Publisher's Synopsis
Psychological Operations: Principles and Case Studies serves as a fundamental guide to PSYOP philosophy, concepts, principles, issues, and thought for both those new to, and those experienced in, the PSYOP field and PSYOP applications . This book clarifies the value of PSYOP as a cost-effective weapon and incorporates it as a psychological instrument of US military and political power, especially given our present budgetary constraints. It contributes to the understanding of psychological operations by presenting diverse articles that portray the value of the planned use of human actions to influence perceptions, public opinion, attitudes, and behaviors so that PSYOP victories can be achieved in war and in peace. By addressing the breadth and depth of psychological operations thought, this collection of PSYOP articles serves as a valuable knowledge base for those who read it. A major purpose of the book is to pull together those previously published articles under one cover in one volume. Psychological Operations should stimulate your thinking and reinforce the value of PSYOP. The four sections classify articles with related themes into a common category. Part I offers an overview of the nature and scope of PSYOP and serves as an introduction to the overall nature, historical background, concepts, and principles of psychological operations. These independent articles, which reflect the broad scope of historical development and thought about PSYOP, are intended to be a foundation for understanding the basic nature and key elements of PSYOP. Part II follows with issues and influences related to developing effective US strategy, doctrine, and structure for conducting psychological and political warfare. The focus is on those psychological issues and roles that have been recurrent as our national policy, objectives, and strategy have been formulated and implemented. They explain historical and contemporary elements of the national policy process and the framework within which national PSYOP policy is formulated, administered, and implemented. Part III deals with the objectives and activities of strategic, tactical, operational, and other types of PSYOP. All forms of PSYOP should primarily support the attainment of national policy and objectives . They conclude that the key to all US PSYOP is credibility of the message as defined by the influencing or changing of perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors through utilization of words and actions . In Part IV case studies are used to present and clarify PSYOP goals, roles, and methods. One of the editors of this book condenses and analyzes (1) US and Vietcong PSYOP in the Vietnam War and (2) the Iraqi propaganda network. The other writers examine tactical and consolidation PSYOP activities in Operations Just Cause and Promote Liberty in Panama . They address (1) our national antidrug policy and its relationship to the role of military psychological operations and (2) the importance of the political-psychological dimensions of conflict and insurgency. Military psychological operations (PSYOP) attempts to alter the behavior of people in enemy-controlled territory. These are planned operations to convey selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of foreign governments, organizations, groups, and individuals. The purpose of psychological operations is to induce or reinforce foreign attitudes and behavior favorable to the originator's objectives. This is a privately authored news service and educational publication of Progressive Management. Our publications synthesize official government information with original material - they are not produced by the federal government. They are designed to provide a convenient user-friendly reference work to uniformly present authoritative knowledge that can be rapidly read, reviewed or searched.
