Pages

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Captured German Documents & Russian Psychological "weaknesses"


I recently came across this November 1946 Central Intelligence Group (CIG, a CIA precusor) document,  CIG Directive No. 21 on "Exploitation of Enemy Document Repositories."  The purpose was to "arrange for the coordinated exploitation of the enemy document repositories for the purpose of extracting, cataloging and abstracting all documents relating to Political-Social-Psychological Warfare."  The Directive identifies several captured document repositories likely to contain both German documents and German-captured Russian records with potentially relevant information and notes:
The Germans were the leading exponents of psychological warfare, and as such they undoubtedly conducted extensive research for the purpose of conducting such warfare against the Russians.  Any German research in this connection would undoubtedly contain evaluations of Russian weaknesses. Also, since the Germans actually conducted psychological warfare against the Russians, it is reasonable to expect that in addition to such research there might be found in the above repositories descriptions of methods actually used as well as successes and failures. Any Russian documents dealing with German operations in this field would be particularly valuable, and since the Germans occupied a large portion of Russia and captured innumerable Russian documents, it is probable that some of those documents might also be found in the above repositories. A search of all likely repositories for the purpose of extracting, cataloging and abstracting all documents relating to political-social-psychological warfare would be of tremendous value in future study and planning in this field.