Military Review English Edition May-June 2016 | Page 65

COUNTERPROPAGANDA

(Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

President Ronald Reagan gives a speech 12 June 1987 at the Berlin Wall in front of Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany. From this speech
came his famous quote, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”

giving a speech near the Berlin Wall, Reagan exploited this perception, undercutting it with an explicit
and palpable challenge:
There is one sign the Soviets can make that
would be unmistakable, that would advance
dramatically the cause of freedom and
peace…. Secretary General Gorbachev, if
you seek peace—if you seek prosperity for
the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe—if
you seek prosperity: come here, to this gate.
Mister Gorbachev, open this gate. Mister
Gorbachev, tear down this wall.11
This challenge, which so simply but clearly highlighted the hypocrisy of the Soviet Union’s public
pronouncements, resulted in enormous international
public and political pressure on the Soviet Union.
Twenty months later, in response to increasing public
unrest stemming in large measure from the open
challenge, East Germany opened the Berlin Wall.
MILITARY REVIEW  May-June 2016

Challenging Negative Adversarial
Information
The issue of addressing adversarial information
attacks is a question faced daily by governments and
the private sector. Like Germany’s experience in World
War I, failure to quickly and to pr operly respond can
result in serious consequences for a nation or other
actor in the public eye. Nevertheless, the emphasis on
counterpropaganda measures in U.S. military doctrine has decreased since the end of the Cold War.
The subject is merely mentioned in passing in current
information operations (IO) doctrine, and no further
formal guidance or direction as to its importance,
methodology, or benefits exists.
This article presents a way to look at the need and
ways to incorporate a doctrinal counterpropaganda
methodology into joint doctrine to generate thought
and discussion about counterpropaganda methods
that personnel on joint IO staffs should follow in
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