Operation Wandering Soul: A Bone-Chilling Tale
One of the most active and fascinating periods of time with notable use of psychological warfare tactics was the Vietnam War.
We could go on for hours about the conflict's affinity for producing stories stranger than fiction, but we want to talk about one that's 100% real, and 100% spooky.
Spooktacular Psyops
Before we dive into American usage of audio warfare in Vietnam, we wanted to share an interesting anecdote we pulled from the top of an excellent article on psywarrior.com written by Sergeant Major Herbert A. Friedman.
Much of the basis of psychological warfare tactics used in Vietnam preyed on the alleged superstitions of the people in the area, one of which was the belief in a so called "Wandering Soul". In short, if you die and you're not buried in your homeland, you will remain on earth as an apparition, wandering around in pain and suffering, haunting all those you stumble upon.
Much like many western traditions of speaking to the dead, the superstition also says that they can be contacted on the anniversary of their death near the spot that they died. There's even a holiday that honors the souls on the day they return, the Vu Lan (Wandering Souls) festival, second only to the holiday "Tet" for being a big 'ol party.
Vu Lan's festivities and traditions would return souls trapped in hell to their home safely, visit families, and guide them to Nirvana (not the band) by floating candles & lights down a river.
This mirrors a lot of traditions and beliefs around the world, but a peculiar wartime similarity was apparent in South Africa, where Sgt. Major Friedman reported that Marxist SWAPO (Southwest Africa People's Organization) guerillas believed in much of the same folklore, and they would drop leaflets that said:
"You will be killed, and a hyena will eat your bones".
The belief was, if someone was buried by their family, they would become honored ancestors. If they weren't, a Hyena would devour their corpse, and they'd be sent to their version of hell.
Ghost Tape #10
Leaflets have been distributed and dropped out of aircraft to perform psychological warfare for as long as there's been aircraft. Everywhere from the beaches of Dunkirk to the jungles of Vietnam and the sands of Iraq have been littered with psyop leaflets preying on many of the local beliefs to get soldiers to surrender or betray their side.
Then we broke out the speakers.
The 6th PSYOP battalion would strap loudspeakers to hueys, carry them on the backs of patrolmen, and on boats down the 'delta. Sometimes, they'd simply play in the general direction of Charlie.
What did it sound like? The most famous tape, known as Ghost Tape #10, can be listened to here:
Or listen to the audio below:
Many of the men who blasted this into the dense canopies reported themselves that the audio was disturbing even though they were the ones playing it.
Acompanying the shrieks were equally harrowing messages interspliced:
My friends, I come back to let you know that I am dead! I am dead! It's Hell, Hell! It is a senseless death! How senseless! Senseless! But when I realized the truth, it was too late. Too late.
"Friends, while you are still alive, there is still a chance you will be reunited with your love ones. Do you hear what I say? Go home! Go home, my friends! Hurry! Hurry! If not, you will end up like me.
"Go home my friends before it is too late. Go home! Go home my friends!"
On other tapes, families would beg for their sons & fathers to come home, with screams and crying and Buddhist funeral music playing.
Areas known for VC units would be harassed all night long to great effect, but the whole operation was seen as quite strange and controversial in other sectors of the US Military.
It certainly had an effect. Not just on Charlie, but on the local farmers — whose mistrust of the US military would only be rebolstered by the presence of these alleged spirits wherever they went.
The VCs would be enraged and delusional after hours of these tapes on loop, leading directly to foolish actions and a swift demise at the hands of the US Military.
A Chilling Legacy
You can read many more of the accounts from people on both sides with that link to psywarrior earlier in this article, but we think it's legacy as truly one of the most iconic psychological warfare operations in history is undisputed.
It's befitting for a war that inspired so much fictional media that also played into the psychedelic atmosphere of the conflict — whether it's a retelling of heart of darkness in "Apocalypse Now" or many of the other "man vs human nature" Vietnam stories, it's shockingly often that the real inspirations are stranger than the fictional stories they resulted in.
Maybe cause to revisit this question someday? Let us know if you'd like us to look into anything about the Vietnam War's peculiarities or gear you'd like to see brought back from the dead...