Evening star., 1945-07-29
Psychology Plus Force

and for a long time after the at
tack on Poland and the fall of
France psychological warfare was
largely battle of unimplemented
ideas between the Axis on one side
and the Allies on the other. The
divisive appeals, the long-range ex-
changes of threats, the words cal
culated to breed fear-all these and
similar outpourings of the propa-
ganda experts were generally lack
ing in the one thing that could
make them truly effective: They
were not punctuated enough, or
underscored enough, by the con-
vincing concreteness of accompany
ing steel, flame and high explosives.
1t is true enough that in the be-
ginning the weapon of ideas served
the Axis we'll, but as soon as the
tide began to turn in our favor the
enemy propaganda barrage, though
it's intensity did not decrease, be-
came progressively less and less i'm
pressive because the words were not
promptly emphasized by physical
action. On the other hand, as soon
as American and Allied power
reached proportions permitting Of
fensive operations, our own pSy-
Geological warfare steadily i'm
proved and almost certainly played
an important life-saving role on
many battlefield of Europe, par
ticularly in the last months of Nazi
resistance.
When troops are cornered, for ex-
ample, and when loud-speakers or
leaflets tell them they must either
surrender or be decimated by artil-
lery fire, and when it is then DEM
onstrated that the fire is there to
do the decimating, psychology COM
bines with tangible force to break
the will to resist, and bloodshed is
thus kept to a minimum except in
cases where fanaticism overrules
reason. After the Allies began to
dominate the skies of Europe and
had invaded Italy and France, they
employed this kind of operation
with increasing effectiveness until
the final Nazi collapse, and now we
see it in a nearly perfect form in
the present drive on Japan.
At no time during the war in
Europe was there such a sys-
tematic merging of the psychologi-
cal blow and the direct physical
blow-the attack on the mind and
the attack on the body-as is cur
rently testing the japanese. The
Anglo o-American-C Chinese ultimatum
issued from Potsdam last Thursday
was not just a lot of words with
nothing behind them. There was
no element of bluff in it. 1t meant
precisely what it said when 1t said
that Japan must either surrender
Internationally or be destroyed. 1t
placed special emphasis on the i'm
mensity of our power, and by way
of illustration Admiral Halseys
rampaging Third Fleet, which is
still in action, was simultaneously
searching out and sinking the rem
nants of the enemy navy. Similarly,
in his unprecedented announce
ment naming II homeland cities
next on the list for attack by the
Super Fortresses, General LIE May
of the Twentieth Air Force, working
directly with the Psychological War
fare Branch of the Army, was not
voicing an empty threat; Our
bombers have already begun to hit
them.
At the moment, just as the Nazis
once did, Japanese officials are
speaking bravely about fighting on
to the last man, irrespective OF our
ultimatum and our power to make
our warnings come true. And per-
haps this is the way it will be; per-
haps the weeks ahead will prove
that the militarists of Tokyo really
mean what they say. Meanwhile,
however, the general run of Hiro-
hitos subjects may have their own
ideas, and our use bf psychology
plus force-now more effective than
at any time in the war-may in due