Psychological Warfare

by Paul M.A. Linebarger

Psychological Warfare was first published in 1948, and it became the authoritative text on the subject for decades. Even today, it explains the basic principles of propaganda and psychological warfare (both white and black), from organization and planning to analysis and response. Examples are drawn from military history, with an emphasis on tactics by both the Allies and Axis during World War II. This is a fascinating subject, with greater relevance to everyday business and politics than may be immediately recognized.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, History, Politics, War, Military Fiction, Political Science

332 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1948

About the author

A.k.a. Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger, but perhaps better known as Cordwainer Smith.

Reviews

[Manny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paul Linebarger, better known as the science-fiction writer Cordwainer Smith, was one of America's leading experts on psychological warfare. He played an important part in World War II, operating entirely behind the scenes but planning a substantial portion of the US's efforts in this sphere. He was involved in a large variety of concrete operations, and briefed senior military commanders up to the level of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He was particularly active in South-East Asia, where his connections were little short of miraculous: Sun Yat Sen was his godfather, he knew Chiang Kai Shek well, and he had personal dealings with Mao. He wrote this book in 1947, and it's a strange mixture; part history, part philosophy, part instruction manual - there are detailed sections on how to prepare leaflet bombs and analyze enemy propaganda - and part personal memoir. It appears to have been put together quickly, and it's an unpolished mess, full of sloppy language, repetitions, non sequiturs and irrelevant asides. It's still completely fascinating.

Linebarger's book was written a year or two before Orwell's 1984, and in some ways it covers similar ground. I found it easy to imagine that it had been composed secretly by a disaffected senior member of the Inner Party. Linebarger is breathtakingly clear and cynical about the central goal of psychological warfare: to use propaganda in order to affect the minds and emotions of people for military purposes. Propaganda can be either "white" (openly issued by the group who in reality are responsible for creating it) or "black" (made to look as though it came from someone else). Two types of operation are given particular attention. The first is to inspire the enemy with fear, uncertainty and doubt; the second, its corollary, is to stiffen the optimism and resolve of one's own people.

He explains the methods used in detail, with many case studies taken from his own experience in World War II. When trying to demoralise the enemy, one of the most useful approaches is to find groups who already distrust each other to some degree, and try to make them distrust each other more. For example, at the senior political/military level, an approach that worked well against Nazi Germany was to exploit the negative feelings that many military officers had about Hitler, who was widely viewed as a bungling upstart. At the personal level, a popular black propaganda technique was to prey on soldiers' fears that their wives were being unfaithful to them; he shows several examples of Nazi leaflets. Both cases use the fundamental principle he recommends: start with something that contains a reasonable amount of truth, and magnify it.

When creating loyalty, optimism and resolve, he considers that the basic techniques were developed by Lenin and Trotsky, who showed how a small, well-organised and inspired group could be built up to the point where it was able to control a population several hundred times its size. He hates these people passionately, but is remarkably detached about explaining the effectiveness of their ideas. He says the methods spread rapidly to the Chinese on one hand, and the Nazis on the other; he considers Nazism to be in essence a clone of Bolshevism, with little more than the labels changed. Some of his judgements are quite surprising. In his opinion, the best psychological warfare campaign of World War II was the one carried out by the Japanese in South East Asia. I had always thought that the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" was a ridiculous fig-leaf stuck on a Japanese dictatorship, which could never have fooled anyone. Not so, says Linebarger: many Asian countries were indeed fooled by being given the outward appearances of self-government. Because they were addressed politely and invited to send "diplomatic staff" to conferences in Tokyo, they felt that they were being given a better deal by the Japanese than they had received from the colonial Europeans. Maybe they were. It was only when the war started going badly for them that the illusion began to melt away.

As I said, one thinks of 1984. Comparisons with another, much less well-known book also kept occurring to me. A few months ago, I read Simon's In Sheep's Clothing: Understanding and Dealing with Manipulative People . Simon is good at showing how manipulative people pretend to be your friends, but coldly lie to you and play on your emotions in order to forward their own agendas. Many of the strategies he describes are used here too, but on a vastly larger scale. Being a psychological warfare officer, in effect, means acting as a "covert-aggressive" person (Simon's term) towards whole populations.

Scary, scary, scary book. I constantly wondered: am I supposed to be reading this? Why isn't the material classified? Maybe he had to move fast to get it published, and that's why it looks so sloppy and unpolished. Such things happened in the aftermath of World War II, when the situation was fluid and undefined. But no one has tried to deny its validity. Everywhere you look, you find it's the standard text on the subject. And even though it could hardly be called famous - I see to my surprise that I'm the first person to review it on Goodreads - I suspect it's had rather more influence than one might at first think. Check it out if you're the kind of person who's curious to know what's really going on.

