Psychological WarfareLinebarger, Paul Myron Anthony
History
Psychological Warfare
Linebarger, Paul Myron Anthony
Psychological warfare
=Loudspeaker and Leaflet Company.= The Group's junior partner in the
conduct of PsyWar support operations was the Loudspeaker and Leaflet
(L&L) Company. This unit specifically supported an army in the field
with adequate _tactical_ propaganda support. Like the Group, it
supported the national propaganda objectives, but it interpreted the
directives that came from the theater commander in terms of more
immediate objectives. Its targets were smaller, lived under unusual
circumstances, and presented highly vulnerable, rapidly changing
propaganda opportunities--a real challenge for the L&L Company.
Organizationally it was a trimmed-down version of the Group. Its
_company headquarters_ and _propaganda platoon_ were the offspring of
Headquarters and Headquarters Company. The _publications platoon_ was a
smaller, more adaptable version of Reproduction Company. And the
_loudspeaker platoon_ was the tactical counterpart of the strategic
Mobile Radio Broadcasting Company.
[Illustration: _Figure 76: Korean Leaflet Bomb, Early Model._ An M16A1
cluster adapter being loaded at the FEC printing plant in Yokohama (1
November 1950). The bomb type adapter will contain 22,500 (5" by 8")
psychological warfare leaflets.]
The Tactical Information Detachment, moving from Fort Riley to Korea in
the fall of 1950, was reorganized as the _1st Loudspeaker and Leaflet
Company_ and, attached to EUSAK, served as Eighth Army's tactical
propaganda unit throughout the campaign. It adjusted its location,
equipment and propaganda tone to keep pace with the ups and downs of the
Korean war.
=Psychological Warfare Center.= Paralleling the creation of the Office
of the Chief of Psychological Warfare in the Department of the Army
PsyWar training was started in the spring of 1951. A faculty was
collected at the Army General School to start the world's first formal
school of military propaganda.
At the same time, reserve officers whose civilian specialties were in or
related to mass communications were recalled to PsyWar assignments.
Several RB&L groups and L&L companies were activated and trained at Fort
Riley. One of these, the _1st Radio Broadcasting and Leaflet Group_, was
deployed to Japan to become the strategic propaganda support unit in
FEC, thereby relieving the hard-pressed Psychological Warfare Section of
its operational functions. The Group left Fort Riley in July 1951 at the
height of the Missouri Valley floods, forcing the unit to take emergency
detours by bus and train in order to meet its scheduled port of
embarkation call. The 1st was the only group to have been used in active
operations. Other groups were employed in training missions. In
addition, Reserve groups and companies trained periodically at key
locations where sufficient specialized personnel were available to keep
the units on a ready, stand-by basis.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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