Psychological WarfareLinebarger, Paul Myron Anthony
History
Psychological Warfare
Linebarger, Paul Myron Anthony
Psychological warfare
In smaller units, the propaganda unit would often be placed in direct
communication with a specific artillery unit, which would be charged
with the responsibility for discharging the leaflet shells at opportune
times. When a requesting unit asks for leaflets, and itself possesses
the guns which could fire leaflet shells, it is entirely possible for
the supplier to send leaflets ready-packed in the shells. However, even
the most rapid shell-packing job takes considerably more time than the
readying of aircraft for leaflet distribution. When it is considered
that the plane not only discharges the leaflets, but delivers them from
the supply point, all in one operation, it will be seen that close
air-ground coordination will often do a quicker, bigger job of leaflet
saturation than could be achieved by the requesting, preparing,
transporting and firing of leaflet shells.
=Contingencies of the Future.= This text refers to known experience.
Short of turning to the field of futuristic fiction, it is impossible to
provide discussion of situations which have not been known in the
American Army. The experiences of the Nazis and the Japanese cannot be
taken by ourselves as wholly parallel, since those peoples, under
dictatorship and rabid indoctrination, produced a different kind of army
from the American. What should a small-unit commander do if his men
thought they had been contaminated by airborne disease germs distributed
by enemy bacteriological warfare planes? How should he act if his men
were told by an enemy broadcast that they would be exposed to radiation
which would cause anemia, cancer, or death--if they did not surrender
immediately? What should he do if he finds himself cut off from all
American supplies, operating a lonely unit in contaminated or dangerous
areas, and then discovers that his own men are the victims of enemy
black propaganda? How should he behave if his men get the idea that they
are never going to be replaced, and if they suspect (either
spontaneously or because of enemy action) that the unit has been
abandoned by the American government and people?
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