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let's set the stage for this one.

This 1948 publication was first and foremost designed to be a manual. It was not a rigorous academic study. It was designed to teach intelligence operatives the basics and intermediates of psychological warfare.

He even makes no bones about intersecting and sometimes outright conflating Public Relations with the field of Psychological Warfare. Indeed, their purposes are often the same, in many cases written by the same people.

Similar things have been going on since there were people gathering to make cities. The examples in this particular book draw from many WWI and WWII real examples from America, Russia, and China.

Now, I'm pretty certain everyone has seen something of this in our modern life. You may even make a huge hobby of pointing out gaslighting in politics, obvious falsehoods told by ideological enemies internationally or right in your own country.

If you do, then you know that this book is old news. There is no difference between Psychological Warfare and Public Relations. We lie to our own side to maintain morale and we lie to the other side to reduce theirs.

We tell the truth mixed with little lies to get the other side to READ our propaganda, but subtly twist it to know when and where enemy combatants are using your information. Like a footprint.

We promise the world. Peace, happiness, prosperity -- to our own AND to our enemies... if they only come over to our side.

What we don't do is make things unspecific. Generalities are laughable. Details and compelling.

We don't tell our enemies that we will crush them. Such tactics only entrench the other side. Rather, the point is to soften their resolve. Show them how well you're doing. How strong you are. How capable.

The point is to be effective. Most of the time it's a hit-or-miss game, but when information is EVERYTHING (whether in peace or in war) every gambit counts.


Now, for anyone who ISN'T already aware that we are utterly surrounded by psychological warfare RIGHT THIS VERY INSTANT, you might want to check your assumptions.

It never stopped. The whole Cold War should be proof of that. The whole American lifestyle, all of Western Thought, any political faction in any country, all corporations, and all media brands down to YouTubers and your local church gathering is an example of it.

Whether you are consciously aware of what you're doing or not is another matter.

You position yourself and your group to be seen in the best light, do you not?



First, make yourself appear like them, either literally or ideologically. Make them trust you by being a part of their in-group.

Then make them trust you by being a reliable source of news.

Then, start poisoning the well.


It's pretty simple, after all. Anyone can do it, right, Twitter? And best of all, ANYONE can do it!

There's a great book called Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media that spells out many of the best time-tested methods.

Repeat your message over and over. It won't matter whether it is true or not. As long as you have total saturation, enough people will pick up on it and repeat it. It worked back in WWII. It works WONDERFULLY in America.

Give people a horrible setup, then offer them a way out.

If the media won't play along with you, then call them all liars and set up your own media outlets.

If the other side calls you on your bluff, make a smokescreen.

At all times, muddy the water. A tried and true method is to accuse all your enemies of what you've been doing yourself. Usually, because you've been doing it first. (Some people are MASTERS of this kind of deflection. It's not a psychological pathology. It's an outright wartime tactic. Tried and true.)

But above all, be sure to use the six Moral Foundations if you want to get the most bang for your buck:

Care: cherishing and protecting others; opposite of harm
Fairness or proportionality: rendering justice according to shared rules; opposite of cheating
Loyalty or ingroup: standing with your group, family, nation; opposite of betrayal
Authority or respect: submitting to tradition and legitimate authority; opposite of subversion
Sanctity or purity: abhorrence for disgusting things, foods, actions; opposite of degradation
Liberty: opposite of oppression.

If you see your in-group pumping up all six of the positives while attributing all the negatives to the other side, you know they're doing a FANTASTIC job with their propaganda.

[David Agranoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Psychological Warfare by Paul Linebarger

As I opened the file to write this review Bolt Thrower was playing in my shuffle. I think that has some meaning. The reason I read this book is the not-so-secret reason this book has been lost to time. Paul M.A. Linebarger is more famous for the pen name that he wrote Science Fiction under Cordwainer Smith. As a nerd for mid-century (20th) science fiction his work was a gap I needed to fix. His science fiction is respected by many of the modern greats including Lavie Tidhar and Brian Evenson who listed him as an influence. His SF is high-concept intelligent stuff that fixes in the fits in that no man’s land between the Golden Age and New Wave. It has a depth of international culture exposure and political knowledge that makes it a little different.

