons in europe but their counterparts in the pacific faced an even greater challenge they would confront a mysterious often incomprehensible culture in which anything even death was more acceptable than surrender just as america's conventional forces were caught off guard by the japanese at pearl harbor in 1941 the u.s psychological warfare specialists were few in number and unprepared to challenge their new enemy they underestimated the strong indoctrination of the japanese honor and loyalty to the emperor even in the face of death were much more important than survival [Music] it was not until they decided to consult japanese americans being held in internment camps and had a chance to interrogate some of the early japanese prisoners of war that they discovered how abhorrent the very word surrender was in that culture we really started off on the wrong foot in the pacific our first leaflet was i surrender well japanese soldier basically does not surrender so he went over to the second leaflet was i cease resistance or i take the honorable course the process of showing sample messages to prisoners of war or a culturally similar group such as recent japanese immigrants and making changes based on their feedback became known as pre-testing because of the complexities of the japanese language and culture the americans took the process a step further japanese americans or actual japanese pows who are willing to cooperate with us it would drop the leaflets not only to use the correct japanese terminology the right cultural forms and so on but just to get the language correct by 1944 the tide of war in the pacific had turned the american forces were advancing in a bloody island-hopping campaign against strong japanese resistance the japanese soldiers were running low on food and other supplies and morale was falling but still very few surrendered however u.s psychological warriors did have some success japanese american soldiers known as nisei put themselves in harm's way to make loudspeaker broadcasts to the enemy in japanese the americans also dropped leaflets before and after devastating raids by u.s bombers these messages stressed the superiority of american firepower and the futility of resisting telling them this is what's going to happen tomorrow at 0-700 hours and it happens at 0-700 now we're going to do again tomorrow at the same time and if you'd just as soon not have to undergo that again here's what you have to do even japanese emperor hirohito reportedly felt the effect of these words and images [Music] the emperor picked up one in his own imperial palace garden and which told him when tokyo was going to be bombed and he said in an interrogation after the war after reading this leaflet then seeing tokyo being bombed in that japan was you know on its way to losing the war japanese psychological warfare efforts were not as successful western style and culture were apparently as foreign to them as their culture was to the americans the japanese also violated one of the most important rules in psychological warfare don't insult the enemy soldier you're trying to persuade frequently our enemies whether japanese or germans would portray the americans as cowardly that's just going to get people's backs up i mean that's elementary psychology the japanese leaflets that attempted to make allied soldiers feel lonely or suggested that their wives or girlfriends were being unfaithful were some of the most sexually explicit leaflets used by any country this tended to cause more humor than uh any drop in morale and in fact some soldiers are rather disappointed when these kind of leaflets weren't dropped the radio broadcasts by tokyo rose also had little effect certain death awaits you over here and now i'll play for you unfortunate americans a popular recording she may have made some soldiers homesick but convincing them to stop fighting was a far different matter [Music] by the end of world war ii hundreds of thousands of enemy troops had surrendered to allied forces many of them clutching safe conduct passes or other leaflets although it was difficult to quantify precisely the power of persuasion was still very apparent [Music] psychological warfare does help save lives on both counts on the count of the american soldier who isn't going to be killed trying to dig an enemy soldier out of his foxhole or his bunker and on the other count the enemy soldier whose life is saved [Music] despite their success in supporting combat forces most american propagandists re-entered civilian life after the war again brigadier general robert mcclure lobbied for more resources [Music] some progress was made but there was still only a handful of trained people in asia when the korean war suddenly broke out in june 1950 at that time jay woodald green a key member of general macarthur's psychological warfare team in world war ii was still stationed in the pacific he hurriedly marshaled his limited assets the predominantly american united nations psychological warfare team faced an opponent similar to the japanese just as in world war ii the americans learned by trial and error once the chinese entered the conflict on the communist side in october 1950 the americans began to target them as well [Music] south korean personnel worked with the americans to make loudspeaker broadcasts both on the ground and for the first time in the air aerial loudspeakers could cover a much wider range and therefore reach a larger audience but leaflets were still the primary means of influencing the communist forces [Music] probably the most effective american message of the war was a creative leaflet known as mr white