Psychological WarfareLinebarger, Paul Myron Anthony
History
Psychological Warfare
Linebarger, Paul Myron Anthony
Psychological warfare
The profile obtained from civilian polls or from propanal can then be
paralleled in the field. Set up a graph showing the entire enemy army.
Use several graphs if the army splits along racial, national or plainly
sectional lines. On each graph, enter the component groups. From the
poll or from the interrogations, list the dissatisfaction in terms of
seriousness with which the dissatisfyee attributes to it; it is not what
you think he should worry about that is important. It's what actually he
does worry about. His weighting counts. Make up a scale, quantitative
on the actual count of mentions of particular gripes. (For example, out
of 699 prisoners, of whom 167 were union members in civil life, there
were 234 separate voluntary mentions of dissatisfaction with the enemy
government's labor union policy). When that quantitative count changes
up or down, you have a definite guide with which to control your own
propaganda policy.
[Illustration: _Figure 37: Defensive Counterpropaganda._ The "National
Socialist Leadership Staff of the Wehrmacht" got out this Communications
for the Troops as a guidance sheet for company talks. The content
includes "Thoughts About the Volkssturm," "The Celebrated American
Freedoms," and "Small Requests, but Important." This issue is dated from
January 1945.]
Or you can proceed qualitatively. List enemy dissatisfaction under terms
such as these for any one issue (shoe rationing, health facilities,
minority rights, esteem for government leaders, etc.): Prisoner--
(1) is completely satisfied and has no complaints.
(2) has a few complaints but is generally satisfied.
(3) has many complaints and does not expect improvement.
(4) is despondent about the whole situation.
(5) is definitely antagonistic to home authorities in this matter.
Rate each prisoner or captured civilian according to your best judgment.
Then make up percentage lists of the grounds for dissatisfaction of each
component group in the enemy society. (This latter figure will be
impressive in documents but will not mean as much for practical purposes
as will the more specific percentages under each separate head.)
If you feel like showing off, average everything into everything else
and call it the Gross Index of Total Enemy Morale. This won't fool
anyone who knows the propaganda business, and you won't be able to _do_
anything with or about it, but you can hang it on a month-by-month chart
in the front office, where visitors can be impressed at getting in on a
military secret. (Incidentally, if some smart enemy agent sees it and
reports it back, enemy intelligence experts will go mad trying to figure
out just how you got that figure. It's like the old joke that the
_average_ American is ten-elevenths White, 52% female, and always
slightly pregnant.)
=Specificity.= Good propaganda intelligence provides:
(a) news;
(b) military intelligence which can be released as news;
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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