THE USE OF MUSIC
IN PSYCHOLOGICAL OPERATIONS 

Flying in Army helicopters they played taped music…over enemy territory. The purpose…was to draw enemy fire in order to pinpoint the location of the Viet Cong on the ground. Orbiting gunships would then swoop down for the kill…The heavy metal rock music selection by Iron Butterfly was the most effective noise for drawing enemy fire.   

Vietnam War C47 with Loudspeakers

A PSYOP Lieutenant recalls other such missions: 

I remember when the PSYOP squadron I worked for got shot up particularly bad one night while playing Robert Brown's "Fire" to the Viet Cong over the big University 1000-Watt speaker. The next night they went up again but “Spooky” flew with them. Our speaker plane flew a wide orbit playing "Fire" again, and Spooky flew opposing orbit. It was night and the speaker plane was lit up like a Christmas tree to draw attention. Spooky was blacked out. The enemy opened fire with everything they had. Spooky opened up with all three miniguns on at high cyclic rate and mysteriously all of the ground fire suddenly ceased.

Of course, it was not only the Allies that used music in Vietnam. The Communist use of music is discussed in the 7th PSYOP Group publication Communist Propaganda Trends, Issue No.608. The publication states that two song books were issued in 1966 in Hanoi. The first, “Liberating the South,” featured songs used by the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam; the second, “Vietnamese Songs,” are familiar tunes from North Vietnam.

Some of the titles of the songs in the first book are; “Ready to Struggle,” “Strike them accurately,” “O South, we are ready,” and “Ready! Fire!” As might be expected, much of the lyrics are intensely patriotic and militaristic. Examples are:

Our sea is not their pond…don’t let them soil our air…shoot them down…annihilate them...let us smash their aggressive scheme…we will force them to pay…let’s rise up and defend our bright sky…All will meet again in one home, the day of great victory.

The North Vietnamese songbook consists of 20 songs, not a single one dedicated to peace:

The songs are bulging with Communist ideas of self-reliance; dependence on Party leadership; the glorious joys of construction, whether in town or on a farm; and the intrepid qualities of Communist guerrillas.

GRENADA

Blackhawk Helicopters

On 13 March 1979, Maurice Bishop overthrew the legitimate government of Grenada and established a communist society. Grenada began construction of a 10,000 foot international airport with the help of Cuba. There was speculation that this airfield could be used to land MiG fighters, threatening South America and the southern United States. In addition, there were about 600 American medical students studying in Grenada. President Reagan called the leaders of the new government “a brutal group of leftist thugs.” On 25 October 1983, American troops landed on the beaches of Grenada assisted in part by members of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States. They were opposed by Grenadian and Cuban military units and military advisors from the Soviet Union, North Korea, East Germany, Bulgaria, and Libya.

Sergeant Jim Peterson, who served with A Company, 2nd Battalion of the 504 Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, vividly remembers returning to Salinas Airport with his unit when a UH-60 Blackhawk slowly flew overhead playing Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries from what appeared to be a loudspeaker above the wheels.  

This was one aircraft loudspeaker broadcast that, contrary to what some may have thought, was not a sanctioned PSYOP broadcast, but rather the actions of an individual UH-60 Blackhawk pilot.  The unknown pilot was apparently motivated by the classic scene from the Vietnam War movie Apocalypse Now.  

I can't say what effect, if any, that selection of music had on the Cuban soldiers, but according to Jim Peterson the musical display was well received by the US Army and Air Force personnel in the area, and boosted their spirits.

