Global Security and Intelligence Studies Volume 5, Number 1, Spring / Summer 2020 | Page 41

Psychology as a Warfighting Domain
2017). Exaggerated ethnic features and
portrayals of the “Hun” as large gorillas
assisted observers in distancing themselves
from the “other.” Such imagery
worked to create artificial psychopathy
in the mind of the observer, allowing US
troops to visualize the enemy as subhuman
and therefore easier to attack. The
use of this psychological tactic would
grow darker in the coming decades.
US propaganda efforts toward its
own citizens were very successful during
WWI, both at home and abroad. The
messages were so successful that, once
World War II (WWII) began in earnest,
the United States rebranded much of
the material from WWI with images of
new leadership (Kaminski 2014). The
US use of propaganda to garner support
from its own citizens while dehumanizing
the enemy demonstrated how
influence campaigns on the home front
could support more traditional warfare.
Hitler in a Tutu: Weaponized
Disinformation in World War II
During WWII, psychology
served as a warfighting domain
in several ways. While the US
continued its influence campaigns at
home, there was also a targeted use of
psychological warfare against the adversary.
Messaging in the form of leaflets,
broadcasts, and other means served to
lower the morale of enemy troops and
increase their fear and confusion. Messaging
took the form of white, gray, and
black propaganda. White propaganda
did not hide its source, gray propaganda
obscured its source, and black propaganda
appeared to come from another
source, specifically from the person
or group it was designed to discredit. In
addition to lowering morale, messaging
served to discredit the opposition
and encouraged people to lose faith
in the Axis powers. Disinformation
campaigns bolstered MILDEC efforts
with supporting actions, false armies,
and false equipment. While both sides
sought to dishearten, mislead, and
weaken the other, the following examples
focus on the efforts of US and Allied
forces.
The US continued the tactics
used in WWI to garner support among
the US public. In order to do so, the
United States created the Office of War
Information (OWI) about half a year
into its involvement in WWII. The purpose
of the OWI was to produce white
propaganda—messages from the US
government targeting people at home
and abroad with print, radio, film, and
posters (Prosser and Friedman 2008).
These posters encouraged Americans
to refrain from sharing sensitive military
information. Additionally, they
encouraged Americans to do things
such as walking instead of driving in
order to help the war effort. The OWI
created products that were innocuous
in nature, but the US had another office
to transmit black propaganda targeting
the adversary—the Office of Strategic
Services, or OSS.
The OSS’s propaganda was one
method the Allies used to try to lower
enemy morale. They targeted this propaganda
toward the enemy, masking
the attribution of the messages. For example,
Operation Cornflakes dropped
mailbags full of fake newspapers into
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