SGM Herbert A. Friedman (Ret.)

Note: In 2012, there was an exhibition on the propaganda leaflets launched from, and received by, Quemoy Island during the hot phase of the Cold War. The exhibition was held at Shih Shan Howitzer Park, an old Cold War defensive site. This article and its images served as a reference source. In 2016, the Austrian Museum of Tyrolean Regional Heritage requested and received permission to use material from this article in an exhibition on political cartoons. The author of the Chinese language book Democratic Education - Nordic experiences for the Taiwanese classroom, was given permission to use this article as a source.

The Republic of China does have a propaganda organization, one that predates the move to Taiwan . Although far from perfect, this organization is nevertheless adequate given that it must perform in difficult circumstances. Nevertheless, there is always room for improvement. The fundamental problem is that the Republic of China 's propaganda organization is badly constructed with a confusing division of labor. It engages the services of far too many government ministries and organizations that all have overlapping responsibilities and lines of accountability. For propaganda to make a positive contribution to diplomacy  whether in relation to other governments, the overseas Chinese or the PRC  it must be centralized in one department. The Government Information Office would seem to be the natural and sensible choice.

Gary D. Rawnsley, who seems to be one of the premier authorities on Taiwan politics talked about their PSYOP system in Selling Taiwan : Diplomacy and Propaganda, Issues and Studies , Vol. 36, No. 3. 2000.

The single most important [influences] of these was the General Political Department, which was founded under the auspices of Chiangs son Chiang Ching-kuo in 1950, and was modeled on similar institutions in the Soviet Union. From its establishment, the Department became instrumental in producing many of the texts that were used in the promotion of the Chiang cult The General Political Department also produced written texts through which the ideas and admonitions of President Chiang were distributed to members of the armed forces.

Taylor seems to agree on the Communist influence: The single most important [influences] of these was the General Political Department, which was founded under the auspices of Chiangs son Chiang Ching-kuo in 1950, and was modeled on similar institutions in the Soviet Union. From its establishment, the Department became instrumental in producing many of the texts that were used in the promotion of the Chiang cult The General Political Department also produced written texts through which the ideas and admonitions of President Chiang were distributed to members of the armed forces. Gary D. Rawnsley, who seems to be one of the premier authorities on Taiwan politics talked about their PSYOP system in Selling Taiwan : Diplomacy and Propaganda, Issues and Studies , Vol. 36, No. 3. 2000. The Republic of China does have a propaganda organization, one that predates the move to Taiwan . Although far from perfect, this organization is nevertheless adequate given that it must perform in difficult circumstances. Nevertheless, there is always room for improvement. The fundamental problem is that the Republic of China 's propaganda organization is badly constructed with a confusing division of labor. It engages the services of far too many government ministries and organizations that all have overlapping responsibilities and lines of accountability. For propaganda to make a positive contribution to diplomacy  whether in relation to other governments, the overseas Chinese or the PRC  it must be centralized in one department. The Government Information Office would seem to be the natural and sensible choice.

Chinese Nationalists bases in Taiwan prepare propaganda balloons for launching to mainland China. In later years, the balloons will carry propaganda leaflets. In 1956, the balloons themselves were the message, printed with anti-Communist slogans.

The Communist leaders unwittingly made a tremendous mistake between 1922 and 1927. The invited the military and political staff of the Chinese Nationalists (Kuomintang) to cooperate with them Their military chief of mission learned everything that the Communists had to teach about irregular fighting, subversive propaganda, revolutionary situations and mass agitation. The Nationalist leader used all the Communist psychological warfare techniques and added a few more of his own. His name was Chiang Kai-shek They (the Communists) have not forgiven him. Nationalist China to this day possesses a working duplicate of the Moscow propaganda facilities .

Curiously, if we are to believe Paul M. Linebarger in Psychological Warfare, Combat Forces Press, Washington DC, 1948, the Nationalists learned to do propaganda from the Communists prior to WWII. Linebarger says in part:

The first statue of Chiang to appear in Taiwan was raised only 192 days after retrocession. And by the early 1950s, Chiangs face was criss-crossing the Taiwanese countryside on the front of propaganda trains just as it had done on the mainland a few years earlier.

