Читать книгу The History of Psychological Warfare - Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger - Страница 13

Innumerable other instances of propaganda in warfare and diplomacy could be culled out of history; these would not mean much if they were presented as mere story-telling. The cultural factors would have to be figured out; the military situation would need to be appraised in realistic terms; the media available for psychological warfare would have to be charted pretty carefully, before the instances would become usable examples. Here are some of the most promising topics:

 Naval psychological warfare techniques used by the Caribbean pirates to unnerve prospective victims.

 Cortez's use of horses as psychological disseminators of terror among the Aztecs, along with his exploitation of Mexican legends concerning the Fair God.

 The failure of Turkish psychological warfare in the great campaigns of 1683 which left the issue one of purely physical means and cost Turkey the possible hegemony of central Europe.

 The propaganda methods of the British East India Company in the conquest of India against overwhelming Indian numerical superiority. (Edmond Taylor mentions these in his Richer by Asia.)

 The preventive psychological warfare system set up by the Tokugawa shoguns after 1636, which bottled up the brains of the Japanese through more rigorous control than has ever been established elsewhere over civilized people.

 The field psychological warfare of the Manchus, who conquered China against odds running as much as 400 to one against them, and who used terror as a means of nullifying Chinese superiority.

 The propaganda of the European feudal classes against the peasant revolts, which identified the peasants with filth, anarchy, murder, and cruelty.

 The Inquisition considered as a psychological warfare facility of the Spanish Empire.

 The agitational practices of the French Revolutionaries.

 Early uses of rockets and balloons for psychological effect.

 The beginnings of leaflet-printing as an adjunct to field operations.

Such a list just begins to touch on subjects which can and should be investigated, either as staff studies or by civilian historians. Collection of the materials and framing of sound doctrines for psychological warfare are no minor task.

Figure 9: Black Propaganda from the British Underground, 1690. When William of Orange took the crown of England away from the timid rascal, James II, he met opposition from the Loyalists devoted to the Stuarts. This broadsheet demonstrates an early form of black propaganda. It also provides a good instance of propaganda material borrowing a familiar form of expression in order to get its message across, in this case, the tradesman's enumeration of debit and credit.

Figure 10: Secret American Propaganda Subverting the Redcoats. Readers of Charles Dickens' great novel, Barnaby Rudge, will remember that anti-Catholicism was a lively propaganda issue in England at the time of the American Revolution. This American propaganda avoids discussion of the theme of American independence—a topic on which Englishmen were liable to hold united opinions—and instead attempts to subvert British troops by means of the anti-Catholic appeal. (Original source unknown; from War Department files. Probable date, 1775.)

Figure 11: Desertion Leaflet from Bunker Hill. This leaflet is as valid today as the day it was written. No source is indicated, but neither is any attempt made to suggest a false source different from the true one; it is in modern parlance "grey" propaganda. Wealth, food, health and economic status are played up simultaneously; difficult political issues are not argued—they are sidestepped.