What does this have to with this book? Linebarger’s life was short his SF writing career was confined mostly to the 50s. Like many of the Science Fiction writers of the era, his life was interrupted by WW II. While Heinlein and Asimov were in Philly running a factory, Richard Matheson in a bomber, Vonnegut was at Dresden and Linebarger was earning a spot in Arlington Cemetery. After the war, he would become a professor at Johns Hopkins, but it was activity in the war that fed this book.

While it is greatly out of date now, this was THE book on the topic for decades. When you look at the roots of this book, and the man’s history you can see why his science fiction was special. Paul’s Godfather was Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat Sen. So he spent his childhood traveling around the world with his father. He was only 23 years old when he got his Ph.D. in Far East studies. A thing he knew about. He was teaching at Duke during the war but was drafted into service. He rose to the rank of Major and worked in the field designing Psychological warfare tactics. He briefed the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Senators like JFK long before he became president. It was a thing that many powerful people in government in the '60s had him as a teacher.

Certainly, as a progressive, I think Linebarger probably used these methods to help defeat the Nazis but he was also enforcing the US imperialism. This book was meant to dry academic text, the history and tactics are interesting. I think unless you are super fascinated by Cordwainer Smith’s background it is not exactly essential reading On my blog I will include some pictures of the seven-decade-old first edition I got from the San Diego library. I think they had to get from the storage room next to the Ark of Covenant.

I think it is fair that it is lost to history. It is curiosity, I am sure there are more modern books on the subject. The science-fiction connection is one of the few reasons to read it, and frankly, there is not much to learn here about Cordwainer Smith. Completionists only.

[Kale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Old-fashioned, however, many points still reflect the modern world and how media manipulation insidiously broadcast to the common people.

Different states of propaganda are recognised, black (completely false) , gray (half true or no credible source) and white (credible source or axiom) propaganda. If you recognise everything as propaganda and assume an emotional response. Brickwalling is the only defense protecting yourself from propaganda.

The propaganda acronym STASM is a good formula to understand the root and audience:

Source -
Who is creating/spreading the message?
Technique -
What methods are being used to persuade?
Audience -
Who is the intended target of the message?
Subject -
What is the message about?
Motive -
Why is this message being spread? What's the goal?

When no former plan to conquer any such enemy, such as Covid-19, propaganda relies on non-white propaganda. Therefore creating false statements, lies and backlash. If the governments cant be truthful here, what else do they lie about?

[Tadas Talaikis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty bad, moans about communism and failures and wins of American empire (here's where world's policing ideology starts?), racist, and all of that telling really nothing, no analysis, old thought. 1.5, but not sure, as this probably can be presented in better way. In short, for me that was very boring, and what I've got from this long winded book is just one thing - Coca Cola and cookies are propaganda too. Just for this one I add 1 point.

[Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I should confess right up front that I probably would never have read this book if its author were not the same person who, as "Cordwainer Smith," wrote some of the best, most elegant science fiction of the middle bit of the 20th Century. He also wrote novels under two other names which I do intend to eventually track down.

But this one turned up inexpensive on the Kindle store, so I grabbed it. (His ATOMSK, written as Carmichael Smith, is also available and I will grab it soonish.)

Linebarger was an expert in this field, and taught it at the War College. This book was a standard in its field for decades - for all I know it still is - and has been translated into a dozen or so languages.

What then is Psychological Warfare? Linebarger gives several definitions, which almost add up to "information war," but ultimately what he's talking about is the use of propaganda to assist in the accomplishment of military and political goals. Most of his examples (and they are many) are from the Second World War, where PsyWar first became a real art, but he goes back to WWI and (in this, the Second Edtition) forward to the Korea and the early years of the Cold War.

One of the things that makes PsyWar so interesting is that you can't really directly measure the success of your work. You aren't going to capture a city or anything. But you may convince some (military and civilian both) on the other side of the lines to slack, malinger, and even sabotage; and you might convince enemy soldiers to surrender rather than die for a lost cause. Cultural sensitivity is a must: Japanese soldiers who would never "surrender" might well respond to an appeal to "cease honorable resistance."

The book is full of that kind of information that I would never have thought of.

It's well-written, though not in the light and spritely style of "Cordwainer Smith," and quite readable despite its density.