While the nature of Nationalist rule under Chiang can be debated, there is little question that it shared with its Soviet and fascist contemporaries a tendency to promote the mass adoration of leaders. This included the manufacture and distribution of images of Chiang; the naming of streets in his honor; the celebration of his life through textbooks and public events; and, in some cases, the attribution to Chiang of superhuman power and wisdom By the time of the Nationalist governments complete relocation to Taipei in 1949, almost every city and town in Taiwan could claim a Zhongzheng Lu (Chiang Kai-shek Road) and a Zhongshan Lu (Sun Yat-sen Road) thanks to the efforts of zealous city and county administrators.

At the same time, the Nationalists on Taiwan started what we might call a cult of personality around their leader. There was no official or party section assigned to the task of turning Chiang into a larger than life character, but it was understood that there were rewards to those loyal to the Party and the leader. Dr. Jeremy E. Taylor, a Lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Sheffield mentions some aspects of this in The Production of the Chiang Kai-shek Personality Cult, 19291975, The China Quarterly. Speaking of the adoration and deification of the generalissimo Taylor says:

Nationalist Chinese propaganda of the time maintained that it was Free China , in stark and simple contrast with the mainland. Taiwan s description of the Peoples Republic of China was decidedly negative. A Decade of Chinese Communist Tyranny , ( Taipei , 1960) published by the Asian Peoples Anti-Communist League opens with a comparison between the Communist controlled area and a zoo. It describes the Chinese communist gangsters as inhuman and devoid of all moral scruples. The 1957-1958 edition of the China Yearbook referred to the communists as the sons of Satan.

After the end of the war, the Nationalists and the Communists continued to fight a civil war from July 1946 to September 1949 that eventually led to the defeat of Chiang and the escape of his Kuomintang (KMT) government, his army and over a million refugees to the island of Taiwan ( Formosa ). In 1972, the delegation of the Peoples Republic of China entered the United Nations, replacing the delegation of the Republic of China as the official representative of China.

The Chinese Communist Party never gave the peasants control of the land. The government retained ownership of the land and basically the land was rented. The government retains ownership of what was built even if it is a 50 story building.

We have a U.S. Army Observer Section in Yenan. I have seen most of their reports, and have talked to some of them. None of our people are Communists, but all or almost all of them have come to believe that the Communist party has more to offer the people of China than the present rotten regime. The Reds have taken land away from the landlords and have given it to the peasants. They have established communal control and ownership of the factories by the workers. There is no doubt that the Chinese people would be better off economically under the Reds than under the Kuomintang. But one does not like to see this nation come under the permanent control of a monolithic party. It is possible that the U.S. can pressure Chiang toward liberalization of his regime. But once the Reds are in control, there will be mass extermination of the capitalist and landlord class. There certainly will be a one-party government which the Chinese people may never be able to overthrow. In any case, the U.S. Government cannot afford to support the Communists in any way. Public opinion in the U.S. would not stand for this. Furthermore, it is possible that Communist control of China could, over a period of time, mean Communist control of Asia .

The Kuomintang, which now rules the nation, is not spiritually the party that was created by Dr. Sun Yat-sen. When Chiang accepted the leadership, he turned definitely to the Right, embraced the Soongs and the landlords. He is definitely under the influence of the banker and landlord class; one might say, under their domination. The Kuomintang is not a completely unified group. There are cliques within the party. Chiang is now following the lead of the so-called C.C. Chen Clique, headed by the Chen Brothers of Shanghai . They are now China s principal bankers.

In 1927 Chiang Kai-shek gained control of the Kuomintang. As military chief he conquered most of the war lords and established a national government in Nanking . Shortly after assuming control of the Kuomintang, Chiang became violently anti-Communist. This was about the time that he formed his alliance with the infamous Soong family, from which he later obtained a wife. In a bloody period, he kicked all of the Communists out of the Part. They promptly formed a Soviet Republic in Kiangsi Province . For seven years Chiang Kai-shek tried to eliminate them. He sent army after army against them. One of his armies totaled one million men. The smaller communist forces held out for seven years in Kiangsi Province , but in 1934 they decided to move. During 1934 and 1935 they marched several thousand miles, across China , over mountains, across rivers, pursued all the way by Chiangs forces. Eventually, they landed in Yenan, in northwest China , and re-established their Soviet Republic . The march, of course, is now called The Long March.

