How a Free Society Can Protect Itself from Psychological Warfare

By William A. Levinson

Niccolò Machiavelli and Sun Tzu both wrote that it is the duty of a prince to study warfare because his nation's survival might depend on it. Colonel Paul Linebarger's Psychological Warfare (1954) added the same of his science: "Yet success, though incalculable, can be overwhelming; and failure, though undetectable, can be mortal." All citizens in a free society need to understand psychological warfare to protect their property, their freedom, and possibly their lives from tiny self-serving minorities and even lunatic fringe organizations. "Scientists discover tipping point for the spread of ideas" explains how a handful of Nazis could gain control of an advanced, civilized, and educated nation like Germany. "Researchers have found that minority rules; when only ten percent of the public holds a firm opinion, the majority will always follow." Linebarger, however, set the figure at two percent: The Communists had shown that an organization calling itself a party, actually a quasi-religious hierarchy with strong internal discipline, definite membership, and active organizational components, could control fifty times its own.... (Read Full Article)