One of the earliest applications of psychological warfare was by Alexander the Great. Pursued by an enemy far larger in numbers, Alexander instructed his armorers to construct oversized breastplates and helmets that would fit men 7 or 8 feet tall. He left these items for the pursuing army to discover; when they did, they assumed that Alexander’s men were giants and they abandoned their pursuit.

During WWII our PsyOps forces sometimes stuffed the bodies of dead rats with explosives and left them for the enemy to find. Soldiers would throw them into the furnace to dispose of them, setting off an explosion. When word of this practice spread, soldiers would no longer burn the rats, allowing disease to spread.

The ace of spades “Death Card” was commonly used in Vietnam, and appeared on many unit crests, patches, and insignia. The symbol was intended to strike terror into the hearts of the enemy. However, the Vietnamese deck of playing cards does not include the ace of spades, and most Vietnamese had no idea what it was supposed to mean.

Many Vietnamese villagers believed that if a man dies away from his village, his soul is doomed to wander forever. Taking advantage of this, American PsyOps forces recorded the voice of a Vietnamese man pretending to be a “lost soul.” PsyOps soldiers then roamed the forests wearing backpack loudspeakers, playing the recording with a haunting reverberation. Many North Vietnamese soldiers heard the voice and ran for home; unfortunately, so did many South Vietnamese—so the recordings were discontinued.

During the Persian Gulf War, the 8th and 9th Special Operations Squadron dropped nearly 29 million leaflets from their MC-and HC-130s. A typical leaflet drop utilized between 24 and 40 boxes, each containing as many as 50,000 leaflets per box. The largest drop ever made was on the very first night of the war, when 2 million leaflets were dropped on frontline Iraqi soldiers along the entire southern Kuwait battle front. 87,000 enemy soldiers surrendered during Operation Desert Storm; 75% of them were carrying one of our leaflets when they did.

During Operation Desert Storm, 58% of all enemy prisoners of war reported listening to coalition propaganda broadcasts. Officially the broadcasts were known as the “Voice of the Gulf.” Informally, they were referred to as “1-800-SURRENDER.”

There was an actual Baghdad Betty employed by the Iraqis to broadcast propaganda messages to coalition forces. Like her predecessors Tokyo Rose and Hanoi Hanna, she did more to entertain the enemy than demotivate them. She was so unsuccessful that she was allowed to broadcast for only three months.

Some of our leaflets actually confused the enemy. Drawings of enemy soldiers portraying weakness or fear tended to increase their resistance; Iraqi soldiers often failed to recognize Saddam Hussein on the leaflets that included his caricature.

You can view several of the actual PsyOps leaflets used during the Persian Gulf War on Ed Rouse’s excellent website: http://www.psywarrior.com/DSLeaflinks.html