GHOST TAPE NUMBER 10: OPERATION WANDERING SOUL
Operation Wandering Soul was a propaganda campaign run by US forces during the Vietnam War.
The Americans hoped that psychological warfare would let them exploit a fear held by many Vietnamese and break the morale of the Viet Cong.
The operation was built on the idea of the “wandering soul” in Vietnamese culture. It holds that the dead must be buried in their home soil, because otherwise their souls roam aimlessly, tormented by pain and suffering. According to the belief, they can be visited on the anniversary of their death near the place where they died. Vietnamese people honor these dead souls on a holiday by returning to the spot where they were killed. The US wanted to turn that to their own advantage and simulate exactly these wandering souls to push the Viet Cong into giving up.
Engineers of the 6th Psychological Operations Battalion (PSYOP) spent weeks recording eerie, distorted sounds in an echo chamber, among them Buddhist funeral music and the voices of ghosts of Viet Cong fighters killed in the field. The idea was to unsettle the enemy so that he would abandon his positions and fall back or give up out of fear and demoralization. The tape, called “Ghost Tape Number Ten”, was played over portable loudspeakers outside the US bases, and sometimes from helicopters.
The Ghost Tape was reportedly so effective that the Americans were not allowed to play the recordings when friendly South Vietnamese were nearby. How much the operation actually achieved is unknown. When the Viet Cong heard the recordings they usually opened fire, or were fired on themselves, which distorted the results.
The Americans hoped that psychological warfare would let them exploit a fear held by many Vietnamese and break the morale of the Viet Cong.
The operation was built on the idea of the “wandering soul” in Vietnamese culture. It holds that the dead must be buried in their home soil, because otherwise their souls roam aimlessly, tormented by pain and suffering. According to the belief, they can be visited on the anniversary of their death near the place where they died. Vietnamese people honor these dead souls on a holiday by returning to the spot where they were killed. The US wanted to turn that to their own advantage and simulate exactly these wandering souls to push the Viet Cong into giving up.
Engineers of the 6th Psychological Operations Battalion (PSYOP) spent weeks recording eerie, distorted sounds in an echo chamber, among them Buddhist funeral music and the voices of ghosts of Viet Cong fighters killed in the field. The idea was to unsettle the enemy so that he would abandon his positions and fall back or give up out of fear and demoralization. The tape, called “Ghost Tape Number Ten”, was played over portable loudspeakers outside the US bases, and sometimes from helicopters.
The Ghost Tape was reportedly so effective that the Americans were not allowed to play the recordings when friendly South Vietnamese were nearby. How much the operation actually achieved is unknown. When the Viet Cong heard the recordings they usually opened fire, or were fired on themselves, which distorted the results.
The propaganda operation also included leaflets like this one:
The owls are calling for the souls of the Viet Cong
These wandering souls with nowhere to go
Who spread countless horrors among the people
These wandering souls died in nameless graves
RETURN [to the national government] OR DIE
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