[Max Nemtsov · Rating 2 out of 5]

Перевод полиТУПравленческий — «переводчики» и их «редакторы» пишут языком эпохи и, кроме того, путают понятия «психологическая война» и «пропаганда», сводят весь спектр психологического воздействия к пропаганде, а от этого получаются глупости, вроде упреков автору за «ошибки»: путает-де спецпропаганду и военные хитрости. Посмотреть еще разок на название переводимой книжки этому колхозу (4 переводчика и 2 редактора) в голову не пришло, меж тем как там ясно написано: психологическая война. А не пропагандистская. Очень пролеткультовский подход, зато в предисловии много всякой хуйни из классиков марксизма-ленинизма, программы КПСС и других душераздирающих, скулосворачивающих и зубодробительных документов эпохи. Имена и реалии в самом тексте исковерканы настолько, что иногда не представляется возможным понять, о чем вообще идет речь.

Зато для нынешнего Кремля, должно быть, — ценный источник вдохновения. Нормальным же читателям на этот классический продукт Воениздата времени тратить не стоит. Как обычно — адовое предисловие, но очень созвучное нынешней кремлевской хуйне (про то, как проклятые империалисты, конечно же, хотят поставить СССР на колени, но мы, вооруженные самой передовой теорией на свете, им рабоче-крестьянски не дадимся) + обычное советское вранье (про USIA, среди прочего). Кроме того, безграмотные политработники ее сократили, так что из любви к Лайнбаргеру стоит читать оригинал. Эти умники даже имя его исковеркали — Поль (!) Лайнбарджер, и такое написание дожило до наших дней (см. самую вменяемую статью про него, хоть и она не без мелких глупостей: http://www.mirf.ru/Articles/art5772.htm). А про фамилию нам тут отчетливо говорят: http://www.ulmus.net/ace/csmith/cspro... — уж нынешние авторы-то могли бы проверить. Нет, куда там — пролеткульт жив-здоров…

[William Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A virtually taboo subject in a country that prides itself on freedoms of all sorts, yet one with which Americans would do well to better acquaint themselves. Linebarger traces the origins of PsyWar to Biblical times and relates its development through early history and right up to World War II. His insistence on the deep incompatibility of longstanding domestic propaganda and the rule of law in our Constitutional republic is one which will strike an eerie chord in the minds of readers. Read this book and you'll never watch the news the same way again.

[Jay D · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great introduction to the subject, but a bit dated. The advent of new forms of warfare, like Cyberwarfare, are thus missing (the book is 1948), but this was a text for Army and advanced international studies students, so you know it's not b.s. Great for a first read on the topic.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally got around to finishing this.

Really fantastic treatment of the subject and an interesting time capsule to the early post-war understanding of information and strategic communication.

First of all, this was excellently written - unsurprising because Linebarger's fiction (under Cordwainer Smith) is superb. It is very approachable, very funny, and with lots of fun quotes, little asides, and flexes of classified+personal knowledge. LInebarger was intimately involved with psychological operations in WWII but wrote this as an academic in SAIS - I only wish I could have taken a class with him lol.

One complaint as a modern reader is that there is a lot of very dense description of the WWII organizational setup of the USG and military psychological operations orgs that didn't ultimately seem relevant as well as a lot of focus on the particular methods of analysis and dissemination of propaganda (especially how to collect and analyze radio manually) that just isn't relevant today. I can't, however, fault him for that since these absolutely would be relevant for the target audience (post-war students and practitioners).

What I enjoyed: Incredibly complete accounting of the historical and practical development of American (and foreign) propaganda analysis and production up to WWII and in the early small wars after. It literally defined the formulation of the field as a discipline. The final chapters were fascinating as a window into the mid 50s. The second edition was published in 1954 and his perspective on the state of the Cold War was truly fascinating. In some ways it was deeply incorrect (lots of disproven ideas about Soviet strength eg, that can't really be faulted at the time). However, his thinking about US opportunities was almost prophetic (I think) and often explicitly Fukuyaman. He pointed out the illogical of holding on to southeast asian imperialism to stop communism specifically because (although he didn't use this terminology) the thymotic advantage of the novel, revolutionary (and seemingly recognition-granting) communist ideology. He points out that (if we wanted to) the US could easily take the thymotic high ground over communism by offering real and enduring recognition to those peoples through (although again he doesn't explicitly say this) liberal democratic ideals and principles.

Finally, I think his most important takeaway (that is soooo relevant today) is that people are complex and societies even more so - nor are either stupid. Psychological warfare (or propaganda, disinformation, whatever you want to call it) cannot (certainly in the long run) convince people of falsehoods in conflict with their material reality. He makes the distinction of limited psychological warfare (using tools of psychology for warfare) and 'war psychologically waged' (integration of planning and strategy along with communication to change the minds of the enemy). The later is clearly more powerful, but ultimately just means well executed war (see, for example, clausewitz). However, his argument in the final chapter (persuasively argued) is that psychological 'warfare' is best not conceptualized as necessarily connected with combat per-se, but in conflict more generally.