The Kuomintang Party was started early in the present century by a group of liberal thinkers who were opposed to the Manchu Dynasty. The most renowned member of this group, of course, was Dr. Sun Yat-sen. In 1911 the Kuomintang overthrew the Manchu regime and set up a so-called republic. There actually was a sort of republican type of government for a few years, but from 1915 to 1927 China was actually controlled by local war lords. During the period 1923 to 1927, the Kuomintang turned definitely leftist in its principles, and Communists were welcomed into the Party.

There are probably a hundred books talking about the assets and liabilities of the Nationalists and the Communists but I have no intention of getting into politics. However, I do have quotes from former U.S. Army Major Monta L. Osborne who was the Assistant Psychological Warfare Officer in China and in September 1945 was appointed China Theater Psychological Warfare Officer. He served in the U.S. Armed Forces in China until June 1946, when he took a job for the Supreme Commander Allied Powers (SCAP) in Tokyo . He gave his opinion of the situation from a completely non-political viewpoint. Remember he said all this in 1945 and he seems to have been correct:

During WWII, China was one of the Allied nations that fought alongside the Big Three: the United States of America , Great Britain and the Soviet Union . They were at war against the Axis; Germany , Japan , Italy and other collaborating enemy nations. As the Japanese advanced across the Chinese mainland, the Chinese resisted with a National army under command of Chiang Kai-shek and a Communist army under the command of Mao Zedong. Unfortunately, the two political sides tended to fight each other much more than they did the Japanese. Both sides coveted power after the eventual Japanese defeat. Chiang in particular seemed to fear the Communists more than he did the Japanese.

Map of China and Taiwan

Since that time the Nationalists (Republic of China - ROC) and the Communists (Peoples Republic of China - PRC) have faced off; threatening, cajoling and occasionally opening fire on each other. The small islands of Matsu and Quemoy (Kinmen), the sole territory under the jurisdiction of the Republic of China, have played a part in all the bluffing and psychological operations. In particular, starting about 1954 the two sides sent leaflets to each other on alternate days by balloon and artillery. In this article we will look at some of the leaflets prepared by the Nationalist Government and sent into mainland China up until about 1979 when the United States and the Peoples Republic of China normalized relations.

Propaganda Booklet Published on the 16th National Day of the Republic of China

Nationalist Chinese soldier watches the Mainland from the island of Quemoy

During the Cold War the American government constantly worried about the morale of the Nationalist Chinese and their willingness to carry on the fight against Communism. They regularly studied both Taiwan and Mainland China and a number of reports were written by the Central Intelligence Agency, mostly stating that it did not believe China would attack Taiwan as long as the United States offered naval and air protection. Other studies attempted to discern how the loss of the smaller islands would affect Taiwan . A 1955 CIA report entitled Morale on Taiwan says in part:

The islands of Quemoy and Matsu are so important in the eyes of the Nationalists that their loss during the current crisis would be a severe blow to the morale The effect would be considerably greater if the islands fell to Communist attack, especially if U.S. forces were involved We believe that they would continue resistance to Communist pressure as long as they have confidence in the determination and ability of the U.S. to defend Taiwan.

For those readers that do not recall the Cold War, I should point out that one of the most secret operations was the 1959 training of six Nationalist Chinese pilots in Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas, to carry out clandestine U-2 spy flights to determine Soviet nuclear capability. These flights were highly classified but the fact that Chinese pilots were flying American spy planes shows how important the Chinese were to American interests at the time.

