Winning hearts and minds

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Conquering the hearts and minds (s .: winning hearts and minds , and battle for hearts and minds ) is a strategy of psychological warfare . In doing so, the conqueror expects fewer opportunities through the use of force , and instead tries to gain influence on the other side through targeted appeals to feeling or reason .

Concept history

The French general and colonial official Hubert Lyautey coined the term “hearts and minds” as a method of bringing an oppressed population to their own side in 1895 as part of his strategy against the Chinese black flags along the Indochinese-Chinese border.

The turn became better known by the British colonial rulers during the Malayan Emergency (1948–1960) in British Malaya , who sought the trust of the Malays and tried to prevent the support of the Chinese Communists by providing medical aid and food to Malay and other ethnic groups let. A contemporary British report states:

A striking result of this campaign was the extent to which Malay women now participate in political and social affairs - something that is still very unusual among a Muslim people. So much for official measures to promote racial unity. But both General Templer and his successor Sir Donald MacGillivray have repeatedly stressed that Malay patriotism cannot be imposed from outside or from above; it must develop in the hearts and minds of the Malays themselves.

At the time it was critically noted that although there was a lot of talk about "fighting for" the hearts and minds "of the Malays, only blind obedience was required of them."

in the Vietnam War in the 1960s, the United States launched one of President Lyndon B. Johnson inspired Hearts-and-Minds campaign. Johnson targeted the hearts and minds of diverse groups, including the American people and even all of humanity. On May 4, 1965, he stated:

"So we have to be ready to fight in Vietnam, but the final victory will depend on the hearts and minds of the people who actually live there. By helping them get hope and electric power, we are also delivering a decisive blow to them." the cause of freedom in the whole world. "

Johnson used this phrase most likely in reference to a letter from US President John Adams dated February 13, 1818, which reads:

"The (American) Revolution had triumphed before the war began. It had touched the hearts and minds of the people and changed their religious sentiments, goals and aspirations ... This radical change in the principles, opinions, feelings and inclinations of the people was the real American Revolution. "

The USA launched a comparable Hearts and Minds campaign in 2003 during the occupation of Iraq .

The expression "to win hearts and minds" is now commonly used mockingly and ironically in America to refer to every effort by the United States to influence public opinion in foreign countries.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Douglas Porch, "Bugeaud, Gallieni, Lyautey: The Development of French Colonial Warfare", in Makers of Modern Strategy: From Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age, ed Peter Paret (Princeton University Press, USA, 1986), p. 394
  2. ↑ Vernon Bartlett , Report from Malaya (1955), p. 109.
  3. ^ John Eber, Malaya's Freedom is Vital to Britain (1954), p. 14.
  4. ^ Bernard Bailyn : The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution . Harvard University Press, 1992, ISBN 9780674443020 , p. 160 ( Accessed January 20, 2013).