Airborne leaflet propaganda Airborne leaflet propaganda is a form of psychological warfare in which leaflets ( flyers ) are scattered in the air . Military forces have used aircraft to drop leaflets to attempt to alter the behavior of combatants and civilians in enemy - controlled territory , sometimes in conjunction with air strikes . Humanitarian air missions , in cooperation with leaflet propaganda , can turn civilians against their leadership while preparing them for the arrival of enemy troops . Functions of leaflet propaganda . There are six different functions of airborne leaflet propaganda that have been used over the past century : History . Before World War II . Airborne leaflets have been used for military propaganda purposes at least since the 19th century . One early example is from the Franco - Prussian War when in October 1870 during the Siege of Paris a French balloon coming from the city dropped government proclamations over Prussian troops that stated the following ( in German ) : " Paris defies the enemy . The whole of France rallies . Death to the invaders . Foolish people , shall we always throttle one another for the pleasure and proudness of Kings ? Glory and conquest are crimes ; defeat brings hate and desire for vengeance . Only one war is just and holy ; that of independence . " Leaflet propaganda has been delivered by airplanes since the Italo - Turkish War of 1911 - 12 . World War II . After World War I , Americans were skeptical due to the national consensus that America was pressured into WWI by false , manipulative propaganda laced with lies from both the British and the Germans . However , as J . A . C . Brown articulated , “ propaganda is successful only when directed at those who are willing to listen , absorb the information , and if possible act on it , and this happens only when the other side is in a condition of lowered morale and is already losing the campaign ” . Therefore , the use of airborne leaflets was a way for WWII enemies to psychologically attack one another in a different way than in previous wars . Distribution of Airborne leaflet propaganda was used by both allied and Axis forces in the Second World War . Airborne leaflets printed during WWII were “ factual , in the main truthful , and served ( or so it was claimed ) to create a reputation for reliability both in supplying information and refuting German accounts which we said to be untruthful ” . Also , these leaflets were distributed in many ways . “ Secret agents actually within the enemy countries were called upon to help by distributing leaflets ( often purporting to come from within Germany itself or from a neutral country ) , by writing slogans or attaching posters or slips of revolutionary nature to buildings , and by spreading those demoralizing rumors , to which people are much more susceptible when frustrated , perplexed , or kept in ignorance of what is actually going on ” , in addition to being released from planes , shells , and balloons . However , often the leaflets did not reach their intended targets because they were dropped over lakes , rural areas , etc . from such a high altitude . Although leaflets were seen as being an effective tactic in manipulating troops when morale was low , “ during the early months of the war , leaflets or pamphlets were scattered over enemy territory by aircraft and balloons but it was more than doubtful whether these had any useful effect , their obvious defects being that few can have reached their targets and , being printed , they were sometimes out of date by the time they were ready to distribute . The front - line distribution of leaflets was quite another matter and these were dropped by aircraft or fired by shells , the messages they bore being less careful about the general principles of consistency and frankness and only truthful about matters on which the enemy had contradictory information ” . It was found that psychological warfare was not effective when distributing surrender leaflets to an enemy which currently had a high morale amongst its troops . Despite the pitfalls to airborne leaflets ineffectiveness on opposing sides with high morale , enemies used this tactic “ to cause the men to begin talking to each other about their poor military position , their desire to stay alive for their families ’ sakes , and the reasonableness of honorable surrender ” , which often led men to desert their troops . One example of German leaflets which appealed to American troops was one that depicted a passionate kiss between a man and woman . The leaflet read : “ FAREWELL Remember her last kiss … ? Gee were you happy then … ! Together , you spent marvelous times … , lounging on beaches … , dancing , enjoying parties galore . . , listening to the tunes of your favorite band … ” . The leaflets back side reminds the soldier that his loved one is longing for him and that most of the men he had come with are now dead . This leaflet was the attempt of the Germans to pull at the heart strings of the American men in Europe . Reminding them of their loved ones , and that if they continue fighting , they may die and leave loved ones behind . Comparatively , Allied troops were able to persuade the Axis forces by using no words at all in one of their airborne leaflets . This leaflet simply shows a picture of a large open field with thousands of graves of German soldiers . This leaflet , dropped over Germany in 1942 , was the Allied forces ' direct way to show the soldiers the fate of their quest for an Iron Cross . After World War II . Even though leaflet propaganda has been an effective “ weapon ” , its use has been on a decline . This decline is a result of the advance of satellite , television , and radio technology . Six billion leaflets were dropped in Western Europe and 40 million leaflets dropped by the United States Army Air Forces over Japan in 1945 during World War II . One billion were used during the Korean War while only 31 million have been used in the war against Iraq . Other conflicts where leaflet propaganda has been used are Vietnam , Afghanistan ( both during the Soviet and more recent NATO invasions ) , and the Gulf War . Coalition forces dropped pamphlets encouraging Iraqi troops not to fight during the first Gulf War , which contributed to eighty - seven thousand Iraqi troops surrendering in 1991 . Means of delivery . Leaflet delivery can be as simple as having one or more of the aircraft ' s crew throw bundles of leaflets out of an open hatchway . A more sophisticated method is the leaflet bomb . This is not an explosive device , but rather a bomb – shaped container that is dropped from the aircraft and opened in mid - air , dispersing the leaflets it holds . One such " bomb " may contain tens of thousands of leaflets . The first ideas to construct special bombs with which to disperse airborne leaflets were proposed by French and British air force officers during World War II . However , the program was not implemented until 1943 by the American military in the form of the ' Monroe bomb ' named after its inventor , USA Air Force Captain James Monroe of the 305th Bomber Group . It was developed from laminated paper containers that had been used to transport M - 17 incendiary bombs . Leaflet bombs in the US inventory include the PDU - 5B dispenser unit , the LBU30 and the older M129E1 / E2 . The M129 weighs when empty and approximately when loaded . It can contain 60 , 000 to 80 , 000 leaflets . At a pre – determined time after release , the two halves of the bomb ' s outer shell are blown apart by detonating cord , dispersing the leaflet payload . Soviet / Russian leaflet bombs include the AGITAB - 250 - 85 and the AGITAB - 500 - 300 ( used during the First Chechen War ) . During World War 2 , the British used hydrogen balloons to carry leaflets over German lines . Some of the V - 1 flying bomb s launched by the Germans against southern England carried leaflets - they were contained in a cardboard tube at the tail of missile . This would be ejected by a small gunpowder charge while the V1 was in mid - air , en route to its target . Use of leaflet bombs by revolutionary groups . Leaflet bombs have not only been used by states for purposes of military warfare but have , since the 1940s , also been used by radical political and ideological sub - state groups . Anti - colonial groups in Asia and Africa . The use of leaflet bombs by non - state groups began in 1945 when the Irgun group developed a bomb that was " deposited in the street , ticked away until detonation , then scattered news sheet over a wide and smoky area " . In September 1945 three of Irgun ' s leaflet bombs exploded in Jerusalem and injured nine people . In the late 1960s the African National Congress ( ANC ) started to use a version of the leaflet bomb in South Africa . This bomb was developed in collaboration with the South African Communist Party ( SACP ) and South Africans living in exile in London . The first time this leaflet bomb , known to South African activists as the ' bucket bomb ' and to the South African police forces as the ' ideological bomb ' , was used was in 1967 . This was one of the most important propaganda weapons of the ANC who devoted major resources to it and used it frequently during the 1960s and 1970s , spreading tens of thousands of leaflets . A 1970 article from the ANC ' s journal " Sechaba " , looking back at the uses of leaflets as propaganda in the 1960s , stated : " It was in this new period that underground propaganda , demonstrating the effectiveness of the ANC machinery and projecting its voice , became of incalculable value . Underground leaflets began to appear in the townships , factories and city streets . Passed on from hand to hand , these reminded the people that the spirit of resistance must never die . These were often complemented by slogans painted on walls proclaiming : " Free Mandela , " " Free Sisulu " and " Long Live the ANC . " as modest as these propaganda efforts were [ . . . ] they showed that the ANC could survive the most severe measures of the regime . " The South African press and security forces also saw it as a serious weapon of the ANC and there were threats from the police to take action against the South African press for publishing parts of ANC ' s leaflets . The South African Minister of Police was quoted in a South African newspaper thus : " the explosions are an indication that subversive elements are still active " inside South Africa and warned the public that they " must not think the dangers are a thing of the past . It is something with which we will just have to live . " New left groups in Latin America . The leaflet bomb has been relatively popular in Latin America with several recorded uses by various groups advocating political violence . In the 1980s the FMLN in El Salvador used this technology under the name of ' propaganda bomb ' . It was one of the " favorite tactics " of its urban militia groups and preferable used in public places like markets or public parks . The design of the bomb was adapted to the local environment in that it " consisted of a cardboard box with a small , low - power explosive underneath a large number of propaganda leaflets . The explosive was set off by a homemade time igniter . The box was disguised to look like any ordinary package or box that might be carried by someone going or returning from a trip to the marketplace . " The use of leaflet bombs played a part in the FMLN ' s recruitment process known to them as " fogueo " - which meant to experience fire or fire - harden something - which was the process by which the recruits " were toughened and the weak and fainthearted were weeded out " . The fogueo process was " a very carefully designed program of increasingly risky operations in support of the guerilla movement . As the candidates successfully completed each operation , it gave them confidence to carry out the next danger level of operation until they became full - fledged guerilla combatants . " This process began with low - level information - gathering and propaganda activities in support of FMLN where the culminating activity before being ready for " combat military activity " could be the making and exploding of a leaflet bomb . In Honduras the Popular Movement for Liberation ( MPL ) and Morazanist Patriotic Front ( FPM ) have also used propaganda bombs during the 1990s . The Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity URNG in Guatemala also used leaflet bombs . In 1996 the group occupied a radio station and set off a leaflet bomb . In Ecuador several groups have used leaflet bombs . The Revolutionary Armed Corps ( CAR ) was according to the Ecuadorian police " an extreme leftist group " which is only known for one attempted attack on February 20 , 2001 when a leaflet bomb containing 150 pamphlets was discovered and successfully defused by the police . The communist Group of Popular Combatants ( GCP ) has on several occasions during 2001 - 2005 used leaflet bombs . In 2001 it was blamed by authorities for a pamphlet bomb and later the same year the group claimed responsibility for detonating a pamphlet bomb in downtown Quito that let out hundreds of pamphlets protesting against Plan Colombia . In 2002 The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Ecuador set off a leaflet bomb in a McDonald ’ s restaurant in Guayaquil that injured three people and caused severe damage to the property .