Chiang Kai-shek Mao Zedong

In a 2005 International Affairs article entitled Old wine in new bottles: ChinaTaiwan computer-based information warfare and propaganda, Gary D. Rawnsley adds:

Chinese shelling of these islands, and Taiwans own bombardment of the mainland in response, was designed to have more symbolic than military value, and was pivotal in the psychological and propaganda offensive across the Taiwan Strait. Beijing decided to shell the islands only on odd-numbered days, and Taiwan s military launched its own shells against the mainland the rest of the week. A practice that continued until 1979, this combat by timetable confirmed the political and symbolic, rather than military, intention of cross-Strait warfare, especially as the shells contained nothing more harmful than printed propaganda that dispersed upon impact.

A Naval War College paper totals up the Chinese Nationalist deaths in a report entitled High Sea Buffer  The Taiwan Patrol Force, 1950-1979:

On 23 August 1958, Communist forces began shelling Jinmen Island, firing an estimated forty thousand shells during the first attack

By mid-September 1958 the U.S. Navy had positioned five carriers and their escort ships near Taiwan, and another two were on their way. A clear message was sent to the PRC when it was revealed on 1 October that a number of eight-inch howitzers, capable of firing nuclear shells, had been delivered to Jinmen Island. In addition, it was on this occasion that the Nationalist air force was provided with advanced Sidewinders. In one air battle on 24 September 1958, Nationalist F-86s shot down an impressive ten MiGs, plus two other probable hits, without sustaining a single loss. These were the first-ever kills by these air-to-air missiles.

On 6 October 1958, after forty-four days, the PRC halted the shelling. Civilian casualties were 138 dead and 324 injured; the dead and wounded soldiers numbered close to three thousand. In addition, an estimated seven thousand buildings on Jinmen had been either damaged or destroyed. The cessation was not permanent; artillery fire continued for the next twenty years, ending for good only in January 1979 after the United States and the Peoples Republic of China recognized each other. Firing would take place on alternate days of the week, with the shells mainly containing propaganda leaflets. An estimated one million steel shell casings were fired at Jinmen, in what would be the longest sustained artillery barrage in world history.

The U.S. Army 7th PSYOP Group headquartered on Okinawa had a two-man Taiwan Detachment located in Taipei responsible for maintaining liaison between the 7th PSYOP Group and the Republic of China. In 1968 they trained 25 Chinese PSYOP personnel at their headquarters in Okinawa . The United States had little interest in supporting Taiwan with military and psychological training until 1951 when the North Korean attack on South Korea awakened America to the possibility of using Taiwan as an area to harass and spy on the Chinese mainland.

7th PSYOP Group Crest

U.S. Army Lieutenant-Colonel Dave Underhill of the 7th PSYOP Group told me about a class that he taught:

I presented a three week course of instruction to the Chinese on Taiwan (as requested by the CIA) on leaflet development and dissemination (via balloon). I was able to show the defect in their program that allowed the balloons to end up in such places as Okinawa , India and Laos . (I was in Laos when one came down there). The group I taught was a collection of people involved in leaflet operations. It included printers, artists, weather forecasters, etc. They were a sharp group. The launch site had a pipeline from an oil processing plant that piped hydrogen to the sight. They then filled conventional tanks and arranged them in a bank where they were able to open all valves and fill huge balloons without stopping.

When Dave Underhill returned home he was replaced by his understudy, Captain Charles V. Nahlik. Charles was also tasked with teaching PSYOP classes and he told me a story about his Chinese students:

I taught a large class of Taiwanese officers. They came with their own translator/interpreter who had translated the 7th PSYOP Leaflet Book into Chinese. I would demonstrate something and then he would explain it. If I would talk for one minute, he would talk for three. He was a fantastic assistant and a great help in the hands on process of plotting. The funny thing about this class happened after they were finished, returned to Naha Air Base, Okinawa, and then started the flight home. After each of the three days of class, they would go to the Post Exchange to spend all the money the U.S. was paying them on this trip. They did well with US paid per diem -- too good. They overloaded the plane to such a point that upon takeoff back to Taiwan and it could not lift off the runway and could not stop. It went through the fence and slid into the Ocean, but did not sink. However, the baggage area did get flooded so don't know how much of their assorted cameras and electronic items were damaged or destroyed.

