Strategic PSYOP includes informational activities conducted by the U.S. government agencies outside of the military arena, though many utilize Department of Defense (DOD) assets.

PSYOP can encourage popular discontent with the opposition's leadership, and by combining persuasion with a credible threat, degrade an adversary's ability to conduct or sustain military operations.

Further, black PSYOP, to be credible, may need to disclose sensitive material, with the damage caused by information disclosure considered to be outweighed by the impact of successful deception.

Psychological operations should be planned carefully, in that even a tactical message, with modern news media, can spread worldwide and be treated as the policy of the United States.

When authorized for employment in this manner, PSYOP forces utilize their media development, production, and dissemination capabilities to deliver public or other critical information during domestic emergencies.

A U.S. Army field manual released in January 2013 states that "Inform and Influence Activities" are critical for describing, directing, and leading military operations.

Two orbits were established during Operation Iraqi Freedom, the 2003 invasion of Iraq, one in the northern area and one in the southern part of the country, both far enough from harm’s way to keep the aircraft out of reach of potential enemy attack.

At their operational altitude of 18,000 feet (5,500 m) and assuming clear channels, these aircraft can transmit radio and TV signals approximately 170 miles (270 km), which does not reach the objective areas near Baghdad.

The aim of PSYOP Marines (0521) is to influence target audiences and advise higher officers and partner forces on cultural considerations to ensure mission success.

The Marine Corps seeks to meet this demand by building a capability to influence target audiences and to advise staffs and partners on cultural considerations to achieve tactical and operational objectives.

[19][20] During World War I, the Propaganda Sub-Section was established under the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) Military Intelligence Branch within the Executive Division of the General Staff in early 1918.

At first, there was a unit called the Foreign Information Service inside COI, headed by Robert Sherwood, which produced white propaganda outside Latin America.

Engineers of the 1st Radio Section of the 1st MRBC recorded POW interviews for front- line broadcasts, and reproduced the sound effects of vast numbers of tanks and other motor vehicles for Allied armored units in attempts to mislead German intelligence and lower enemy morale.

While rules limited mentioning the People's Republic of China or the Soviet Union, first due to fear it would increase their intervention, and later because it might demoralize ROK civilians, Stalin was depicted and Chinese troops were targeted in leafleting.

Rather than helping a prominent contender gain power with a few inducements, PBSuccess used an intensive paramilitary and psychological campaign to replace a popular, elected government with a political non-entity.

In method scale and conception it had no antecedent, and its triumph confirmed the belief of many in the Eisenhower Administration that covert operations offered a safe, inexpensive substitute for armed force in resisting what they declared was Communist inroad in the Third World.

As early as August 1964, almost one year before the activation of the Joint U.S. Public Affairs Office (JUSPAO), General William Westmoreland told a CA and PSYOP conference that “psychological warfare and civic action are the very essence of the counterinsurgency campaign here in Vietnam…you cannot win this war by military means alone.” Westmoreland’s successor, Creighton Abrams, is known to have sent down guidelines to the 4th Psychological Operations Group that resulted in the drawing up of no fewer than 17 leaflets along those lines.

When the PDF did not surrender after initial appeals, the message changed, with the tactical commander warning "that resistance was hopeless in the face of overwhelming firepower and a series of demonstrations took place, escalating from small arms to 105 mm howitzer rounds.

Elements of the 6th PSYOP Battalion served as the "Headquarters, Coalition Joint IFOR Information Campaign" (IFOR-CJIIC) at Sarajevo, initially operating out of the former Zetra Olympic Stadium.

[35] The initial mission was to provide information to military and civilians of all three warring factions (Croat, Bosniak and Serb) helping to restore a peaceful environment with the ultimate goal of saving lives and reducing tensions.

German organizations also contributed with print editions of a children's magazine developed in Germany specifically for this mission called "Mirko", a play on the Serbo-Croatian word "mir", meaning "peace".

Further claims have been made that the toppling of Saddam's statue was not the natural and spontaneous celebration of the local population in Baghdad, but was carefully orchestrated and overseen by a team within US Army PSYOP.

"[43]On 1 October 2005 in Gumbad, Afghanistan, soldiers from the 173rd Airborne burned the bodies of two Taliban fighters killed in a firefight the previous day for hygienic reasons, despite Islamic customs that forbid cremation.

Reserve PSYOP soldiers were involved because they heard about the incident and used the information to incite Taliban fighters in another area where freelance journalist Stephen Dupont was located.

[44] During the War on Terror, U.S. PSYOP teams often broadcast abrasive messages over loudspeakers to try to tempt enemy fighters into direct confrontation, where the Americans have the upper hand.

They concluded that the broadcast violated standing policies for the content of loudspeaker messages and urged that all soldiers in the command undergo training on Afghan sensitivities.

[46] According to the NYT: Hidden behind that appearance of objectivity, though, is a Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration's wartime performanceIn February 2011, journalist Michael Hastings reported in Rolling Stone that Lt.

"[49] Reported targets included United States Senators John McCain, Joe Lieberman, Jack Reed, Al Franken, Carl Levin, Rep. Steve Israel of the House Appropriations Committee; Adm. Mike Mullen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; the Czech ambassador to Afghanistan; the German interior minister, and think-tank analysts.

[49] In 2022, Meta and the Stanford Internet Observatory found that for five years people associated with the U.S. military, who tried to conceal their identities, created fake accounts on social media systems including Balatarin, Facebook, Instagram, Odnoklassniki, Telegram, Twitter, VKontakte and YouTube in an influence operation in Central Asia and the Middle East.

The campaign consisted of hundreds of fake social network profiles manned by PSYOP staff in Florida that sowed doubts about the Chinese vaccine's efficacy and argued Muslims should reject it because it allegedly contained pork protein.