ABSTRACT
Political-military deception is a psychological process that back dates to when human cortexes first turned their thoughts to politics and war. Consequently, historical case studies can teach one as much about how to deceive as can any current operations. In practice, the advantage of historical examples is that they tend to offer nearly complete and accurate data about how the deceivers planned and carried out their operations and how the intended victims perceived and reacted to them. The distinctions between closed authoritarian and free democratic states are useful when considering the practice of strategic deception, but not absolute. Similarly, even the most advanced democracies such as the United States and Great Britain have certain institutions and groups that operate more or less along authoritarian lines. The chapter explains the case examples that have been selected for the exceptional characteristics rather than their typical ones.