We should not hold this against the Chinese officers. America was known throughout Asia as The land of the big PX and it was quite typical for all foreign officers and enlisted men on American bases to purchase everything they could get their hands on. They seldom sunk a plane with their shopping though.

Some of the Nationalist Chinese leaflets attacked Mao; others depicted the happy life of the Chinese on the island of Taiwan or pictured defectors from Communism living a rich and secure life.

The 7th PSYOP Group was constituted 19 August 1965 in the regular Army and activated 20 October 1965 and assigned to the Ryukyu Islands . It was tasked with support activities in Okinawa , Vietnam , Taiwan , Korea , Thailand and Japan . The group consisted of the 14th PSYOP Battalion, the 15th PSYOP Detachment, the Japan Detachment, the Korea detachment, the Taiwan Detachment, and the Vietnam Detachment. They worked side-by-side with the Chinese of Taiwan, but it is impossible to tell what input they had, if any, on the leaflets we will depict in this article.

Republic of China Balloon Launch

The ROC propagandists have not been very talkative about their campaigns. About 1968, the Psychological Warfare Department of the Defense Ministry did admit that the government had sent 101,614,528 balloons to Mainland China since the start of their campaign. They said that the load carried by the balloons varied from 35 grams to 4,763 grams. They had two large balloons measuring 10 x 13-feet and 10 x 18-feet that can rise to 40,000 feet and carry leaflets as far as Tibet and Sinkiang. The total of leaflets and booklets sent to China was more than 213,000,000 pieces. The balloons also dropped food, toys, household goods, daily commodities and national flags. They also sent "passports" promising good treatment to those defectors who made it to Taiwan . The Nationalists also used music to strengthen their propaganda. Taiwan balloons rained down leaflets and Teresa Deng music cassettes. Teresa Deng was a Taiwanese singer known for her gentle love songs. Allegedly, the mainland Chinese were known to say: I like the little Deng, not the big Deng, meaning that the singer's popularity rivaled that of Chinese leader Deng Xiao-ping, who briefly served as Premier Chou En-lai's deputy.

Nationalist Chinese Model Leaflet Boat

U.S. Army Sergeant Fynis Eugene Briddle, writing in issue 208 of the Falling Leaf, the Journal of the Psywar Society, mentions being stationed as the non-commissioned officer in charge of the Communications Center on Quemoy in 1971. He said in part:

Kinmen (Quemoy) is a small island group, the largest of which is less than five miles off the coast of the Peoples Republic of China. While I was there both the Communists and Taiwanese military were still engaged in propaganda shelling on odd nights There were several other methods of propaganda delivery used. The Nationalists would take hundreds of helium balloons; attach little gift packs such as soap dishes with soap, and propaganda leaflets to them. They would then release when the winds were favorable where they would float to the mainland. They all had timers attached that would then deflate the balloon and deliver the gifts along with the propaganda leaflets. Another popular method was to put leaflets in beer bottles, seal them and throw them into the ocean when the tides were going out. They would also put the leaflets in little boats and float them to the mainland The Beishan Broadcast Wall  The Sonic Tower

It wasnt just artillery, balloons and leaflets that Kinmen used in its fight against the Communist Chinese. During the Cold War four broadcast stations were built in the Kinmen Islands to broadcast propaganda messages and music to mainland China through a three-story concrete sonic wall tower containing 48 loudspeakers. Built in 1967, the broadcast wall was a strategic military stronghold that played a key role in sonic warfare across the straits, blasting out anti-communist propaganda and music. The sound of Beishan Broadcast Wall could reach as far as 25km (15.5 miles). Back then the deafeningly loud sounds that came from the broadcast looped non-stop. There was no relief from the sound. In addition to the sound coming from the Beishan Broadcast Wall, the Communists also counter-attacked using their long distant speakers. The constant overbearing loud noise caused a mental exhaustion among those people who could not escape it.

