Psychological Warfare and Propaganda - Bianca Lawson

Psychological warfare is the militarized use of psychological techniques such as propaganda and threats to intimidate, demoralize, and influence the thinking, behavior, and morale of the enemy during war. This military tactic was used both against the north Vietnamese and it was also used by anti-war groups back in America. During the Vietnam war, American forces enacted "Operation Wandering Soul". The Vietnamese belief was that in order for your soul to be at rest, you have to be buried in your homeland and given a proper burial. The American forces played off this belief and recorded eerie sounds along with voices that were supposed to be dead Vietcong that were not buried properly due to being killed in battle. They would fly helicopters with mounted speakers around the Vietcong, and if they shot at the speakers the helicopter you fire back. The purpose of this was to instill a sense of hopelessness and fear, which would convince the Vietcong soldiers that heard it to flee and give up.During the war, propaganda was used back at home by unit-war groups to try and stop Americans from supporting the war. Pro-war propaganda was also used to try to encourage Americans to support the war. This was found most common found in the form of advertisements and music. The use of these methods are significant to the Vietnam war because it played a large role in the outcome. Both the anti-war and pro-war propaganda greatly swayed the Americans opinions on the war. The use of psychological warfare, when successful, also gave the American forces an advantage in battles. 

Vietnam anti-war propaganda 

Sources: 
http://www.pcf45.com/sealords/cuadai/wanderingsoul.html