Psychological WarfareLinebarger, Paul Myron Anthony
History
Psychological Warfare
Linebarger, Paul Myron Anthony
Psychological warfare
This may be called the broad definition, since it would include an
appeal to buy Antident toothpaste, to believe in the theological
principle of complete immersion,[16] to buy flowers for Uncles on
Uncles' Day, to slap the Japs, to fight fascism at home, or to smell
nice under the arms. All of this is propaganda, by the broad definition.
Since War and Navy Department usage never put the Corps of Chaplains,
the PX system, the safety campaigns, or the anti-VD announcements under
the rubric of propaganda, it might be desirable to narrow down the
definition to exclude those forms of propaganda designed to effect
private or nonpolitical purposes, and make the definition read:
_Propaganda consists of the planned use of any form of public or
mass-produced communication designed to affect the minds and emotions
of a given group for a specific public purpose, whether military,
economic, or political._
This may be termed the everyday definition of propaganda, as it is used
in most of the civilian college textbooks.[17] For military purposes,
however, it is necessary to trim down the definition in one more
direction, applying it strictly against the enemy and making it read:
_Military propaganda consists of the planned use of any form of
communication designed to affect the minds and emotions of a given
enemy, neutral or friendly foreign group for a specific strategic or
tactical purpose._
Note that if the communication is not _planned_ it cannot be called
propaganda. If a lieutenant stuck his head out of a tank turret and
yelled at some Japs in a cave, "Come on out of there, you qwertyuiop
asdfgs, or we'll zxcvb you all to hjkl, you etc.'s!," the communication
may or may not work, but--in the technical sense--it is not propaganda
because the lieutenant did not employ that form of communication planned
and designed to affect the minds or emotions of the Japanese in the
cave. Had the lieutenant given the matter thought and had he said, in
the Japanese language, "Enemy persons forthwith commanded to cease
resistance, otherwise American Army regrets inescapable consequences
attendant upon operation of flamethrower," the remark would have been
closer to propaganda.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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