ABSTRACT
Psychological effectiveness cannot be isolated because the sources of actions shaping the morale of the Vietnamese are the intertwined developments in the political, military, economic and psychological domains. In addition to the problems created by having insufficient numbers of bi-lingual, experienced, and competent propagandists, especially in the military, there was what was known in Vietnam as the "revolving door" syndrome. To assess adequately the propaganda as an instrument to achieve American goals in Vietnam, it is necessary to trace national policy all the way through the final messages employed. Some ninety-three percent of 1,249 sampled American communications for South Vietnamese target audiences were "light-gray," one percent claimed to have originated from Thai, Korean, Australian, New Zealander or Philippine sources, and only six percent clearly acknowledged the US as the sender. The major foreign policy aims of preventing Communist domination and the creation of a viable democratic society were focused on a universal target group—the Vietnamese people.
