US Army drops 'psy ops' name

[jd in .hu]

Army drops 'psy ops' name for influence operations
July 2, 2010 - 5:55pm
By KEVIN MAURER
Associated Press Writer
http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=104&sid=1994457

WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) - The Army has dropped the Vietnam-era name
"psychological operations" for its branch in charge of trying to
change minds behind enemy lines, acknowledging the term can sound
ominous.

The Defense Department picked a more neutral moniker: "Military
Information Support Operations," or MISO.

U.S. Special Operations Command spokesman Ken McGraw said Thursday the
new name, adopted last month, more accurately reflects the unit's job
of producing leaflets, radio broadcasts and loudspeaker messages to
influence enemy soldiers and civilians.

"One of the catalysts for the transition is foreign and domestic
sensitivities to the term 'psychological operations' that often lead
to a misunderstanding of the mission," McGraw said.

Fort Bragg is home to the 4th Psychological Operations Group, the
Army's only active duty psychological operations unit. Psychological
operations soldiers are trained at the post.

The name change is expected to extend to all military services, a
senior defense official said in Washington. The official, who has
direct knowledge of the change, spoke on condition of anonymity
because not all services have announced how they will revamp or rename
their psychological operations offices.

The change was driven from the top, by Pentagon policymakers working
for Defense Secretary Robert Gates. It reflects unease with the Cold
War echoes of the old terminology, and the implication that the work
involved subterfuge.

The change, however, left some current practitioners of psychological
operations cold. Gone is the cool factor, posters to online military
blogs said. With a name like MISO, one wrote, you might as well join
the supply command.

Alfred H. Paddock, Jr., a retired colonel who was Director for
Psychological Operations in the Office of the Secretary of Defense
from 1986 to 1988, said the term has always had some baggage and been
difficult to explain.

"Somehow it gives a nefarious connotation, but I think that this
baggage can be overcome," said Paddock, who also served three combat
tours with Special Forces in Laos and Vietnam.

He said the military was giving in to political correctness by
changing the name.

Psychological operations have been cast as spooky in movies and books
over the years portraying the soldiers as master manipulators. The
2009 movie "The Men Who Stare at Goats," staring George Clooney, was
about an army unit that trains psychic spies, based on Jon Ronson's
nonfiction account of the U.S. military's hush-hush research into
psychic warfare and espionage.

But the real mission is far more mundane. During the 2003 invasion of
Iraq, psychological operations units dropped leaflets urging Iraqis to
surrender.

In Vietnam, a psychological operations effort called the Open Arms
Program bombarded Viet Cong units with surrender appeals written by
former members. The program got approximately 200,000 Viet Cong
fighters to defect.

McGraw said the name change was approved by Defense Secretary Robert
Gates and Adm. Eric Olson, the Special Operations commander, in mid-
June.

Many in the psychological operations community, including Paddock,
dislike the new name.

"Military Information Support Operations, or MISO, is not something
that rolls off the tip of your tongue," Paddock said. "It makes it
even more difficult for psychological operations personnel to explain
what they do. That they still have the capability to employ programs
and themes designed to influence the behavior of foreign target
audiences."

___

Associated Press writer Anne Gearan in Washington contributed to this
report.