Main content

US Psychological Warfare in Vietnam

Eye-witness accounts of key events in history. How the American military's Psychological Operations (PSYOP) teams waged war in Vietnam in the 1960s.

During the Vietnam war, the US army's Psychological Operations, or PSYOP, teams were deployed to battle communist Viet Cong guerillas and the North Vietnamese Army. Their goal was to try to weaken the enemy's willingness to fight. They used a variety of methods including playing spooky "Wandering Soul" tapes which preyed on local beliefs about the afterlife. Alex Last has been speaking to PSYOP veteran Rick Hofmann who was deployed to Vietnam in the late 1960s.

Available now

12 minutes

Last on

Mon 29 Jan 201812:04
BBC Radio 4

More episodes

Previous

The "Godfather of Gospel Music"

Next

The Bloody Sunday Shootings

See all episodes from Witness History

Broadcast

  • Mon 29 Jan 201812:04
    BBC Radio 4

Podcast