Psychological WarfareLinebarger, Paul Myron Anthony
History
Psychological Warfare
Linebarger, Paul Myron Anthony
Psychological warfare
(2) Security should apply, generally speaking, to units as a whole,
taking working units up to the limit of face-to-face working
acquaintance as a base. It is unsound procedure to give certain
individuals a higher level of information than others, since the
privileged individuals will be tempted to display their inside
knowledge, and the underprivileged individuals will be goaded by
unwholesome, resentful, and acute curiosity. Either the entire unit
should be given the information, or denied it.
(3) Security should not be applied for editorial purposes. Censorship
is a separate function. Improper security procedures, vesting
arbitrary powers in stated officers, may tempt the security officer to
express his personal literary, artistic, or political preferences
under the guise of maintaining security. The inevitable consequence is
the breakdown of both security and of procedure. Censorship should be
applied in conformity with national or theater censorship policies.
Review and estimate of radio or leaflet output is another function.
(4) Security for printed materials is easy enough to maintain. The
leaflets can be sent to the G-2 to check, or wherever else security
functions may be vested. Radio security is another problem.
Experience in World War II indicates that spot news cannot wait for
routine security, but must be processed through. Two types of control,
supplementing one another, are desirable:
_Security liaison_ on a 24-hour basis should be available to the radio
operatives for the rapid processing of military news. The security
duty officer should be indoctrinated with an attitude of
cooperativeness, based on an understanding of the value of propaganda,
and should conceive it as his mission to explain the needs of radio
propaganda to his superiors, rather than taking the attitude of being
superior to the radio operatives. There is a sound psychological
reason for this. The presence of a sympathetic security officer will
increase cooperativeness on the part of the propaganda broadcaster. An
unsympathetic one will merely maintain the official dignity of his
office and position. High morale on the part of script writers is more
important than high morale of security officers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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