Among the most famous messages were those from the late Taiwanese singer Teresa Teng, who was said to be the favourite of the former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping. Some of her famous songs, such as Tian Mi Mi (Very Sweet), were played. She also went to the broadcast wall in person to speak to the mainland Chinese through the broadcast system in the tradition of starlets like Marlene Dietrich talking to troops, telling them that she was waiting for their visit to Kinmen and freedom was the only hope for the future of their country.

The Chu Kwang Tower where Propaganda leaflets are Displayed

The three illustrations of propaganda dissemination were found in the Chu Kwang Tower. Briddle explains:

Chu Kwang Tower is a history museum; a large area is dedicated to the shelling back in the 1950's and propaganda techniques currently being used. In Taegu, Korea, I purchased an envelope (called a First Day Cover) celebrating a new building built on this small island called Kinmen/Quemoy. How could I have ever known that I would soon be visiting that building and working on that island?

Glass Propaganda Floats Containing Leaflets

The Communists in return sent floats to Taiwan containing Maos Little Red Book during the Cultural Revolution.

Communist Chinese Kite containing Leaflets for Quemoy

Briddle also notes that the Communists sometimes used kites that were loaded with leaflets and sent them to Quemoy from the mainland.

The 1958-1959 Republic of China Yearbook noted how the Ministry of National Defense had strengthened its psychological warfare capabilities during the offshore islands crisis:

Each month aircraft flew deep into the mainland to drop leaflets, proclamations, charts, safe conduct passes and food. The air-droppings have borne fruit in influencing a fair number of mainlanders to flee from behind the Bamboo Curtain.

Gary D. Rawnsley believes that the Americans were deeply involved in the balloon campaign in The Clandestine Cold War in Asia, London , Frank Cass, 2000:

1967, the CIA Far East Division encouraged the launch from Taiwan of balloons loaded with propaganda leaflets, pamphlets and newspapers that would drift across the Strait to the mainland. This has been described a knick-knack bombardment, with the balloons carrying pens, can openers, bright T-shirts, and other cheap items which would pop and shower the mainland with the flotsam of capitalism. This U.P.I. photograph dated 20 November 1965 depicts balloons bearing flags, ribbons,

propaganda leaflets and other items sent from the island of Quemoy to mainland China.

Irving R. Fang, in an article entitled The Chinese-Chinese Psywar, said in 1979 in that both sides send out their propaganda by radio, balloons, artillery shells, sea floats and loudspeakers. Small gifts were sent too; he mentioned underwear, toys and cooking oil.

The Falling Leaf, the Journal of the Psywar Society, the international association of psychological warfare historians and collectors of aerial propaganda leaflets, mentions the Chinese propaganda campaign in several issues. In their summer 1975 edition, we find in part:

In the 1970s there was a considerable increase in the number of leaflets. In 1971 only 200 million leaflets were dropped on the Chinese mainland; the number increased to 1.6 billion copies by the end of October 1973. Maos anti-Confucius campaign was the main item in their propaganda leaflets; to defend their great cultural philosophies they poked at the promises of Mao Zedong. Other leaflets deal with the thousands of refugees coming to Hong Kong . There are miniature newspapers that tell of the western world. The balloons targeted at central China drift at a height of 40,000 feet and deliver their cargo of 15 kilograms within 12 hours. The balloons that travel deeper into China drift at a height of 60,000 feet and carry 100 kilograms of leaflets for 40 hours. Most of the leaflets disseminated lately have a camouflaged cover with a Communist title. The prosperity of Taiwan is shown in pictures; some of the booklets contain manuals on how to build a simple wireless set. Nationalist Display Depicting the Range of its Propaganda Balloons

Rawnsley seems to be mentioning these camouflaged booklets when he says:

Publications carried by balloons across the Taiwan Strait were designed to appear as near as possible to the few dissident publications already circulating through parts of China, and to add to the confusion, they used fictitious names of anti-revolutionary organizations as the source of the propaganda. Of course the US denied all knowledge of these operations, assigning all responsibility to Chiang Kai-shek, the CIAs willing and cooperative host for the operation. Refugees arriving from the PRC in Hong Kong carried the leaflets with them, thus providing for the agency apparent evidence of the success of its propaganda.