[Eli Bishop · Rating 4 out of 5]

Linebarger is better known for his science fiction written as Cordwainer Smith, which is why I was interested in reading this. That fiction is hard to describe, but if you're a fan you know how distinctive his style and point of of view are, and I think it's interesting to see them being applied to something he thought of as a professional rather than a creative task; it's easy to see that it's the same guy. This is a book about how to do war and how to persuade and/or deceive people, so it's detached and sometimes cold-blooded as you'd expect, but there's an empathetic and quirky aspect too: he's into people and thinks they are fascinating and lovable, even if they're enemies to be overpowered or bamboozled. He also clearly loves writing, and while he's trying to find a tone that'll make sense to practical-minded military types, he can't help being creative—sometimes pretty funny in a dry professorial style, other times throwing in a startlingly evocative phrase like "Psychological strategy is planned along the edge of nightmare."

His own opinions are straightforwardly present. He takes American goodness for granted; he has no patience for jingoism; his anti-communism isn't so much about thinking their ideology is evil as about being suspicious of fanatics. Very frustrated with incompetence and inflexibility on his own side, but more cranky than angry.

The book focuses largely on World War Two as you'd expect, but there's an overview of propaganda-related incidents throughout history which is really interesting, including a scathing critique of the shoddy quality of John Milton's anti-Quaker libel; the story of the "Vulgar Wiseman" incident, where a propaganda effort was pranked from within; and the claim that Genghis Khan's greatest tactic was spreading rumors that his army was much bigger than it really was.

[S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, it's dry, and difficult to slog through as the six months I've spent on it can attest. But it's also extremely pertinent to our current political situation in more ways than I can count, not merely because it is written from a perspective set early in the Cold War and puts considerable time into analyzing both Russian and Chinese propaganda, as well as American constraints and weaknesses in the area.

The short take away is history is relevant, propaganda matters, and the Russians have always been very invested and very skilled at psy-ops.

It's a good starting point for serious thought on propaganda. There is a reason it's been considered a core text in the field, and is still in print.

[John Waldrip · Rating 4 out of 5]

First published in 1948 and revised in 1954, this is a groundbreaking work on the use of overt and covert propaganda by a man with deep immersion in the field during and after World War Two. It is a profoundly interesting topic, though the book becomes a bit dreary to read because of its detail. Amazing to me is the fact that while I read the book my mind rehearsed not only the propagandizing efforts of American main stream media toward the American citizenry but also the spiritual warfare that is dealt with in the Bible to explain how spiritual adversaries provide wicked persuasion to already evil inclined people so they can rest easy in their false but comfortable conclusions about the plan and purpose of God and their own certain end.

[Dna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Conservative, well-written, dry in parts. But I don't mind dry! I really like this book, but the key to enjoying it is reading it as the manual that Linebarger intended, not a history book. However, the historical detail that you can glean from Linebarger's commentary is immeasurable, especially if you are a history buff or military science nerd. The contents of this book are supported by annotations a bibliography and historical documents. Thanks to Hoopla and Hamilton Public Library for offering the most amazing stuff. I'm amazed everyday by what I find at the Brary. Happy reading, everyone!

[Phil Daikens · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book of the history of psychological warfare

I was born three short years after WWII but remember the talk and news reels. I would like too find a book that carries on from the early fifties to the present. With all the new technologies I would be fascinated to see and learn how psywar has advanced. I have seen the psychological damage that was done to men that returned from the war, some of these men tortured for their remaining days on earth never to fully recover barely holding on to reality day to day.

[Stiltzkin Vanserine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Psychological Warfare showcases Cordwainer Smith's versatile talent and provides incredible insight into the machinations of twentieth century warfare.

[Adam Meek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting perspectives on WW2 propaganda from old China Hand Paul Linebarger, profusely illustrated with period leaflets.

[Nic Hester · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dense as can be. A bit out dated but as expected from publish date. Interesting read at the history of psychological and information warfare

[Steven Dufour · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read for fans of his science fiction (as Cordwainer Smith) and interesting and useful for all. One of the most interesting books I have ever read. A look at a side of history, and "the art of war", which we don't always consider. Reading it expanded my mind and my understanding.

[Brendan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This really is ' The Book ' ( early mention of ' the psychic landscape ' in here too )