Intelligence and Persuasion

By Jessica Seipel

Persuasion is the process by which a person's attitudes or behavior
are, without pressure, influenced by communications from other people.
Intelligence means capacity for learning, reasoning, understanding,
and similar forms of mental activity; aptitude in grasping truths,
relationships, facts, meanings, etc. (Dictionary.com) Persuasion tries
to please both the persuader and the persuadee. Persuasion is when
you try to get what you want out of the situation. The art of
persuasion is when you help other people get what they want. People
use intelligence to persuade. People need to get to know their
audience and who they are trying to persuade.

Military's use different ways of Mass Persuasion. For example, in
2003 seventeen Iraqi soldiers surrendered to the US government. They
believed that this might have happened due to their mass persuasion
before the war. Military intelligence officers and psychologists sent
e-mails, made phone calls and even dropped millions of flyers out of
the sky to persuade Iraqi soldiers and fighters in the Republican
guard to give up. There were also the radio broadcasts that have been
broadcasting to the enemies since the Vietnam War. This was called
Commando Solo. They broadcast daily and usually consist of messages
telling the Iraqi soldiers to go home, surrender, or stop shooting.
Flyers were another weapon used. There were about nineteen million
flyers dropped out of the sky telling Iraqi soldiers to not hurt any
civilians, or use weapons of mass destruction, or to set the oil their
oil fields on fire. The flyers also told the soldiers how to go about
surrendering. Another example, of Commando Solo was used during the
Persian Gulf War in 1991 called, "Voice of the Gulf" radio. Thousands
of Iraqi's who gave up said that their decision was influenced by the
radio. Commando Solo is considered to be the, "weapon of mass
persuasion."

Intelligence and Persuasion played a huge role in the War on
Terrorism. Military persuasion is the threat or use of armed force in
order to get a needed political or military goal. Military persuasion
is also a psychological strategy where they try to pressure them into
a decision. Military persuasion has been around for a long time, war
is mental and physical. After the 9/11 the US government sought to
bring whoever was responsible to justice for the lives of 2,800 men
and women. The United States attacked al Quida bringing the Taliban
out of power in Afghanistan.

A form of mass persuasion took place September 21, 1943, by a very
well known radio entertainer named, Kate Smith. She ran a marathon
war bond drive running for eighteen hours and making sixty-five
appeals. This showed a great success because by the end of that
eighteen hours 31,000,000 dollars had been raised for war bond
purchases. Kate Smith's intelligence to reach out to a wider audience
through the radio was a success.

References:
Cimbala, S(2006). Military Persuasion, Intelligence and the War on
Terror(Abstract). Defense and Security Analysis, 22, 61-72

Wilkinson, T(2003, March 20). Military's 'Weapon of Mass Persuasion'.
Retrieved from
http://articles.latimes.com/2003/mar/20/news/war-sway20?pg=1