boots when the war settled into more of a stalemate near the 38th parallel negotiations began at panmunjohn in 1951 and dragged on for almost two years one of the american propagandists happened to notice something in a picture of one of the chief north korean negotiators lieutenant general namiel in the winter of 1952 we had a photograph of him striding to the negotiations in these beautiful soft-skinned white calf boots i just put a phrase underneath saying mr white boots do you think he cares about you and another photograph showing a chinese soldier's boots are rotting away the number of defectors after this cited as a reason for defecting is their their boots were gone [Music] like the japanese in world war ii the north koreans and chinese often struggled with the english language they were especially fond of referring to american leaders as yankee imperialist running dogs of capitalism it was not surprising that such language seemed strange and the messages unconvincing do american soldiers [Music] however some of the communists ideas did work with numerous american soldiers already wondering why they were fighting in a korean civil war half a world away the leave korea to the koreans leaflet resonated with many but once again even compelling enemy messages did not lead americans to freely surrender and adopt the north korean way of life [Music] following the korean war psychological warfare capabilities in america were drastically reduced in the mid-1950s once again u.s propagandists would be ill-prepared for their nation's next conflict in vietnam a decade later modern wars become a struggle for men's minds as well as for their bodies today in 1952 general robert mcclure's years of lobbying finally resulted in the opening of a training center eventually known as the u.s army special warfare center at fort bragg north carolina besides being a permanent home for the training of psychological warfare personnel it was also home to the units that grew into the u.s army's special forces [Music] despite mcclure's efforts in the 1950s u.s propagandists still struggled to assist the south vietnamese government in the mid-1960s as the conflict in vietnam began to escalate psychological operations or psyop became the new all-encompassing american military term for persuasion efforts aimed at friendly and enemy forces in vietnam one reason for this broader term was the fact that more of the propagandists resources were devoted to winning the hearts and minds of friendly or neutral civilians than in earlier conflicts the fact that there were two different types of enemy forces regular north vietnamese army soldiers or nva and local south vietnamese guerrilla fighters known as vietcong or vc presented yet another challenge for u.s psychological warfare specialists one audio recording in their arsenal of influence that was particularly effective was known as the wandering soul [Music] it exploited the belief among many of the vietnamese people that once a person is dead the remains must be placed in an ancestral burial ground otherwise the soul of that person would forever wander in space aimlessly this tape consisted of a male voice that was recorded through an echo chamber that represented the soul of a dead soldier [Music] but in some cases the recording was actually too persuasive for its own good the tape was so effective that we were instructed not to have it played within earshot of south vietnamese forces because they too were as susceptible as the vietcong or north vietnamese [Music] improvements in high-speed presses meant that leaflet output in vietnam was prodigious some units ran three presses operating around the clock to print enough leaflets to stretch a hundred miles from end to end each day this level of output and the effectiveness of many of the messages made these production centers targets for the vc in a country where there was no safe haven rick hoffman was the operations sergeant at the original printing facility in saigon one of the most sincere forms of flattery i think is when the opposition thinks you're doing them so much harm that they want to blow you up and on december 4th of 1966 they got wind that we were producing a leaflet that featured a vc colonel who had defected a small team of explosives people a clandestine operation came across the roofs the explosion was so loud that at the time i was i was off duty and in my billet and we heard the explosion three miles away these photographs show how extensive the damage was but the leaflets had already been loaded onto trucks before the explosion and they were delivered on schedule using enemy soldiers to actually write personalized messages or make loudspeaker broadcasts back to their own troops was the primary tactic of america's most effective propaganda program in vietnam it was known as chuhoy meaning open arms the americans and south vietnamese promoted it as the first step towards a better way of life they welcomed defectors fed them gave them a place to sleep and even taught them a trade sometimes defectors were used immediately after they'd surrendered to influence a battle that was still taking place such circumstances called for special quick reaction leaflets [Music] as many as fifty thousand leaflets could be delivered by air in an hour's time ray deutsch witnessed the power of a quick reaction leaflet on february 24th 1969. the nva launched an attack near the benoit air base when south vietnamese and american troops stopped the nva attempts to overrun the base and free a large group of their prisoners the nva flooded into the village of tanep the residents fled and a battle ensued