A Psychological Warfare Casebook

Through the use of a casebook approach, the editors illustrate the important aspects and principles of psychological warfare which could be used for training or reference purposes by civilian or military officers who may come in contact with psychological warfare operators.

Originally published in 1948 and used as a textbook by the United States Army for years, this authoritative guide provides a complete theoretical exploration of the purpose and nature of propaganda in times of war. Detailing and defining the history, strategies, limitations, and effectiveness of psychological warfare, this reference allows readers to draw comparisons to the modern usage of such techniques that exist in the news media and within advertising and political campaigns.—Print Ed.

A provocative and eye-opening study of the essential role the US military and the Central Intelligence Agency played in the advancement of communication studies during the Cold War era, now with a new introduction by Robert W. McChesney and a new preface by the author Since the mid-twentieth century, the great advances in our knowledge about the most effective methods of mass communication and persuasion have been visible in a wide range of professional fields, including journalism, marketing, public relations, interrogation, and public opinion studies. However, the birth of the modern science of mass communication had surprising and somewhat troubling midwives: the military and covert intelligence arms of the US government. In this fascinating study, author Christopher Simpson uses long-classified documents from the Pentagon, the CIA, and other national security agencies to demonstrate how this seemingly benign social science grew directly out of secret government-funded research into psychological warfare. It reveals that many of the most respected pioneers in the field of communication science were knowingly complicit in America’s Cold War efforts, regardless of their personal politics or individual moralities, and that their findings on mass communication were eventually employed for the purposes of propaganda, subversion, intimidation, and counterinsurgency. An important, thought-provoking work, Science of Coercion shines a blazing light into a hitherto remote and shadowy corner of Cold War history.