And sometimes, it's the most ridiculous lies that are the most effective ...

The pen is mightier than the sword, especially if said pen is writing bullshit. For instance, every good military strategist knows that a well-constructed bluff can overcome almost any odds. You just have to really sell it, that's all.

5 The CIA Fakes Vampire Attacks

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You wouldn't think that, in a real guerrilla warfare scenario, "Let's tell the enemy a vampire is after them" would be treated as a legitimate strategy. Well, don't tell that to Edward Lansdale.

He was one of the CIA's most notorious operatives during the Cold War, his practical-joke-based "psywar" approach turning up in everything from the agency's enthusiastic attempts to assassinate Castro to the war in Vietnam. For instance, Lansdale learned Vietnamese just to write a best-selling astrological almanac ... that he then smuggled into enemy territory so he'd know what advice the Viet Cong were getting from local soothsayers.

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"June is the perfect month to replace all of your commanding officers with unarmed children."

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But Lansdale's unique combination of genius and borderline insanity reached its height when he was leading operations against communist guerrillas in the Philippines. He had become aware of the local myths surrounding the aswang, an evil vampire creature that used a pointed, prehensile tongue to drain its victims' blood. So, when a communist unit had adopted a virtually impregnable position atop a hill in Luzon, Lansdale grinned and leaped into action. He set up a deeply terrifying mind game that began with spreading rumors about an aswang living in the area. Of course, to really sell such a story to hardened soldiers, he'd need some convincing evidence, so he started organizing fake vampire attacks on the enemy.

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Oh, we're not talking about fake blood and mannequins here. He'd set up an ambush, and when an enemy patrol came along, Lansdale's people would silently snatch the last man in the patrol. They'd puncture his neck with two holes, vampire style, then hold the body up by the heels, drain it of all blood, and put the corpse back on the trail.