during that battle there were two north vietnamese that were captured one was an officer our battalion persuaded him into making a tape broadcast and riding a leaflet that would be directed towards the surrounded remaining north vietnamese forces in the village this is the actual leaflet developed that day it contains personal appeals to some of the man's former comrades by name his identity has been obscured for security reasons since he may still face harsh repercussions in vietnam the leaflet drops and loudspeaker broadcasts were then combined with american airstrikes after about the fifth uh distribution of the leaflets and the tape several north vietnamese soldiers crawled out from the rubble with their arms raised soon others follow and others and at the end of the day we had collected 66 north vietnamese prisoners of war [Music] the village was recaptured without further loss of life most often the nva and vc preferred more violent forms of persuasion they didn't hesitate to kill the civilian leaders of some villages to keep the rest of the people loyal to their cause they also counted american psychological warfare with lectures to their own troops which included fabricated horror stories about american treatment of nva and vc prisoners in particular they said that when they were prisoners of war and were captured they were not treated humanely that they were not giving the medical supplies that they were promised so there were some lies that were told there to the north vietnamese and vietcong soldiers so they would not defect in spite of these efforts to counter american propaganda 196 000 enemy soldiers mostly vc defected through the chuhoi program by war's end in 1973 [Music] the cyclical pattern of u.s psychological operations falling into decay after major conflicts was finally broken in the 1980s when president reagan drastically increased military spending by the time american troops were sent to panama in 1989 to oust manuel noriega psychological warfare had been integrated into the battle plan from an early stage the psychological warfare image most people remembered from the 1989 invasion of panama was manuel noriega being tormented by american loudspeakers playing rock music [Music] this occurred in december 1989 while he was taking refuge in the vatican's embassy building in panama city known as the papal nuncio but what most people didn't realize was that american psychological warriors had a different objective in mind [Applause] our primary mission with the rock music was not to blast noriega although it was a positive side benefit but our primary mission was to protect the sensitive negotiations that were going on at the gate from being eavesdropped by the press the music worked on both levels and noriega eventually surrendered without a fight little did these soldiers imagine that operation just cause would merely be a well-run test for a larger conflict just a few months away in the hot sands of the middle east [Music] following the success of psychological operations in panama more american military leaders were willing to incorporate persuasion into their battle plans at a fairly early stage of the persian gulf war in 1991 intelligence sources also indicated that the morale of conscripted iraqi soldiers was expected to sink rapidly once fighting began if we do have to go to war the psychological operations are going to be absolutely a critical critical part of any campaign that we must get involved in advanced planning allowed american psychological warriors to test their messages beforehand since there were no prisoners of war yet kuwaiti soldiers were used as the closest sample group once again the complexities of a foreign culture quickly became evident [Music] a lot of them couldn't figure out what a thought bubble was because that's just not a common thing apparently in that part of the world another thing that we found out pretty early was that for some reason they didn't generally correlate what would be on the front of a printed product to what was on the back so our entire book was pretty much invalidated changes were made and saudi arabian illustrators were also used to make the drawings appear more authentic and familiar to iraqi soldiers [Music] since iraqi radio broadcasts portrayed the americans as barbaric invading infidels a decision was made to promote the unity between the iraqis and other arab countries in the coalition forces [Music] but the most successful means of conveying this brotherhood made many westerners uncomfortable a drawing with an iraqi flag and a saudi flag pictured two men walking into a desert sunset holding hands some of the american forces thought two men holding hands implied much more than brotherhood but the message was very effective since heterosexual men frequently hold hands in many middle eastern cultures when coalition forces began the aerial bombing campaign in january 1991 leaflets emphasizing their overwhelming force were dropped [Music] as in previous conflicts promising destruction then delivering it was effective just as intelligence reports it indicated iraqi morale plummeted and many soldiers surrendered even before the ground campaign began when loudspeaker teams advanced with the ground forces on february 24th the number of surrendering iraqi soldiers became almost overwhelming [Music] i don't know how many it could be a thousand could be two thousand uh prisoners that surrendered just to our loudspeaker team they told us that some of them have been hiding their leaflets since the first day that they got them we got some intelligence from these folks that the iraqi officers were taking