More comments are found in the Falling Leaf of winter 1976:

Chinese fighters have tried to intercept and shoot down balloons bearing humanitarian aid to the earthquake-stricken Tangshan area from the offshore island of Quemoy . Supplies of rice, medicine, sugar, powdered milk, blankets, underwear, dehydrated noodles and propaganda leaflets were collected from Formosa and shipped to Quemoy where they were packed by soldiers from the huge Nationalist garrisons. Each balloon was fitted with a timing device so that its cargo would be jettisoned after 20 hours, by which time it should be over the disaster area.

Another comment is:

By tacit agreement, both sides indulge in propaganda shelling. The Communists also fly propaganda across on paper kites. The Nationalists reply with plastic balloons. Gifts of clothing and sweets are tied on the balloons to attract people on the mainland.

In the November 1966 issue of The Aerial Leaflet I wrote an article entitled Propaganda Leaflets in the Air over China . I said at the time:

In 1962, the London Telegraph mentioned that although there are 1,700 gun positions facing Quemoy , the only shooting was an occasional airburst shell that showered the countryside with leaflets. The Aero-Field reported that Quemoy has released thousands of leaflets about 20 July 1962 containing leaflets and parcels of food for peasants living in Communist China . The London Telegraph of 16 July 1963 said that Quemoy is becoming one of the major tourist attractions of the Far East . The article states further, If he is lucky, the tourist may experience a Communist shelling. These days the shells contain only propaganda messages.

The Island of Quemoy

We reached Quemoys Chinese Communist Psywar Center to inspect the leaflets and goodies which each side was lobbing across the strait in a mighty psychological battle between the Communists and the Nationalist Chinese. The goodies suggested that each side thought that the other was either starving or unwashed. There must be more slabs of scented soap stuffed with political messages than anywhere else on Earth. There were tiny purple plastic babies with deep blue eyes and brown hair to be sent to the next generation of Reds. Toothpaste and tea was exchanged, dropping from the sky like manna from Heaven. Suddenly we all had thrust in our hands gaily colored balloons, each with its subversive little gift in a plastic sack, to release into the wind, which happens to be on our side, blowing westward...

Souvenir Booklet for the 7th PSYOP Group

We depict the cover of one of the souvenir booklets brought back from the 7th PSYOP Group.

Second Souvenir Booklet for the 7th PSYOP Group

I also have a second similar booklet with the title in Chinese on the front:

War of Mind Leaflets

Printed by the Department of National Defense General Political Operation Department

Although we use the modern term, the Chinese word Xinghan literally means Heart  War Battle but can be translated as "War of Minds." These leaflet catalogs came in many volumes. The above is volume 28, from the Republic of China, Year 56, August 26th to September 1st. Thirty-three types of leaflets were enclosed, and altogether 330,000 copies of the leaflets were printed.

Inside the cover there is a Chinese language message which states:

Inventory of the leaflets printed within this week below:

1. One type of leaflet for promoting the President's works, merits, and political calls.

2. Twenty-two types of leaflets for psychological warfare, persuading surrender, utilizing information collected from righteous compatriots.

3. One type of leaflet for promoting our accomplishments and construction of the "Three Principles of the People" in Taiwan.

4. Five types of leaflets of comics depicting the defeat of our enemies and their internal chaos.

5. Four types of leaflets targeting the internal chaos and naming the enemies utilizing information collected from righteous compatriots. Altogether thirty-three types.

Propaganda Envelope

This colorful envelope depicts an artillery round, a loudspeaker, balloons, gift items to go in a float and leaflets. Each of these were used to disseminate Nationalist Chinese propaganda. The envelope contained eleven Nationalist Chinese leaflets. We assume this was some kind of a gift pack for visiting dignitaries. At the left of the envelope there is a radio antenna and the text:

PSYWAR DATA

PSYWAR COMMAND POST KDC

We believe this envelope was prepared or at least disseminated by the Kinmen Defense Command (KDC) located on Kinmen Island. The Kinmen Defense Command was the front line in any attempt by Communist China to take Taiwan or its islands. An estimated 80% of the Republic of China Army is located on Taiwan, while the remainder are stationed on the smaller islands of Kinmen, Matsu and Penghu. We believe this envelope was prepared about 1964

Prior to 2000 the KDC was made up of four divisions. By 2004, Troops were pulled back and the Kinmen Defense Command was comprised of three infantry brigades, an armor brigade and an artillery command. The KDC also has two companies from the 101st Amphibious Recon battalion.

