Psychological WarfareLinebarger, Paul Myron Anthony
History
Psychological Warfare
Linebarger, Paul Myron Anthony
Psychological warfare
Within the Theater staffs, the psychological warfare facilities were to
a great extent assimilated for control and movement of personnel,
supply, and so on. The G-3's and G-4's of the Theaters normally serviced
the PWB's along with the rest of their work. The OWI and other civilian
persons were put into uniform and given simulated rank, sometimes wildly
disproportionate to their Army counterparts. The Army G-2's naturally
worked with the PWB intelligence facilities; in some Theaters the G-2
was _ex officio_ the chief of psychological warfare, as was the
Assistant Chief of Staff G-2, War Department General Staff, himself at
home. G-1's usually kept out of the way of psychological warfare and the
housekeeping of the units was in most cases autonomous.
Responsibility for financing psychological warfare was never established
as doctrine. The State Department kept most of it off its budget,
leaving the actual payments up to the War Department and the OWI to
figure out. Oftentimes this resulted in a curious sort of neo-capitalism
within the U.S.-owned socialism of the Army. The two agencies would hold
on to property as though it were private property, on the basis of
immediate title, without reference to the plain fact that all of it was
paid for in the end by the United States Treasurer. (OWI once murmured
threateningly about bringing its radio material home from Manila rather
than let General MacArthur's people highjack it. Such talk ended when
the material was declared surplus or stolen.)
=Field Operations.= Field operations were most highly developed in the
Mediterranean and European Theaters of Operation. Combat propaganda
units came into being, carrying fully equipped mobile radio stations,
and high-volume printing presses, along with them. Later, under SHAEF,
these units developed further and Army-level organizations were set up
which duplicated the Theater organizations on a reduced scale. (See
Chart IX for chart of an Army unit.)
The tactical leaflet (page 211) came into its own with such units. It
was possible to develop high-speed routines for using intelligence
swiftly. Maps were dropped on the enemy in unfavorable situations. Order
of Battle became highly important for psychological warfare purposes
when enemy units could be addressed by their proper unit designation or
by the name of their commanders. Intelligence was brought into play: bad
food, bad supply, poor command, or mishandling of enemy forces in any
way brought prompt propaganda comment.
Radio was the least useful for tactical operations simply because enemy
troops do not carry private portable radio sets around with them. Radio
was of high value in consolidation operations, passing along
instructions to liberated populations, and telling civilians in the line
of approach about measures which they could take for the common benefit
of themselves and of the Allies.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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