Psychological WarfareLinebarger, Paul Myron Anthony
History
Psychological Warfare
Linebarger, Paul Myron Anthony
Psychological warfare
What quantification does do is develop a common area of discussion
between propagandists and nonpropagandists. In many instances
quantification can demonstrate results where allegations of failure or
of success would have nothing more than personal authority to support
them. Within our own particular kind of civilization quantification has
a special appeal because of the American trust in engineering and in
numbers. The conclusions of the Kinsey reports on men and on women seem
much more authoritative to the ordinary man because they are presented
with an ample garniture of numbers, even though Havelock Ellis's pioneer
works in the psychology and behavior patterns of Western sex life may
have been much more tangible and much more revolutionary in their time.
=Projection and Research.= All propaganda involves a certain degree of
projection--the propagandist attempts to identify himself with a
situation which he does not face in real life and to issue meaningful
communications to persons about situations which they themselves do not
face _yet_. Much of the psychological research on tactical PsyWar
remains yet to be done, although from the quantitative point of view
there have been significant U.S. achievements within the past four
years.
Another aspect of projection is left unexplored because of its immense
difficulty and its dangerously unscientific character. Consider the
problem this way: the United States one day before the outbreak of war
with a hypothetical enemy, such as the Soviet Union, will possess a
certain group of characteristics. Representative individual lives within
this country can be determined to possess certain habits concerning mass
communication, trust in mass communication, and response to symbols
which may come through press, radio, or other mass devices.
One day after the outbreak of war the United States will change
_because_ the war has broken out.
One month after the outbreak of war the United States will no longer be
the USA_{1} which existed on war-day. It may well have become USA_{25}
because of the rapidity and variety of change. Three Soviet hydrogen
bombs and twelve Soviet atomic bombs might change many of our national,
economic, political, and psychological characteristics, and no one, not
even an American, could predict this change in advance. The best he
could do would be to get ready to study the change as it occurred, to
understand the rate and direction of the change, and to assess the
meaning of the change in light of the conduct of war.
The same would be true of the USSR; that country, like any other major
country, would change under the impact of war. Who could have predicted
the renascence of Russian patriotism and traditionalism resulting from
the Nazi invasion of 1941? Even if we know where the Russians are as of
the outbreak of war, we won't know where they will head or how fast they
will head there, once war has broken out.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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