THE LEAFLETS

I want to start this look at the leaflets with a brief disclaimer. It has often been stated that when leaflets are prepared by defectors who left a country many years earlier, the text and language may not be quite up to date. For instance, William Lloyd Stearman says in An American Adventure, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD, 2012, that the American PSYOP effort in Vietnam got most of its information about the North from refugees who came south in 1954 to escape Communist rule in the North. More than ten years had elapsed since they left and much had changed in the interim. In other words, their knowledge about the North was hopelessly outdated. A Chinese reader of the leaflets below commented that:

In many cases I found the text curious. The communist military force is often described as the Chinese Communist Army or the Chinese Communists, but on the Mainland they were commonly known as the Liberation Army or the People's Liberation Army of China. A lesser point of interest is that it sometimes described those who read the leaflets as friend, rather than comrade or fighter, the common titles used in the PLA. Those choices of words were puzzling. It is as if the Nationalist didn't know the basics from the decades of confrontations and the flow of defectors.

So, although my translators and myself strive to use the correct words, the readers should understand that sometimes they are incorrect on the leaflets.

As we stated above, there are millions, and more likely billions of leaflets sent from Quemoy and Matsu to mainland China . Clearly we cannot depict a true representation of the various types and themes since there are thousands of different leaflets. Also, sometimes there might be a dozen or more leaflets on the exact same theme, such as a Chinese pilot defecting to Taiwan . As a result, we have selected a very small number of leaflets that show some various shapes, themes, or messages. The reader should understand that this is less than 1 percent of all those dropped.

In all of my 120+ articles on psychological warfare, the leaflets drive the story. I try to show a good representation of the leaflets and every one has at least a partial translation. I will add more leaflets and translations as volunteers become available. I ask the reader to understand and be patient. In all these articles, the translators are the most difficult experts to locate. I have been forced in other articles to find people who could read Vietnamese, Kikuyu, Arabic, Pashto, Dari, and a host of other languages. It is much easier to locate leaflets than it is to find people who can translate them. Readers expert in Chinese who would like to help with some of the titles and texts of the leaflets in this article should contact the author.

I especially want to thank Dr. Alexander Akin, a historian of China and amateur collector of psywar ephemera who generously provided translations for some of the leaflets and comments about their actual meaning and political background. This article would have been impossible without his help. Another who has helped translate leaflets for this article is Zhao Difei who lives in Chungking, the World War Two capital of the old China.

An Early Nationalist Leaflet from the Time the Tibetans tried to take their State Back

The 1959 Tibetan uprising began on 10 March 1959, when a revolt erupted in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, which had been under the effective control of the People's Republic of China since 1951. The guerrilla warfare later spread to other areas of Tibet and lasted through 1962. The anti-Communist leaflet was ballooned to mainland China from Taiwan in support of the Tibetans. It features the Potala Palace. The Potala Palace is a fortress in the city of Lhasa, in Tibet. It was the winter palace of the Dalai Lamas from 1649 to 1959, has been a museum since then, and is a World Heritage Site since 1994. The leaflet has the following text on the front

ARISE COMPATRIOTS IN TIBET

The text on the back is:

In order to resist Marshal Zhu De and Chairman Mao Zedong’s oppression, Lhasa was attacked, and Gyangze Fort was occupied on March 10 with the capture of food and munitions and the destruction of bridges and the telephone system. Compatriots in Sichuan, Qinghai, Yunnan, and Xinjiang are responding. Some of the Zhu / Mao troops in Tibet have also joined the anti-communist army. The day for everyone to take revenge and hate is here. Hurry up and unite. Hit the tyranny of Zhu and Mao