PANAMA

PSYOP Loudspeaker team

In the fall of 1989, Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega was barely clinging to power. Tensions increased when election results were voided and some voters were killed or beaten in the streets. Noriega's Dignity Battalions (irregular paramilitary units) also made a point of physically beating opposition leaders. According to the authors of Operation Just Cause, Lexington Books, NY, 1991, The U.S. Army Southern Command had logged more than one thousand incidents of harassment by the Panamanian forces since 1998. Among them, the wife of a Marine corporal was wounded when a PDF member fired a shotgun through her window. In another incident, two school buses full of American dependent children were detained by the PDF. On 16 December 1969, Panamanian soldiers killed United States Marine First Lieutenant Robert Paz. Paz and three other Southern Command officers, traveling in a private automobile off duty in civilian clothes and unarmed, were stopped by a PDF roadblock near the Comandancia (the PDF's central headquarters complex) after getting lost on the way to a downtown restaurant. The same night the PDF detained and assaulted a Navy Lieutenant and his wife. 

The campaign to free Panama of Noriega and his dignity battalions was named Operation Just Cause. The invasion took place on 20 December 1989. The six major mission tasks were to Protect U.S. lives and key sites and facilities, Capture and deliver Noriega to competent authority, Neutralize PDF forces, Neutralize PDF command and control, Support establishment of a U.S.-recognized government in Panama, and Restructure the PDF.  

As resistance crumbled, President Bush offered a one million dollar reward for the capture of Noriega. On Christmas Eve, the general entered a Toyota sedan flying the papal flag and fled to the Vatican nunciature (embassy) where he requested refuge and sanctuary. One of the most famous episodes of the campaign happened during the period that Noriega hid in the Vatican embassy. The United States PSYOP troops surrounded the embassy and played loud music. The newspapers and magazines all believed that this was some kind of subtle sonic torture. They had a field day. The Associated Press said: 

These guys are the fingernails on the blackboard…broadcast U.S. propaganda from bullhorns and blast rock music at the Vatican Embassy where Manuel Noriega was taking refuge, hoping to unnerve him. 

The Washington Post News Service said: 

With U.S. troops at the Vatican embassy continuing to wage psychological warfare against Noriega by blaring rock music over loudspeakers and greeting him with a hearty "Gooood Morning Panama," the general's small circle of supporters shrank further…. 

Newsday critic Marvin Kitman said: 

During the following days, what is surely the most ridiculous psychological operation in U.S. history took place outside the embassy. High-power loudspeakers blasted rock music at the building. 

What has amazed me over the years is the number of authors and researchers that have written and asked for the music played during the siege. I receive about two such requests a year. I have no idea why that is so interesting, but must point out that there was no special selection of particularly awful mind-numbing music selected by the psywarriors to quickly drive Noriega into the open. In fact, just regular popular music of the times was played; whatever the troops had in their personal possession or whatever was requested or played by the local radio stations. 

The military radio station has stated that prior to the 26th they had played various requests from the troops; the Marines asked for “Welcome to the Jungle,” the canine handlers requested Billy Idol’s “Flesh for Fantasy,” and the Special Forces wanted the Door’s “Strange Days.” Other calls were for patriotic songs like Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” and hard rock songs like “We’re Not Gonna Take It” by Twisted Sister.  

On the 25th the station played Christmas music. 

On the 27th with Noriega now located the station received a call from an individual identifying himself as a PSYOP trooper from Ft. Bragg. It is not clear if that PSYOP team member requested specific songs or simply informed the station that their music was being blared over loudspeakers outside the Papal building. The end result was that for the next day or two the station played a lot of rock and roll. The requested play list is at least 95 songs long and contains such favorites as; “Born to run,” “Bring down the hammer,” “Dancing in the Streets,” “Hang ‘Em High,” “I Fought the Law and the Law Won,” “Judgment Day,” “Nowhere to Run,” “Run Like Hell,” “The Party’s Over,” “They’re Coming to Take Me Away,” “Wanted Dead or Alive” and “Your Time is Gonna Come.” 

By the 29th the station had ceased playing requests and returned to playing the “Top Forty” From Billboard’s “Top 100.” 

