Propaganda and Psyops in T2K

[Raellus]

I'm reading a book about the WWII Korsun Pocket battles and a chapter devoted to a Soviet parley attempt got me thinking about propaganda and psyops in the Twilight world, post TDM.

How have you handled propaganda and psyops in your T2K campaigns?

I haven't done too much with it, up to this point, but I'm making plans. So far, I've mostly just stuck to the tried and true marauder attrocities perpetrated to terrify civilian-occupied settlements into submission. I also flipped roles a bit and had an independent militia led by a Col. Kurtz-like, U.S. SF officer stringing up captured marauders and painting "Death to Bandits" on walls throughout his territory.

I'm thinking of having the Lublin goverment start a propaganda campaign of airdropped leaflets offering amnesty to deserters/marauders who lay down their arms and/or rejoin the "official" Polish army.

I can also imagine artillery-fired leaflets between cantonments encouraging enemy combatants to desert/surrender.

I can also see Krakow and the merchant league in Silecia using propaganda to lure skilled workers to their respective territories and to try to keep unsavory elements out.

There would probably be quite a bit of psyops activities in the CONUS dedicated to building and/or maintaining support for the government factions (MilGov and CivGov).

With most radios around the world either fried by EMP or with no power supply to keep them turned on, I don't see radio stuff like "Tokyo Rose" or Radio Free Europe being particularly emphasized or effective.

I'd love to hear your ideas on the subject.

[Mohoender]

We already talk about this in a thread call T2K Propaganda. You might find some useful thoughts there.

http://forum.juhlin.com/showthread.p...ght=propaganda

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by Mohoender

We already talk about this in a thread call T2K Propaganda. You might find some useful thoughts there.

http://forum.juhlin.com/showthread.p...ght=propaganda

That kind of made me think of an interesting (and monstrous) idea -- what if World War 3 started because of warhawk-type propaganda -- coming from the US or another NATO country? In essence, there was no legitimate reason for World War 3 to have happened, other than the distorted thinking of those who wanted it? (The parallels to the Iraq War are deliberate...)

[Slappy]

It's not clear to me that there was any reason for the war to have started in canon. Sino-soviet front was a border squabble that got out of hand and the whole german reunification thing set off by a bunch of generals without enough to do.

[Webstral]

Originally Posted by Slappy

It's not clear to me that there was any reason for the war to have started in canon. Sino-soviet front was a border squabble that got out of hand and the whole german reunification thing set off by a bunch of generals without enough to do.

One might view the start of the Twilight War in much the same light as the start of WW1. The powder keg was there, just waiting to be lit by some stray spark. In much the same way that defensive technology and tactics had established dominance over offensive technology and tactics in 1914, both the Soviets in China and the Germans in Germany found that they were unable to bring their respective wars to a satisfactory conclusion with offensive action. Each offensive failure opened up opportunities for other powers with scores (real or imagined) to settle.

Webstral

[Raellus]

I know others have written pretty extensively about the forced reunification of Twilight Germany (Aunschlus [sic] anyone?) but it comes to mind that covert psyops could have played a roll in convincing some E. German units to come over to the "Unity" party.

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by Webstral

One might view the start of the Twilight War in much the same light as the start of WW1. The powder keg was there, just waiting to be lit by some stray spark. In much the same way that defensive technology and tactics had established dominance over offensive technology and tactics in 1914, both the Soviets in China and the Germans in Germany found that they were unable to bring their respective wars to a satisfactory conclusion with offensive action. Each offensive failure opened up opportunities for other powers with scores (real or imagined) to settle.

Webstral

That reminds me of a one-question final exam I once had in college: "Summarize the origins of the Cold War, starting with the Colonial Period of the 1500s." Believe it or not, there is a clear chain of events there (though it would still be a monster-sized post if I listed it here).

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

That kind of made me think of an interesting (and monstrous) idea -- what if World War 3 started because of warhawk-type propaganda -- coming from the US or another NATO country? In essence, there was no legitimate reason for World War 3 to have happened, other than the distorted thinking of those who wanted it? (The parallels to the Iraq War are deliberate...)

And here's another horrible idea for World War 3 starting: Neunundneunzig Luftballoons...

[Raellus]

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

And here's another horrible idea for World War 3 starting: Neunundneunzig Luftballoons...

LOL. The song started the war? Or was it actually 99 Red Balloons?

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by Raellus

LOL. The song started the war? Or was it actually 99 Red Balloons?

While it would be "funnier" if Nena and their singing started the war, I meant the 99 balloons -- or some other object (on the ground or in the air -- or even a Fail Safe scenario along the Iron Curtain or Chinese border where it's a sensor glitch) that everyone misinterprets.

How about a real-life ET spaceship accidentally starting the war? The ETs might feel obligated to help us recover from the war, or they could be like humans and be trying to cover up the incident so they don't get executed by their superiors.

BTW: The German version of the song is REALLY hard for me to follow -- it strains my incredibly-rusty German, and has a lot of colloquialisms in it and regional accents. Of course, trying to follow Falco's German-language songs are pretty much impossible for me...I can't rock Amadeus because I don't know what Falco's trying to tell me!

[Raellus]

Originally Posted by Mohoender

We already talk about this in a thread call T2K Propaganda. You might find some useful thoughts there.

http://forum.juhlin.com/showthread.p...ght=propaganda

Whoops. Thanks. I guess I wasn't tuned in when that thread was active.

But hey, this one adds PSYOPS to the mix.

[Mohoender]

Originally Posted by Raellus

Whoops. Thanks. I guess I wasn't tuned in when that thread was active.

But hey, this one adds PSYOPS to the mix.

It was just for you to add some more informations.

[Fusilier]

Originally Posted by Raellus

With most radios around the world either fried by EMP or with no power supply to keep them turned on, I don't see radio stuff like "Tokyo Rose" or Radio Free Europe being particularly emphasized or effective.

That isn't really any different compared to today. I supported a conference of NATO Pysops commanders a couple years ago, and listening in on their reports from different operations, it was all pretty low tech regardless of the army or the location.

It didn't matter if it was no-tech Afghanistan or high-tech Bosnia, the most popular form of media was leaflets, posters and vehicles with loudspeakers.

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by Fusilier

It didn't matter if it was no-tech Afghanistan or high-tech Bosnia, the most popular form of media was leaflets, posters and vehicles with loudspeakers.

There was a light bomber unit in the Pacific Theater of World War 2 that specialized in psyops, and they dropped a lot of leaflets (using a sort of "cluster bomb"). They nicknamed their unit the "Bullshit Bombers."