Early Perception management:
The American Revolution Sometimes a psychological enhancement results from tactics that just make common sense. In a time of rank and file fusillades to create a steady field of fire, and uniforms designed to make blood less obvious, American revolutionaries had little chance with standard martial maneuvers. Guerilla tactics just made sense. When the Continental Army ambushed the British -- or Hessian mercenaries -- firing with concealment and cover, all of the Redcoat discipline fell to pieces. Their training conditioned swift response in manners designed to reinforce advancing fire lines.
When lines could do nothing the initial confusion gained the Americans a tactical advantage. This was not just a matter of surprise, but very real conflict between conditioned reflexes and cognitive response to the actual needs of the moment. Psychology had a great role in the unanimity of the Declaration of Independence. The American rebels knew that their cause would require outside help. Benjamin Franklin secured assurance of the help of the French, but only with a unanimous separation from England. Had only one colony remained as a safe haven for the British, the threat would have remained too great for the French to help. Franklin then had the task of assuring the Declaration would be unanimous -- the true significance of his "Join or Die!" cartoon. Led discussions toward the need for unanimity early in debate.
Franco-Prussian War:
Whether considering Tamerlane's 90,000 skull pyramid outside Delhi, or medieval feudal lords shouting challenges over castle walls, overt propaganda has always been part of psychological warfare. Combined innovations of printing and airpower raised this into a new realm as early in the 19th Century. That was a little early for airplanes, but not for balloons. During the Prussian siege of Paris in 1870 the French decided a little taunting in order. They adapted balloons intended for combat communications, "made of strong calico, covered with two or three coatings of linseed oil and oxide of lead, and inflated with ordinary gas," (Ollier, 1883, p. 53) to airdrop leaflets on the Prussian troops. Written in German they warned that all of France would rise to drive off the invaders. They advised Prussians to surrender. Troublesome as this may have been for morale, Prussians learned that shooting down the balloons could boost their morale even more than the leaflets demoralized them.
Airdropped leaflets, and even airdropping them from balloons, continue as a crucial element of all psychological warfare into the 21st Century. Future sections of this study mention their successful use during contemporary conflicts. The two Koreas still exchange airdropped leaflets regularly. Many other technological innovations that became tools of psychological warfare still serve no greater purpose than do leaflets. They just lack the limitations that leaflets have. They serve to demoralize the enemy, elicit surrender, and achieve without use of arms that crucial bending of an enemy to one's will.
Anti-Catholic Kulturkampf:
Not long after the First Vatican Council a conflict over church and state more suited for the 16th Century erupted in 19th Century Germany. It all began with the excommunication of an instructor of Catholicism for failing to assent to Papal infallibility, in accordance with the 1870 Vatican decrees. This meant the Church could not have him as an instructor even as the State employed him and covered his salary. This quickly expanded into a conflict over when the allegiance of German Catholics to their nation conflicted with their allegiance to the Church. With Catholics composing more than one-third of all Germans, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck treated papal assertions of religious infallibility as a national security threat.
Forty years of religious tolerance between Catholics and Protestants quickly came to a state-hastened end. Bismarck the Prussian Minister of Public Worship, Adalbert Falk, pushed through a series of laws designed to inhibit Catholics in the full exercise of their beliefs. Archbishop Henry Edward Manning, leader of the Catholic Church in England, took it upon himself to advocate for the German Catholics who were quickly losing their voices. From March to July of 1872 alone, laws turned inspection of Catholic schools over to the state, expelled and dissolved Jesuits and other religious orders, and "made all clerical appointment subject to state approval."( von Arx, 1992, p. 254) Catholics were imprisoned, exiled, divested of property, and many were left without priests. Bismarck miscalculated. Each new oppression brought more resistance, until a new pope, more amenable to compromise, gave him a way to save face. Then Bismarck re-tasked many of the resources developed to combat encroaching Catholicism toward fighting encroaching socialism instead, demonstrating sublimation as a tactic of psychological warfare.
The United Kingdom:
Celts and Picts employed psychological warfare long before there was a nation of England. Julius Caesar's reluctance to face the Gauls is the stuff bad movies, worse novels, and his own self-serving history of conquering them are made of. Hadrian found facing the Picts worse than all the expense of just walling them into Scotland. It terrified well armored soldiers that their force and reputation -- and beauty of their weapons -- failed to terrify bands of painted up naked barbarians with lime-spiked hair. It therefore suits the British to have so thoroughly developed formal psychological operations to the art they have. Part of this came from necessity. Continuing civil warfare, literally over the hearts and minds of its people, dominated England's Elizabethan period.
Few things psychologically manipulate the direction a will can bend as does religious devotion. It meant a societal experience of manipulating conscience, through violence or subtlety, long before creating some of the greatest psychological operations in modern history. Planes usually drop leaflets to engage in psychological warfare with the enemy, but during World War II British Intelligence decided they needed to drop a body. By using a corpse to fabricate a deceased officer carrying plans for an Allied invasion, they convinced the Germans that the intended Sicily landing site was actually the site for a diversionary landing. (Montagu, 1953) That body -- in the theatre stubs it carried, the way it had died, as well as its planted documents -- was one heavy and convincing message of disinformation. It served no different purpose than dropping leaflets.
----------------------------------------------------
James Scott is the CEO of Princeton Corporate Solutions, a corporate globalization and political strategies firm, PCS offers a unique blend of think tank, corporate and governmental communication strategies to expedite the facilitation of long lasting relationship building in these necessary sectors. http://princetoncorporatesolutions.com
EasyPublish this article: http://submityourarticle.com/articles/easypublish.php?art_id=291398
No comments:
Post a Comment