Operation Wandering Soul (Vietnam War)

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For the 1993 novel by Richard Powers, see Operation Wandering Soul (novel).
Ghost Tape Number Ten
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Operation Wandering Soul was a propaganda campaign and psychological warfare effort exercised by U.S. forces during the Vietnam War. It was an attempt to increase desertions and defections from Việt Cộng forces and weaken their morale.

Psychological warfare campaign

Like most cultures, Vietnamese culture includes beliefs and rituals that show respect for the dead. Vietnamese culture calls for a proper burial and it is believed that if this does not occur, the soul of the deceased continues to wander the earth thus becoming a "Wandering Soul," equivalent to a ghost or spirit.[1]

It is the Vietnamese belief that the dead must be buried in their homeland, or their soul will wander aimlessly in pain and suffering. Vietnamese feel that if a person is improperly buried, then their soul wanders constantly. They can sometimes be contacted on the anniversary of their death and near where they died. Vietnamese honor these dead souls on a holiday when they return to the site where they died. The U.S. used this to their advantage and tried to trick the Viet-Congs into leaving by playing the audio recording of their dead friends wandering around.[1]

Voice recordings

U.S. engineers spent weeks recording eerie sounds and altered voices, which acted roles of slain Việt Cộng soldiers. The United States of America also brought in South Vietnamese soldiers to record their audio sayings over the tape for further authenticity. The tape, dubbed Ghost Tape Number Ten, was played on loudspeakers in areas of Việt Cộng activity, generally at night.[2] Helicopters were also deployed at times to broadcast recordings[3] in which the pre-recorded voices called on their "descendants" in the Việt Cộng to defect and cease fighting. The United States would also use patrol boats going up and down the river playing the ghost tape. The United States would also deploy special infantry to infiltrate enemy lines and play the recording too. Most of these types of operations did take place at night.

The United States understood the potential effectiveness of using ghost sounds on the Việt Cộng as they were many different types of ghosts within their folklore and culture, all of them with different names and meanings. The ghost that were mentioned in their folklore is, "Ma chó" which dealt with the ghost of dogs. Another one was "Ma mèo" or the cat ghost. Some ghosts that were more malicious than others, such as the "tightening-knot ghost", which was used to convince Vietnamese troops to commit suicide after whispering "cổ cổ", translating to neck in Vietnamese.[citation needed] The United States would also use North Việt Cộng soldiers who had defected to talk into loudspeakers to convince others to defect and join them. The ghost tapes were hard to ignore as they were so loud the sound would travel underground through the Việt Cộng secret underground tunnels.

Defections

An example of the ghost tape being used effectively, was when the 6th Psychological Operations Battalion[4] mixed an authentic tiger roar during a time when North Việt Cộng soldiers were being attacked by tigers near a mountain. The 6th PSYOP got their information from a Việt Cộng defector by the name of Chiêu Hồi. With this information and a new recording, they sent soldiers behind enemy lines up a mountain passage with the task of playing this new ghost tape. After the 6th PSYOP played this recording, reportedly 150 Việt Cộng soldiers decided to leave their position on the mountain in fear of being killed by tigers. That is just one of many examples of the ghost tape being used effectively.[citation needed]

The overall success of these ghost tapes was mixed, because in the event that the Việt Cộng soldiers knew it was just a recording, their immediate response would be to fire upon where the sound was coming from, which in turn revealed their hidden positions within the jungle. The United States ultimately stopped Ghost 10 in the early 1970's.[5]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b SGM Herbert A. Friedman (Ret.) (December 31, 2005). "The Wandering Soul". Patrol Craft Fast. Robert B. Shirley. Retrieved 2006-11-29.
  2. ^ Hoyt, Alia (May 16, 2017). "Ghost Tape No. 10: The Haunted Mixtape of the Vietnam War". HowStuffWorks. Retrieved December 16, 2018.
  3. ^ The Quiet Mutiny, by John Pilger
  4. ^ "6th Psychological Operations Battalion | Lineage and Honors | U.S. Army Center of Military History". history.army.mil. Retrieved 2021-11-21.
  5. ^ "Operation Wandering Soul – Ghost Tape Number 10 and the Haunted Jungles of Vietnam". MilitaryHistoryNow.com. 2013-10-30. Retrieved 2021-11-21.

Bibliography

  • Hoyt, Alia. "Ghost Tape No. 10: The Haunted Mixtape of the Vietnam War".[1] HowStuffWorks. Retrieved 21 November 2021.

External links

  1. ^ "Ghost Tape No. 10: The Haunted Mixtape of the Vietnam War". HowStuffWorks. 2017-05-16. Retrieved 2021-11-21.
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