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Psychological warfare
WRITTEN BY: The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica

Alternative Title: psywar

Psychological warfare, also called psywar, the use of propaganda against an enemy, supported by such military, economic, or
political measures as may be required. Such propaganda is generally intended to demoralize the enemy, to break his will to ght or
resist, and sometimes to render him favourably disposed to one’s position. Propaganda is also used to strengthen the resolve of
allies or resistance ghters. The twisting of personality and the manipulation of beliefs in prisoners of war by brainwashing and
related techniques can also be regarded as a form of psychological warfare.

Although often looked upon as a modern invention, psychological warfare is of ancient origin. Cyrus the Great employed it against
Babylon, Xerxes against the Greeks, and Philip II of Macedon against Athens. The conquests of Genghis Khan were aided by
expertly planted rumours about large numbers of ferocious Mongol horsemen in his army. Centuries later, in the American
Revolution, Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” was but one of many pamphlets and lea ets used to strengthen the British-
American colonists’ will to ght. With modern scienti c advances in communications, however, such as high-speed printing and5 alimentos que
radio, together with important developments in the elds of public-opinion analysis and the prediction of mass behaviour,
psychological warfare has become a more systematic and widespread technique in strategy and tactics, and a larger ingredient of
warfare as a whole.

Most modern armies have specialized units trained and equipped for psychological warfare. Such units were a major part of the
German and Allied forces during World War II and the U.S. armed forces in the Korean and Vietnam wars. The British and the
Malayan government forces made extensive use of air-dropped lea ets—promising immunity to those who surrendered—to
combat the guerrilla revolt in Malaya in the early 1950s. Revolutionary guerrilla warfare as espoused by its Marxist theoreticians and
practitioners—notably Mao Zedong in the Chinese civil war (1928–49), Ho Chi Minh and his successors in Vietnam (1941–75), and
Fidel Castro, Ernesto “Che” Guevara, and their imitators in Latin America—regarded psychological warfare as an integral part of the
art of war, inseparable from conventional military operations. Within this theoretical framework, “hearts and minds”—not only of
the civil population in the area of operations but also those of the enemy and of one’s own combatants—become a principal centre
of gravity in operational and tactical planning and execution. This insistence on regarding psychological warfare as central to the
conduct of war stands in contrast to the role of psychological warfare in major Western military establishments, where it is
generally seen as supplemental and of secondary importance.

Professionally managed psychological warfare is usually accompanied by the intelligence functions of propaganda analysis and
audience information. Propaganda analysis consists of the examination of the nature and effectiveness of one’s own and the
competing propagandas, together with the study of the general ow of mass communications through the audiences addressed.
Audience information provides concrete details about the target groups to which propaganda is directed.
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Psychological warfare is sometimes divided by its practitioners into levels re ecting the areas in and the times at which the military
propaganda is expected to operate. The term strategic psychological warfare is used to denote mass communications directed to a
very large audience or over a considerable expanse of territory. Tactical psychological warfare, on the other hand, implies a direct
connection with combat operations, the commonest form being the surrender demand. Consolidation psychological warfare
consists of messages distributed to the rear of one’s own advancing forces for the sake of protecting the line of communications,
establishing military government, and carrying out the administrative tasks by such a government.

The communications media most commonly used in psychological warfare are the same as those used in civilian life; radio,

newspapers, motion pictures, videos, books, and magazines form a large 
part of
the output. Lea ets are also very widely used. The
World War II lea et output of the western Allies alone, excluding the Soviet Union, was estimated to be at least eight billion sheets,
and the United States and England dropped millions of lea ets, many of which were directions on how to surrender, during their
con ict with Iraq in 2003. Loudspeakers are often used in the front lines; both sides used them in the Korean War.

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Psychological warfare need not be subtle or sophisticated in conduct and execution. The use of atrocities to demoralize enemy
populations is an age-old tactic that has never disappeared. The systematic use of mass rape and murder to force the relocation of
civilians during the “ethnic cleansing” campaigns of the civil wars accompanying the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s is a case in
point, as were similar tactics used in Hutu massacres of minority Tutsi in Burundi in 1994.

LEARN MORE in these related articles:

Palestine: Civil war in Palestine

…Zionists launched a campaign of psychological warfare. The Arabs of Palestine, divided, badly led, and reliant on
the regular armies of the Arab states, became demoralized, and their efforts to prevent partition collapsed.

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propaganda: Related terms

…term related to propaganda is psychological warfare (sometimes abbreviated to psychwar), which is the prewar or
wartime use of propaganda directed primarily at confusing or demoralizing enemy populations or troops, putting
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them off guard in the face of coming attacks, or inducing them to surrender.

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Manuel Noriega

…days while a U.S. Army psychological warfare team blasted rock music at the building. Noriega nally surrendered
to the United States on January 3, 1990, and was then transported to Miami, where he was arraigned on a host of
criminal charges.

READ MORE

Cyrus the Great

Cyrus the Great, conqueror who founded the Achaemenian empire, centred on Persia and comprising the Near
East from the Aegean Sea eastward to the Indus River. He is also remembered in the Cyrus legend— rst

READ MORE

Xerxes I

Xerxes I, Persian king (486–465 bce), the son and successor of Darius I. He is best known for his massive invasion of
Greece from across the Hellespont (480 bce), a campaign marked by the battles of

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MORE ABOUT Psychological warfare

3 REFERENCES FOUND IN BRITANNICA ARTICLES

Assorted References

propaganda techniques and use

(In propaganda: Related terms)

use in

Palestine
(In Palestine: Civil war in Palestine)

Panama
(In Manuel Noriega)

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