The Terror Of Operation Wandering Soul
Wikimedia CommonsU.S. troops in Vietnam would blast ghost sounds on loudspeakers as they fought their way through the jungle.
If there’s anything more effective than physical weapons to defeat enemy soldiers in a war, it’s psychological terror. That’s just what U.S. troops employed during their invasion in the Vietnam War.
In Vietnamese culture, giving a proper burial to a loved one in their birthplace ensures their contentment in the afterlife. If not, it is believed the deceased’s soul will wander aimlessly as it tries to find its way home.
U.S. forces in the Vietnam War were aware of this belief and took advantage of it to cause terror. Knowing that the Vietnamese people were worried many of their soldiers would die far from home and unable to be properly buried, U.S. forces employed a freaky psychological scare tactic known as “Operation Wandering Soul.”
The 6th Psychological Operations Battalion (6th PSYOP) of the U.S. Army broadcasted disturbing moans of disembodied voices throughout the Vietnam jungle where the battles took place. These fake tapes were played on a series of loudspeakers or dispatched from overhead planes.
For many Vietnamese soldiers, hearing the cries of supposedly lost souls piercing through the dark was nothing short of terrifying.
The scare tactic was inspired by the “Ghost Army” of World War II, a unit of inflatable tanks and personnel carriers used to fool German intelligence forces into thinking the Allies had more troops and tanks than they actually did.
These hair-raising messages that played in the Vietnam battlefield successfully convinced many nervous Vietnamese soldiers that their fallen comrades were skulking invisibly among them. Many of the fake ghost messages recorded were created with the help of South Vietnamese allies and voiced pleas to the soldiers to give up the fight:
“My friends, I have come back to let you know that I am dead… I am dead!”
“Don’t end up like me. Go home, friends, before it’s too late!”
The tapes were convincing enough to send hundreds of men fleeing from the mountains. Of course, not all Vietnamese soldiers fell for this spooky psychological operation.
But even in the midst of a war, it still struck a chord. The soldiers who remained fired in the direction of the eerie voices, reminding them of the very real possibility of death that awaited them if defeated.