everything white away from the soldiers so they couldn't surrender broadcasts and leaflets instructed the iraqis to avoid destruction by abandoning their equipment safe conduct passes also provided detailed information on how to cease resistance and promised good treatment for prisoners of war since many iraqi soldiers had little to eat after enduring five weeks of incessant bombing messages that emphasized food were created to capitalize on iraqi hunger pure ws who said that bananas were a rare delicacy in iraq probably didn't think they were revealing anything important but american psychological warfare specialists used this tasty bit of information to create a very compelling leaflet bananas were prominently displayed in a bowl being offered by coalition forces to iraqi soldiers in what was known as the arab feast message iraqi psychological warfare efforts were far less effective they repeated many of the same mistakes that american opponents in earlier wars had committed such as portraying u.s soldiers in a cowardly and insulting manner in the end the combination of overwhelming coalition force low iraqi morale and effective messages created a unique situation in the gulf war [Music] it's been the benchmark for the use of psyop ever since this is because more iraqi soldiers surrendered than were killed and so desert storm stands as a central example of the effectiveness of psychological operations but if the surrender of over 86 000 iraqi soldiers in desert storm renewed western faith in psychological warfare the 1999 balkan conflict in kosovo raised question marks once again propagandists from member nations of nato the north atlantic treaty organization drenched the region with over a hundred million leaflets after serbian forces invaded the predominantly muslim province of kosovo seventy million more leaflets were delivered in the balkans than in desert storm nato also conducted an effective bombing campaign but without the threat of advancing ground troops soldiers in slovadon milosevic's army could not be persuaded to surrender during the conflict this served as a potent reminder that psychological warfare alone cannot win wars still this shadowy art of influence continues to evolve when the history of the 20th century is written and it's noticed that psychological warfare has been a part of every confrontation the the lesson for the 21st century is that will remain a key instrument of combat situations on battlefields training goes on at the us army post in fort bragg north carolina home of the fourth psychological operations group the psychological warfare specialists constantly hone their skills developing messages with advanced computer graphics reproducing them on high-speed presses delivering messages in the field or using satellite feeds or the internet to disseminate them around the world striking that balance between the traditional principles and methods and media that we've evolved over the years and also at the same time trying to adapt to the information age that's the principal challenge another challenge that psychological warfare practitioners will have to overcome is the negative image of their craft for all of its successes over the years many people still see this field as little more than underhanded mind control psychological warfare has always rested as an uneasy activity in democracies even in wartime much secrecy still surrounds its practice and i think it's partly to do with the suspicion that using the mind to influence the mind is somehow unacceptable but is it more acceptable to shoot somebody's brains out than to persuade that brain to drop down their weapon and live [Music] battlefield psychological warfare will remain an attractive option since it helps save lives it's also less expensive than most conventional weapons systems but influencing potential enemies during peacetime may be even more important certainly if we can prevent the combat or the war or the battle from occurring before it starts there'll be a big advantage there to everyone involved sun tzu the ancient chinese military strategist recognized the power of persuasion in preventing conflicts when he said to win 100 victories in 100 battles is not the acme of skill to subdue the enemy without fighting is the supreme mark of excellence ideally the impact of psychological operations in the past the messages developed in secret and exposed to the world will provide lessons to help shorten wars in the future or perhaps even prevent them all together

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

Views: 446,541

Rating: 4.8335195 out of 5

Keywords: History, Full Documentary, Documentaries, Full length Documentaries, Documentary, TV Shows - Topic, Documentary Movies - Topic, 2017 documentary, BBC documentary, Channel 4 documentary, history documentary, documentary history, psychological warfare, propoganda, fake radio, nazi secrets, secrets of war documentary

Id: FSqa3hE0z4g

Length: 51min 26sec (3086 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 01 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/MarlythAvantguarddog]

Friend of mine had one of those German Hitler as skull stamps on an envelope post office stamped on the very last day of the war. Would have been worth a fortune but almost certainly was created later by an America GI who got access to a post office’s facilities in the antebellum period.

[u/TesseractToo]

Amazing that t his is a modern documentary, it has all the earmarks of one made in the 90's.

The message is just as much propaganda as the psych warfare it talks about, how could it miss the obvious like what goes on on the internet?