John McCain was one of her regular listeners although not by
choice because loudspeakers were prominent in the prison where he was a POW.
Personification is a great influence tool that I have
written about on a number of occasions including last week’s posting on what
local TV producers are looking for.
Female voices were generally used because it was felt that
since service members were predominately male, they would be more favorably
inclined to listen to a female voice.
Popular music was played but the goal of the content was to
wear down their listeners. Hanoi Hannah used to read the names of recent
American KIA as a part of her broadcasts in an effort to demoralize her
listeners.
More recently there was Baghdad Betty. She was not very
competent according to then LTC Jeff Jones, CDR of the 8th PSYOP Bn
who said: “Her broadcasts proved the Iraqis didn’t understand us at
all," Jones said. "Her ignorance was pervasive. She was never sure of
her sources, and broadcast old information based on dated news." (See: http://www.leatherneck.com/forums/showthread.php?6011-What-ever-happened-to-Baghdad-Betty).
Jones went on to be CDR of the 4th PSYOP Group and ultimately
Defense Attaché to the French Embassy. It was my pleasure to nominate Jeff for
the Gold McClure Award, which he received shortly before his death.
While the PSYOP Regiment is a
relatively new entity in the US Army we owe it ourselves to be mindful of our
history and to learn from it – both good and bad. While we don’t want to fall
into the trap of being prepared to fight the last war, we don’t want to repeat
the same mistakes either.
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