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In his introduction to the book, The Best of Cordwainer Smith, J J Pierce recounts a story about Linebarger: "While in Korea, Linebarger masterminded the surre

In his introduction to the book, The Best of Cordwainer Smith, J J Pierce recounts a story about Linebarger: "While in Korea, Linebarger masterminded the surrender of thousands of Chinese troops who considered it shameful to give up their arms. He drafted leaflets explaining how the soldiers could surrender by shouting the Chinese words for ‘love’, ‘duty’, ‘humanity’ and ‘virtue’ – words that happened, when pronounced in that order, to sound like “I surrender” in English. He considered this act the single most worthwhile thing he had done in his life." Further analysis here: https://languagehat.com/chinese-endangered/ https://languagehat.com/chinese-endangered/

082349872349872 3y ago
Linebarger is also the source of my anecdote about making it easier for german soldiers to surrender by giving them a "Surrender Form" to fill out and hand to Allied troops, with all the standard bureaucratic fields they were accustomed to in civilian life. (His Psychological Warfare is well worth reading; not only does he warn the reader up front that PSYWAR operators are not always to be taken at face value, but I believe both 1948 and 1954 versions can be easily be read between the lines as promoting racial integration in the DoD; compare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_9981 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_9981 )
- abrookewood 3y ago
  I was intrigued and looked that up. Found this which was very interesting: Paul M.A. Linebarger mentions the theory in Psychological Warfare, Infantry Journal Press, Washington D.C., 1948. He says: "Germans liked things done in an official and formal manner, even in the midst of chaos, catastrophe and defeat. The Allied obliged, and gave the Germans various forms of very official looking ‘surrender passes.’ One is printed in red and has banknote-type engraving which makes it resemble a soap-premium coupon." https://www.psywarrior.com/GermanSCP.html https://www.psywarrior.com/GermanSCP.html
  - 082349872349872 3y ago
    Looks like I'd misremembered and "General Eisenhower's personal signature" was the ticket, not having a form to fill out. Sorry! > British expert Lee Richards told me that the picture itself is propaganda. By 1943 the M unit only sent "black propaganda" into Germany and the picture is probably meant to disguise that fact and imply that they just ballooned harmless white leaflets. In fact, he adds "Looking closely at a higher resolution version of the photo you can see that just the top leaflet is the Safe Conduct, beneath it are the forged Skorpion newspapers." "White" propaganda is when you say stuff you wrote is yours; "black" when you claim it comes from the other guys. Linebarger goes at length into the problem of "source attribution", which, however difficult it was in the 1940s, can only be even more so nowadays.
  - lupire 3y ago
    The whole concept of bureaucracy itself is propaganda to convince you to that you have no choice but to submit to the bureaucracy's whims. "Computer says 'no'."
1oooqooq 3y ago
the CIA and army works like the OG fortune 500 mega corp. most of those anecdotes were likely detrimental to the good overall outcome, but they work as great promotion and effectiveness signal for some expensive team. like some google PM boasting how they sold more pixels because of some dumb feature that actually annoyed all users, and everyone just bought pixels because the competition for even worse... but saying it was because that feature gets him and his director and their vp a promotion.
lupire 3y ago
That seems to be apocryphal, with "sources" just copying other repeaters of the story. The story also doesn't seem to make sense as told. (Ironic considering the neighbor comment about source attribution.) Why would saying different words make someone willing to give up their arms? You can't "what's a dikfore" someone into surrendering.
- fractallyte 3y ago
  Linebarger understood the Chinese concept of "face": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_(sociological_concept)#Chinese https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_(sociological_concept)#Ch... Young men with guns might have been more willing to go down fighting if they'd felt their surrender was dishonorable. Linebarger's tactic "sweetened the deal", and very likely saved a lot of lives.

082349872349872 3y ago

Linebarger is also the source of my anecdote about making it easier for german soldiers to surrender by giving them a "Surrender Form" to fill out and hand to Allied troops, with all the standard bureaucratic fields they were accustomed to in civilian life. (His Psychological Warfare is well worth reading; not only does he warn the reader up front that PSYWAR operators are not always to be taken at face value, but I believe both 1948 and 1954 versions can be easily be read between the lines as promoting racial integration in the DoD; compare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_9981 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_9981 )

abrookewood 3y ago
I was intrigued and looked that up. Found this which was very interesting: Paul M.A. Linebarger mentions the theory in Psychological Warfare, Infantry Journal Press, Washington D.C., 1948. He says: "Germans liked things done in an official and formal manner, even in the midst of chaos, catastrophe and defeat. The Allied obliged, and gave the Germans various forms of very official looking ‘surrender passes.’ One is printed in red and has banknote-type engraving which makes it resemble a soap-premium coupon." https://www.psywarrior.com/GermanSCP.html https://www.psywarrior.com/GermanSCP.html
- 082349872349872 3y ago
  Looks like I'd misremembered and "General Eisenhower's personal signature" was the ticket, not having a form to fill out. Sorry! > British expert Lee Richards told me that the picture itself is propaganda. By 1943 the M unit only sent "black propaganda" into Germany and the picture is probably meant to disguise that fact and imply that they just ballooned harmless white leaflets. In fact, he adds "Looking closely at a higher resolution version of the photo you can see that just the top leaflet is the Safe Conduct, beneath it are the forged Skorpion newspapers." "White" propaganda is when you say stuff you wrote is yours; "black" when you claim it comes from the other guys. Linebarger goes at length into the problem of "source attribution", which, however difficult it was in the 1940s, can only be even more so nowadays.
- lupire 3y ago
  The whole concept of bureaucracy itself is propaganda to convince you to that you have no choice but to submit to the bureaucracy's whims. "Computer says 'no'."

1oooqooq 3y ago

the CIA and army works like the OG fortune 500 mega corp. most of those anecdotes were likely detrimental to the good overall outcome, but they work as great promotion and effectiveness signal for some expensive team. like some google PM boasting how they sold more pixels because of some dumb feature that actually annoyed all users, and everyone just bought pixels because the competition for even worse... but saying it was because that feature gets him and his director and their vp a promotion.

lupire 3y ago

That seems to be apocryphal, with "sources" just copying other repeaters of the story. The story also doesn't seem to make sense as told. (Ironic considering the neighbor comment about source attribution.) Why would saying different words make someone willing to give up their arms? You can't "what's a dikfore" someone into surrendering.

fractallyte 3y ago
Linebarger understood the Chinese concept of "face": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_(sociological_concept)#Chinese https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_(sociological_concept)#Ch... Young men with guns might have been more willing to go down fighting if they'd felt their surrender was dishonorable. Linebarger's tactic "sweetened the deal", and very likely saved a lot of lives.