Psychologists Go to War

Military uses--and abuses--of mind science A Defense Department study exploring the feasibility of using odor bombs in Asia suggested that a vegetarian tribe could be effectively sickened and confused by flooding the jungle with the concentrated body odor of meat eaters. During the 1960s Congo rebellion, another Pentagon study investigated the possibility of creating "special magic potions" for use by friendly Congolese troops. In Viet Nam, American forces distributed "propaganda soap" layered with anti-Viet Cong messages, and experimented at Cam Ranh Bay with dolphins in underwater surveillance and detection.

These are only a few of the exotica cited by British Journalist Peter Watson, 35, as evidence of the increasing reliance of the U.S. armed forces on the work of psychologists. Indeed, studies done for the military cost $68 million this year, about 35% of all federally funded psychological research. In his new book, War on the Mind (Basic Books, $17.50), Watson says that the Pentagon's forays into psychology "outrank most other military research projects when it comes to cruelty, deception, ingenuity and sheer absurdity."

One example given by Watson, a former lecturer in psychology at the University of London, is the Navy's "Clockwork Orange" experiments in Naples, Italy, and San Diego: wearing a head clamp and with their eyes fixed open, so that they cannot avert their gaze, volunteers were shown gruesome films of dismemberment to break down their opposition to violence. Though the Pentagon denied conducting any such experiments, Watson thinks that his source--a Navy doctor in Naples--was telling the truth.

A few other programs, the result of brain research and studies of perception, seem straight out of Buck Rogers. In one, the Advanced Research Projects Agency is working to link fighter pilots directly to computers. As the pilot dons his helmet, fine needles will project into his scalp and enable him to shoot a rocket merely by thinking the command to fire. Another project, developed at Fort Benning, Ga., allows a commander to send silent coded orders to troops in the field--electronic blips are transmitted through electrodes attached to the upper arms or abdomens of each soldier. So far, Watson reports, properly trained men can recognize 95% of these coded messages.

The military has spent a good deal of money developing personality profiles of soldiers in an attempt to learn which recruits are likely to fight well, commit atrocities or stand up to enemy interrogation. One study showed that those who will be "fighters" tend to be sports-oriented, sarcastic and spontaneous. Recruits who will probably be "nonfighters" have more financial responsibilities, have a less stable home life, and are more anxious and prone to depression. Another finding: the mean IQ for "fighters" was 91, for "nonfighters" only 78.

For dangerous missions that could result in capture and torture, the military tries to assign volunteers who are the most resistant to pain. One test for selecting them involves flashing a word or symbol on a screen for a fraction of a second, then for longer periods of time. Volunteers who take the most time to read the screen are presumed to have "turned down" nervous systems and the greatest ability to endure pain.

Since Viet Nam, the armed forces have been under pressure to find a way to screen out those likely to commit atrocities. A British study showed that the soldier most likely to commit such acts is the mild-mannered, over-controlled type who goes berserk under heavy pressure. In Viet Nam, atrocities were frequently committed by those second in command, in high-stress jobs such as point man.

Involved as they often are with research on animal behavior, psychologists have frequently been asked by the military to apply their special knowledge to adapting various animals to warfare. During World War II, the Allies developed and tested plans to use "incendiary bats," which would come to rest under the eaves of buildings and set off small fire bombs attached to their chests. The Swedes had plans for using trained kamikaze seals to blow up submarines, and the Soviets for bomb-carrying dogs to attack tanks. In the 1940s, Behaviorist B.F. Skinner proposed installing a trained pigeon in front of a screen in the nose of a missile to guide it to a target. The U.S. Army trained dogs for jungle patrol duty in Viet Nam. The dogs would lie down when they met a wounded man, stand still if they saw anyone moving, and sit when they detected a booby trap. Their body position would be sensed electronically and radioed to stations behind the lines.

In Viet Nam, the Army was ever eager for new ploys in psychological warfare. In a program called Operation Black Eye, South Vietnamese assassination teams infiltrated enemy villages, killed Viet Cong leaders quietly in their beds, and left on each body "a piece of paper printed with a grotesque human eye."

Americans printed up 50,000 pictures of the eyes and had them pinned to people's doors as a warning against aiding the Viet Cong.

Apparently the most popular psy-war technique in Viet Nam was the most traditional--leafleting. General William Westmoreland was said to be so enthusiastic about the printed propaganda that he wrote some of the pieces himself, and in one typical month in 1969, the U.S. dropped 713 million leaflets over Viet Nam. At least a few pilots developed their own distribution system, dropping leaflets in tied bales to get the chore done quickly. Sometimes the system worked. One harried Viet Cong defector told Americans that his will to resist was broken one day by an astonishing incident: an enormous bundle of papers fell out of the sky and killed his best friend.

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