In The Cult, Wretchard notes that “deprogramming” techniques have proved successful in Indonesia, Pakistan and the UK on terrorist malefactors caught in Australia.
But treating insurgents like cultists isn’t knew, Wretchard contends. After World War II, American commanders helped the Philippine government fight against Communist insurgents, and the Americans played on the insurgents’ superstitious beliefs:
One psywar operation played upon the popular dread of an asuang, or vampire…. When a Huk patrol came along the trail, the ambushers silently snatched the last man of the patrol…. They punctured his neck with two holes, vampire-fashion, held the body up by the heels, drained it of blood, and put the corpse back on the trail. When the Huks returned to look for the missing man and found their bloodless comrade, every member of the patrol believed that the asuang had got him and that one of them would be next…. When daylight came, the whole Huk squadron moved out of the vicinity.
I hope I’m not a bad person for finding that darkly comical. This just creeped me out though:
The army unit captured a Huk courier descending from the mountain stronghold to the village. After questioning, the courier, who was a native of the village, woefully confessed his errors in helping the Huks. His testimony was tape-recorded and made to sound as if his voice emanated from a tomb. The courier was killed. His body was left on the Huk-village line of communications. Soldiers in civilian clothes then dropped rumors in the village to the effect that the Huks had killed the courier. The villagers recovered the body and buried the Huk. That night army patrols infiltrated the cemetery and set up audio-equipment which began broadcasting the dead Huk’s confession. By dawn, the entire village of terror-stricken peasantry had evacuated! In a few days, the Huks were forced to descend the mountain in search of food. [owing to the disappearance of the support village] They were quickly captured and/or killed by the army unit.
And here’s where the horror of counterinsurgency hits home:
Huks were bayoneted in full view of their supporters. Enemy casualties were piled in trucks, their arms and legs artfully made to overhang the edges of the truck, and the vehicles were ostentatiously driven though rebel strongholds.
As Wretchard points out, “today’s readers will find it astounding and not a little disturbing to realize at what price the Cold War victories were won while civilians slept unmindful in their beds.”