Robert Alexis McClure Quotes

The dissemination of propaganda designed to undermine the enemy's will to resist, demoralize his forces and sustain the morale of our supporters

Leaflet operations should be expanded to obtain maximum practicable psychological effect on the North Vietnamese population.

Attacking does not merely consist in assaulting walled cities or striking at an army in battle array; it must include the art of assailing the enemy's mental equilibrium

Osama bin Laden is a better propagandist than Karen Hughes …. It is not enough to win a war on the ground any more. You have to win the battle of perceptions.

Wars are won in people’s minds. The Army must think it won and the people decide.

It wasn't a new idea. During the war against the French we had this kind of broadcast for the French soldiers.

The greatest weapon in an ideological war is words.

In political warfare, you do not fight to prevail in an argument, but to destroy the enemy's fighting ability.

In war everything is uncertain, and calculations have to be made with variable quantities …. all military action is intertwined with psychological forces and effects.

Public opinion wins war. I have always considered as quasi-staff officers, correspondents accredited to my headquarters.

Terrorism is a strategy of provocation.

There are no civilians in 21st-century warfare because the hottest battlefield is the public mind. The front runs between your ears, between your neighbor’s, between mine. The enemy’s objective (and the enemies are numerous) is to capture our thoughts and convictions. Belief is an immensely potent prize.

Reflexive control is a 'uniquely Russian' technique of psychological manipulation through disinformation. The idea is to feed your adversary a set of assumptions that will produce a predictable response: That response, in turn, furthers a goal that advances your interests.

In war, the moral element and public opinion are half the battle.

Without a doubt, psychological warfare has proven its right to a place of dignity in our military arsenal.

It's often been observed that the first casualty of war is the truth. But that's a lie, too, in its way. The reality is that, for most wars to begin, the truth has to have been sacrificed a long time in advance.

All governments in all wars have used all the means at their disposal to put their own motives, decisions and actions, and the actions of their military forces, in the best possible light.

You will not have to make war there only with arms, but also with public opinion

In a war, as indeed at most times, we become the ready victims of phrases.

Our propaganda did a lot to break the Wops --- as their emissaries admit --- now we have to turn it on the Germans

In wartime, truth is so precious that she should be attended by a bodyguard of lies.

The aim of war now is not to defeat your enemy – that’s probably impossible – but to change the way he and his supporters think.

Food is as important to armies as ammunition—but more important than either is an unfailing supply of lies. You simply cannot murder your enemy in the most efficient manner if you know he is in every essential the same kind of a man as yourself.

No military tactic is unreasonable if it can further destroy enemy morale and quickly.

Terrour ... makes short warres