A not so secret weapon, PSYWAR (psychological warfare), was added to the United States Air Force’s arsenal during the Korean War. A unit was created to design propaganda projectiles, determine targets, and suggest the means to deliver them to the enemy. It was a strategic effort aimed not at the North Korean troops in the field, but at the real enemy, the Soviet Union. This account reveals the men selected to man this force, the way they were trained, and how they performed. This “war of words” was at times effective, occasionally frustrating, always dedicated, and even humorous when it was better to laugh than to complain. It was a battle of brains not bullets, and the victory may have been won many years later.

Dead Reckoning, Alan Abner’s account of a tour of aerial combat in WWII with the 357th Fighter Group in England against the Nazi Luftwaffe ended in 1946. After V Day and a four-year respite from the military, the former fighter pilot was recalled to active duty by the United States Air Force to wage a war of words against Russia’s Kremlin propagandists who were supporting their proxy forces in Korea.

Again, USAF reserve officers were recalled from their civilian careers to serve their country in a “Police Action” that to many was just another war. The USAF psywarriors that were assembled consisted of experts from the cream of the 1950 college ROTC graduates, M.A.s, M.S.s, and Ph.D.s from the fields of psychology, economics, history, and linguistics. They were possibly amateurs compared to the Russian spindoctors who had propagated the communist myths for half a century throughout the world. But the psywarriors’ impact on the progress of the conflict, though immeasurable, perhaps heralded the beginning of a modified way to fight future tyranny. Today, spin-doctors are alive and well, and are active in current domestic political contests.