In his history "Psychological Operations American Style", Robert Kodesky (2007) provides a history that reachs up to the early 2000s on the use of "information" in warfare, both hot and cold. Quoting his footnote #2 to his chapter 1:
| 2. The United States Department of the Army officially adopted the |phrase of "psychological operations" as the all-inclusive label for America's |psychological activities in 1971. This study utilizes "information", "propoganda", |and "psychological warfare," as American officials did through the course |of United States history. That is, this work uses "information" to describe |efforts made by the United States to gain support for long-term national |objectives. It employs "propoganda" to note American attempts at |influencing thinking on immediate issues of the day, and it identifies the |nation's initiatives on the battlefield to undermine to undermine enemy |morale as "psychological warfare". Overall, this work argues that through |the Second World War American Officials considered these activities |as distinct from one another and, at times, even unrelated endeavors. |During the Cold War, though, policy makers came to view propoganda, |psychological warfare, information, and a program of cultural exchange |as overlapping subsets of an integrated national program of psychological |operations. For evolution of terminology, see |William E. Daughtery, "Originas of PSYOP Terminology," in "The Art |and Science of Psychological Operations: Cases studies of Military |Application", proj. dir Daniel C. Pollock, ed., Ronald De McLaurin, |Carl F. Rosenthal, Sarah A. Skillings, and others, 2 volumes (Washington, |D.C.: American Institutes for Research, 1976), 18-19; Theordore C. |Sorenson, "The Word War: The Story of American Propoganda" |(New York, Evanston, and London: Harper & Row, 1968) 2-5. (page 11) During the WWII, the U.S. conceived of its news services as seperate from its propaganda and psychological operations, that is, it strove to be a source of objective information about newsworthy activites and not altering or "spinning" stories though it might leave out facts or background information that is deemed "problematic". With the Cold War, this operation was discontinued in order to make the presentation of news stories more consistent with policy objectives and as a tool of war. This use of information during the Vietnam war lead many to distrust the U.S. government as a source of valid information about the conflict. The degree to which this has continued to operate in the post-Vietnam era has varied but it is clear that the overlap among "information", "propaganda", and "psychological warfare" continues to this day. An example of this is provided by the new documentary film "The Tillman Story". A review of the film appears in the NY Times and here is a quote from it: |That was probably the assumption of the military brass who concocted |a bogus account of the combat death of Pat Tillman, a football star and |a casualty of so-called friendly fire in Afghanistan in April 2004 at age 27. |The official story initially had him saving the lives of fellow soldiers during |a mountain ambush by the Taliban. It was a flag-waving, “Rambo”-worthy |feel-good fantasy that played well on television. | |But as Amir Bar-Lev’s sorrowful, devastating documentary, “The Tillman |Story,” reveals, not every soldier or every soldier’s family is willing to be |so glorified. Tillman, who had the square-jawed face of a comic-book |warrior, certainly looked the part, and some of the details of his life supported |the image of him as a rampaging gung-ho patriot. He had quit the National |Football League in the wake of 9/11 to join the Army Rangers, turning |down a multimillion-dollar contract from the Arizona Cardinals. After his |death he received a Silver Star for valor. | |But in other ways, Tillman didn’t fit the image. Thoughtful and private, |he never made a public statement about his decision to enlist and asked |that his privacy on the matter be respected. An avowed atheist, he studied |the writings of Noam Chomsky and opposed the war in Iraq after serving |a tour of duty there. Yet when the government and the N.F.L. secretly |arranged for him to return to football without having to fulfill his commitment, |he refused the deal, believing it was his duty to serve the three years for |which he had signed up. His next stop was Afghanistan. | |Several weeks after Tillman was eulogized by President George W. Bush |as a classic American war hero, the military announced that he had actually |been killed by a stray bullet during the confusion known as “the fog of war.” http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/08/20/movies/20tillman.html?nl=movies&emc=mua1 The NY Times has a related article that reviews "The Tillman Story" and another film titled "A Film Unfinished". The opening paragraph perhaps can be used as a starting point for critical thinking exercises and for guarding against the use of the confirmation bias: |WHEN information about a war comes from a government eager to |promote and justify it, how can we know which parts to believe and |which to reject as propaganda? When indeed. For the complete article, see: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/movies/15tillman.html?_r=1&ref=movies&pagewanted=all -Mike Palij New York University m...@nyu.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. 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