Home · Book Reports · 2016 · From PSYOP to MindWar - The Psychology of Victory

Published: December 6, 2016

Tags: Oligarchy · Propaganda · Psyop

Author :: Colonel Paul E. Valley, Major Michael A. Aquino

Publication Year :: 1980

Read Date :: 2016-12-06

Source :: mindwar-michael-aquino.pdf

The book in...

One sentence:

Even before war, it is critical to persuade any would-be enemies, and domestic sympathizers, of the United States to our views by winning their hearts and minds through words not bombs.

Five sentences:

Once war begins, the enemy will be full of national pride, pumped in by their governments so it is of the utmost importance to use persuasion on the soldiers before they are soldiers. Both the enemy and their domestic sympathizers should be treated in much the same fashion, constructing their world views via an ever encroaching technological connectedness. While it is repeatedly stated that MindWar tactics must use truth, for to tell lies builds your control on a foundation of sand, but that truth can be 'willed into existence'. Again there is an outright denial of using psychedelics and similar mind altering substances to increase suggestibility, but it leaves plenty to the imagination of how to use pre-existing cultures that DO promote drug use - like raves - where everyone is imbibing via their own volition. Further, naturally occurring forces are seen as potential leverage to be utilized directly as phenomena in nature, or induced synthetically as in ELF waves.

designates my notes. / designates important.

Thoughts

This seems to be nothing more than a look at the 1980’s version of the mind control social technology. Very similar conclusions are had 50+ years earlier by Edward Bernays in his work “Propaganda”. The only difference is what is being sold. Bernays focuses on materialistic and consumer goods while MindWar looks to alter the opinions of the audience toward war. Upon further reflection, Bernays served as a war propagandist in WW2. I guess MindWar and Propaganda are 2 sides to the same war machine.

Introduction (2003):

page 2:

This is nothing, a “minor staff study”, but the internet got carried away with it in the 80s and…
“[Aquino’s] own image as an occult personality added fuel to the wildfire: MindWar was now touted by the lunatic fringe as conclusive proof that the Pentagon was awash in Black Magic and Devil-worship.”
Now that this absurdly comic opera has at least somewhat subsided, I thought that it might be interesting to make a complete and accurate copy of the paper available, together with an Introduction and some historical-hindsight annotations to place it in reasonable context.

page 3:

You seize control of all of the means by which his government and populace process information to make up their minds, and you adjust it so that those minds are made up as you desire. Everyone is happy, no one gets hurt or killed, and nothing is destroyed.
The only loser in MindWar are the war profiteers
the military/industrial complex can be counted upon to resist implementation of MindWar as the governing strategic conflict doctrine.
The oligarchs understand they can plunder more/live better in their Brave New World.
it was with some fascination that I saw specific of its prescriptions applied during the first Gulf War, and recently even more obviously during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In both instances extreme PSYOP was directed both against the object of the attack and upon U.S. domestic public perception and opinion, in 2003 to the extent of “embedding” journalists with military units to inevitably channel their perspectives and perceptions.
if MindWar is used only in the service of ulterior motives and objectives - the resulting “disintoxication” can be socially shattering.

page 4:

this weapons system uses existing communications media. It seeks to map the minds of neutral and enemy individuals and then to change them in accordance with U.S. national interests. It does this on a wide scale, embracing military units, regions, nations, and blocs. In its present form it is called Psychological Operations (PSYOP).
That main effort cannot begin at the company or division level; it must originate at the national level. It must strengthen our national will to victory and it must attack and ultimately destroy that of our enemy.

page 5:

MindWar is the deliberate, aggressive convincing of all participants in a war that we will win that war.
We will not win if we content ourselves with countering opinions and attitudes instilled by enemy governments. We must reach the people before they resolve to support their armies, and we must reach those armies before our combat troops ever see them on battlefields.
If the euphemism “psychological operations” resulted from, as one general officer put it in a 1917 letter, “a great need for a synonym which would be used in peacetime that would not shock the sensibilities of a citizen of democracy”, then it may have succeeded domestically.7 On the other hand it does not seem to have reassured the sensibilities of the Soviets, who in 1980 described the U.S. Army PSYOP as including: unpardonable methods of ideological sabotage including not just blackmail, provocation, and terror.8

page 6:

The MindWar scenario must be preeminent in the mind of the commander and must be the principal factor in his every field decision. Otherwise he sacrifices measures which actually contribute to winning the war to measures of immediate, tangible satisfaction. [Consider the rational for “body counts” in Vietnam.]
Body counts as in get the bad guy’s count higher or keep ours lower?
Strategic MindWar must begin the moment war is considered to be inevitable. It must seek out the attention of the enemy nation through every available medium, and it must strike at the nation’s potential soldiers before they put on their uniforms. It is in their homes and their communities that they are most vulnerable to MindWar. Was the United States defeated in the jungles of Vietnam, or was it defeated in the streets of American cities?

page 7:

transmission of broadcasts make possible a penetration of the minds of the world such as would have been inconceivable just a few years ago.
MindWar must target all participants if it is to be effective. It must not only weaken the enemy; it must strengthen the United States.
Under existing United States law, PSYOP units may not target American citizens.12
12 [MA2003] This law was established after World War II, purportedly both out of distaste for the extreme domestic propaganda of the fascist powers and because of misgivings about American domestic propaganda, particularly during World War I. At the time of this paper (1980), the law was so strict that, for example, printing presses of Army PSYOP units were prohibited from being used to run off posters for local military recruiting stations.
Smith-Mundt act I think, was repealed in 2015-16.
it must be axiomatic of MindWar that it always speaks the truth.
Instead it can “shape narratives” and “create reality”…
MindWar is perfect when no one is physically harmed.

page 8:

Unlike PSYOP, MindWar has nothing to do with deception or even with “selected” - and therefore misleading - truth. Rather it states a whole truth that, if it does not now exist, will be forced into existence by the will of the United States.

page 9:

Why does one believe one television newsman more than another, even though both may report the same headlines? The answer is that there is rapport
For the mind to believe in its own decisions, it must feel that it made those decisions without coercion.
There is no need to resort to mind-weakening drugs such as those explored by the CIA
There are some purely natural conditions under which minds may become more or less receptive to ideas, and MindWar should take full advantage of such phenomena as atmospheric electromagnetic activity 19 , air ionization 20 , and extremely low frequency waves 21.