PSYOP Teams outside of Vatican Embassy

A report written at the time of the Noriega surrender stated: 

SCN (Southern Command Network) Radio, which had been broadcasting for the Army Broadcasting Service since 1941, increased its FM schedule at the start of the invasion on December 20, 1989. It was primarily on the air to support troop morale by taking requests and playing Armed Forces Radio, CNN, and ABC programming, but on December 27 after Noriega took refuge in the Vatican Embassy, PSYOPS began blaring it through mobile loudspeakers outside of the embassy compound. Noriega was known to love opera and hated rock music with a passion, so U.S. soldiers began making requesting songs that had a “musical message” for (him)... either by the words or the song title. Songs broadcast included such titles as "I Fought the Law and the Law Won," "If I Had a Rocket Launcher," "You're Messin' with a SOB," "Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down," and "Nowhere to Run."  

The Operation Just Cause After-Action Report says: 

When Noriega found his way into the Papal Nunciature, the song requests were almost totally aimed in his direction. Christmas Day, only Christmas music was played, but people still called in asking for musical requests with a message. The following day, the “requests” were played and the phones were constantly ringing with some very imaginative requests…Realizing the network was not really serving its audience well, it went back to a mixed music format and remained so. As a result of the attention SCN received over the music programming, the station received requests for interviews from about 45 radio and television stations, magazines and newspapers. During each of these interviews DJs repeatedly stressed that PSYOP is not a part of the AFRTS charter.

So, although it is interesting to read all these comments about special music played to drive Noriega out into the open, we know that the loud music had nothing to do with harassing or chasing Noriega out of the Embassy. The noise was simply to allow delicate negotiations to continue inside without being overheard by the press, waiting outside by the hundreds with their parabolic microphones and dishes aimed at the embassy windows. In fact, General Marc Cisneros (Commander of the U.S. Army South) and the highest-ranking Latino in the Army played a major role in the negotiations and was the man who talked General Manuel Noriega out of the embassy. 

Noriega surrendered to U.S. authorities on 3 January 1990. He was transported to Miami, Florida, where he was tried in 1992 and convicted of drug trafficking, money laundering, and eight counts of racketeering. He received a 40-year prison sentence and is presently in a federal prison in Miami.  

OPERATION DESERT STORM

In 1990 the United Nations passed a resolution that allowed military force to be used against Saddam Hussein to drive his occupying troops out of Kuwait. A Coalition was formed that was able to free Kuwait after several months of aerial warfare and 100 hours of ground warfare. Once again we find young American troops using music as they went into battle.

Desert Storm Humvee with Loudspeaker

There are at least three cases where PSYOP troops used music during Desert Shield/Desert Storm. During the initial ground attack across the border, the Army advanced to loudspeaker broadcasts of “The Ride of the Valkyries,” reminiscent of the movie “Apocalypse Now.” A day later the United States Marines crossed the Saudi-Kuwait barrier as PSYOP loudspeakers played “The Marine Hymn.” At the end of the brief war, a PSYOP team searched for a suitable victory song to play as the guns fell silent. Perhaps the signature song of Operation Desert Storm was Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” but it was unavailable. As a result, the final song of the war played by PSYOP loudspeakers was James Brown’s ‘I feel good.”

Leaflet C02

Early in the deployment four different Coalition propaganda leaflets were prepared on cardboard. The leaflets are very handsome and sturdy, but it was found that they did not disseminate well when air-dropped. The leaflets show all the flags of the coalition nations on one side in full color. The first airdrop of 113,000 leaflets was on the night of 12 January 1991. One of the four Coalition propaganda leaflets used music as part of its theme. The card depicts an Iraqi soldier carrying Saddam Hussein on his back. A sign reads, “Shatt al Arab.” A black crow on the card is an evil omen. The text is a parody of popular Iraqi song telling of a man's difficulties with his love:

I crossed the Shatt al Arab as you wished, and I obeyed your orders. I feel death at the door, and I feel I am at my last breath, and I sigh deeply.

When I first showed this leaflet to my Arab interpreter he began humming the tune. He recognized it immediately.

In early October and November of 1990 the Coalition broadcast to the Iraqis utilizing vehicular mounted transmitters. The 4th PSYOP broadcast initiative  consisted of Voice of the Gulf transmissions, which broadcast 18 hours per day on AM and FM frequencies.  The  station's format consisted primarily of regional  Arabic  music. The abundance of music was designed to hold Iraqi and Kuwaiti target audiences' attention, with only periodic interruption with selected script read by a native Kuwaiti broadcaster. 

OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM

Afghan listening to radio broadcast

After the American attack on Afghanistan in 2001 in retaliation for the al-Qaida terrorist action against the World Trade Center, it was discovered that the Taliban had forbidden music and dancing. The Coalition immediately made the decision to play music from the various PSYOP aerial and ground radio stations in an attempt to win the trust and gratitude of the Afghan people. The campaign is discussed by Peter J. Smyczek in “Regulating the battlefield of the future: the legal limitations on the conduct of psychological operations under public international law,” Air Force Law Review, winter 2005:

American soldiers often employ creative tactics such as using loud and aggressive American pop-culture at the tactical level to frighten or intimidate enemy fighters. During the first ground campaign in Afghanistan, American soldiers played the heavy metal song "Let the Bodies Hit the Floor" by the heavy metal band Drowning Pool as they were being deployed via helicopter.

The EC-130 Command Solo

Interim President Karzai had told the Americans very early that their broadcasts needed to be better. ARSOF in Afghanistan notes:

The Pashtun leader knew that radio broadcasts in various dialects would have a greater effect than leaflets. He had listened to the programs broadcast by the Air Force EC- 130 Commando Solo aircraft and told MAJ Barstow that the music was very effective, but the BBC and VOA had better-quality programs. Karzai urged Barstow [Major, C Company, 9th Psychological Operations Battalion] to make the messages more forceful.

The radio specialists among the American psychological operations teams kept working on the problem and trying to make their product better and more palatable to the Afghans. A number of articles in the Newspaper Stars and Stripes seem to indicate that their dedication to excellence has paid off. The issue of 10 April 2002 discusses the initial PSYOP radio station:

Beginning in November 2001, a modified C-130 aircraft dubbed Commando Solo began blasting U.S. messages and local music on airwaves across Afghanistan.

U.S. planes also dropped tons of leaflets to market the informational radio programming to the Afghans. Tactical PSYOPS teams and nongovernmental organizations distributed nearly 5,000 radios to civilians across the country. On March 8, PSYOPS soldiers in Bagram and Kandahar went on the air. The eight-man team now broadcasts round the clock. 

Using hour long formats like commercial stations, news and information is broken up by blocks of Afghan music. And of course, the news is all good. What locals really like is the music, and they tell the team how the Taliban kept most music on the forbidden list. From Bagram, PSYOPS radio extends about 30 miles, and begins breaking up at the outskirts of Kabul. The short wave broadcast can reach the entire country depending on weather conditions.

A member of the 8th Psychological Operations Battalion,
shows some of the Afghan music CDs that
the battalion's radio station from Kandahar Airfield.

The Stars and Stripes issue of 31 July 2002 points out that the 8th Psychological Operations Battalion is broadcasting Afghan music from the battalion's radio station at Kandahar Airfield. They regularly broadcast the music of Naghma & Mangal, Khaliq Aziz and Ahmed Zahir, some of hottest pop artists and musicians in Afghanistan. Some of the article says:

When the Taliban ruled, radios were forbidden. However, some people hid them in their house and huddled around at night to listen to the BBC or Pakistan programming. Soldiers with the 8th Psychological Operation Battalion operate the mobile 5,000-watt radio station — which has a range of about 20 miles — from a small group of tents. Ninety-percent of the programming is pure Afghan music, including some dance, contemporary and folk music.

OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM

The use of music as part of a PSYOP campaign was used again In Iraq. It is discussed by Peter J. Smyczek in “Regulating the battlefield of the future: the legal limitations on the conduct of psychological operations under public international law,” Air Force Law Review, winter 2005:

During the November 2004 battle of Fallujah, Marine Humvees with loudspeakers blasted the song “Back in Black,” by the heavy metal band AC/DC, during the fighting. There were also reports that the Americans “played the cavalry charge and loud sonar pings, along with the sounds of maniacal laughter and babies wailing.” Another tactic employed in the battle for Fallujah was disrupting the insurgent’s ability to rally their troops by playing high-pitched whines from loudspeakers whenever the insurgents issued their calls to arms over their own loudspeakers. These often ad hoc tactics are meant to frighten and disrupt the minds of the enemy and may be especially effective among certain cultures. For example, during interrogations of Iraqi fighters, American interrogators played the song "Enter Sandman" by the heavy metal group Metallica. The interrogators reported that this was an especially effective interrogation tool.

U.S. Army CPL Joseph Yurisich of the 9th PSYOP Battalion
mans a machine gun at a checkpoint outside Fallujah, 20 April 2004.

When the Marines were unable to advance farther into Fallujah, an Army psychological operations team attached to the Marine battalion played messages from a loudspeaker mounted on a Humvee along with selections from Jimi Hendrix. When the firing stopped, they played sound effects of babies crying, men screaming, a symphony of cats and barking dogs and piercing screeches.

On another occasion, the Associated Press reported that U.S. troops were blasting AC/DC’s "Hell's Bells" and other rock music full volume from a huge speaker, hoping to grate on the nerves of enemy gunmen.

PSYOP Loudspeaker Team in Iraq

PSYOP units supporting light infantry in urban assaults played motivational rock music during the assault, to provide a distraction to the enemy, cover any noises made by the infantry, and provide inspiration for the assaulting troops.

Mark Hadsell is an Army Reservist with the 361st Psychological Operations Unit. He led a mobile, three-man PSYOP team in Iraq from February 2003 until April 2004. Music was a valuable tool in his team’s arsenal:

Going out on missions, it’s a good attention-getter. If we were going into a hostile situation, room-clearing or house-entering, we’d play, say, [Drowning Pool’s] ‘Bodies’ or [Dope’s] ‘Die Motherfucker Die.’ Once we had the house surrounded, we’d start cranking the music outside. You had to pump up the people you were with and instill fear into the enemy.

Hadsell and his team made a special mix CD for such missions that he titled “OIF Hate Music.” Other tracks included Deicide’s “Fuck Your God,” Saliva’s “Click Click Boom,” Pantera’s “Avoid The Light,” Tool’s “Sober,” and Godsmack’s “Voodoo."

MUSIC INTERROGATION AND INTIMIDATION

My only interest in music in warfare is the legitimate military use of sound as a weapon against an armed enemy. However, since the start of the “War on Terror” there have been hundreds, if not thousands of allegations of music used as a form of “touchless torture” during interrogations. Some of the stories might be true, others are patently false. However, I think we should take a quick look at some of the comments that have been said or written about this practice.

By 2008 there was talk about the American treatment of terrorists and the use of music to disorientate them. The website Motherjones.com stated:

Music has been used in American military prisons and on bases to induce sleep deprivation, "prolong capture shock," and to disorient detainees during interrogations. Based on a leaked interrogation log, news reports, and the accounts of soldiers and detainees, here are some of the songs that guards and interrogators chose.  

  1. White America – Eminem.
  2. Barney theme song.
  3. Enter Sandman – Mettalica.
  4. Hells Bells – AC/DC.
  5. Stayin Alive – Bee Gees.
  6. Dirrty – Christina Aguilera.
  7. America – Neil Diamond.
  8. Bulls on Parade – Rage Against the Machine.
  9. American Pie – Don McLean.
10. Bodies – Drowning pool.

I don’t want to go into any great detail because author David Peisner discussed this subject in some depth in an article entitled “War is Loud,” Spin Magazine, December 2006. I spoke to David in 2006 and gave him some background data on the use of music in wartime, and he wrote about its use in Operation Iraqi Freedom for interrogation purposes. With his permission I am going to liberally quote or paraphrase some of his article.

Shafiq Rasul was captured around October of 2001 in Afghanistan by a Northern Alliance militia, and then transferred to U.S. custody. Sometime in 2003, the Americans found a videotape apparently showing Rasul sitting in on an August 2000 meeting with Osama bin Laden and 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta.

Shortly afterwards he was led from his cell at the Camp Delta detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to a small, drab interrogation booth. An interrogator walked into the booth, pressed play on a nearby stereo and walked out. Rasul immediately recognized the sound coming from the speakers: It was Eminem’s “Kim.” The next day he was brought into the room it was pitch dark except for the irregular flashes of a strobe light. Eminem had been replaced by extremely loud, menacing rock music. He was left there for hours. After three weeks the interrogation was successful. He confessed to everything he was accused of. However, Rasul couldn’t have been with bin Laden because he was attending university at the time of the meeting. In early 2004, he was released from Guantanamo without charges. It is clear that the use of sound will break a prisoner, but it seems that it might cause him to confess to crimes that he did not commit.

To give both sides of the story, we should mention a former operative named “Tom” who cautions against taking ex-detainees at their word concerning their treatment in U.S. custody, noting that they’ve learned to “exploit the media.” In particular, he calls Shafiq Rasul, whom he interrogated in Guantanamo, “a lying sack of shit.”  

Tom said that at Guantanamo Bay, some PSYOP soldiers convinced the guards to play Neil Diamond’s “Coming to America” over the loudspeakers in an attempt to keep the prisoners agitated and from talking to one another:

The results were an unmitigated disaster. It just about caused an all-out riot. Strict interpreters of Islam are forbidden from listening to music. The whole place basically erupted.

Tom continued:

The hardest cases to break are those guys that sit there and smugly smile because they know we’re not going to beat them up or rip their fingernails out. So we use music to keep them disoriented, from knowing what time it is, from communicating with other people or hearing sounds that would help orient them.

Over the last five years, music has quietly become a valued tool in the War on Terror. The list of artists reportedly drafted to help break down prisoners for interrogation includes Metallica, Drowning Pool, Marilyn Manson, Rage Against The Machine and rap artists such as Tupac Shakur, Eminem, and Dr. Dre, but also sprinkled with pop stars such as Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears, classic rock bands like Aerosmith and Meatloaf and some head-scratching oddities like the Stanley Brothers and Barney The Dinosaur.

If the military had its own version of the People’s Choice Awards, Drowning Pool would bring home hardware every year. Nearly every interrogator and soldier mentioned the band’s 2001 hit “Bodies” with its wild-eyed chorus, “Let the bodies hit the floor!” as a favorite for both psyching up American soldiers and psyching out enemies and captives. Some might view this as a rather dubious mark of distinction, but Drowning Pool bassist Stevie Benton isn’t among them:

People assume we should be offended that somebody in the military thinks our song is annoying enough that played over and over it can psychologically break someone down, I take it as an honor to think that perhaps our song could be used to quell another 9/11 attack or something like that.

CONCLUSION

Will music continue to be used in psychological operations of the future? There is no doubt of it. NATO Psychological Operations Doctrine says:

The first task of a loudspeaker message is to gain and hold the attention of the target audience. Means of achieving this include the use of jingles, local music…

[In radio operations] A wide range of program formats are available to the broadcaster, including drama, music, news, talks and discussions. Careful target analysis will make it possible to identify and exploit those types of program which are most favored by the intended audience.

I really never thought much about the use of music in warfare but over the past few years I have received a dozen or more letters from various individuals, many of which were PhD candidates or other intellectuals, all asking about music as a force multiplier. I finally decided that there was enough interest in this strange subject to write a short story about it. I am sure there are many military personnel out there that have stories of using music on the attack, the keep the enemy awake and demoralized, or to disorientate him. I ask those people to write and tell me their story. The author can be reached at Sgmbert@hotmail.com.