Project Troy was a research study of

psychological warfare Psychological warfare (PSYWAR), or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations (PsyOp), has been known by many other names or terms, including Military Information Support Operations ( MISO), Psy Ops, political warfare, "Hearts and Mi ...

undertaken for the

Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs ...

by a group of scholars including physicists, historians and psychologists from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

and

RAND Corporation The RAND Corporation, doing business as RAND, is an American nonprofit global policy think tank, research institute, and public sector consulting firm. RAND engages in research and development (R&D) in several fields and industries. Since the ...

in the fall of 1950. The ''Project Troy Report to the Secretary of State'', presented to Secretary

Dean Acheson Dean Gooderham Acheson ( ; April 11, 1893October 12, 1971) was an American politician and lawyer. As the 51st United States Secretary of State, U.S. Secretary of State, he set the foreign policy of the Harry S. Truman administration from 1949 to ...

on 1 February 1951, made various proposals for

political warfare Political warfare is the use of hostile political means to compel an opponent to do one's will. The term ''political'' describes the calculated interaction between a government and a target audience, including another state's government, militar ...

, including possible methods of minimizing the effects of Soviet jamming on the

Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is an international broadcasting network funded by the federal government of the United States that by law has editorial independence from the government. It is the largest and oldest of the American internation ...

broadcasts.

History

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

the

United States Office of War Information The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was a United States government agency created during World War II. The OWI operated from June 1942 until September 1945. Through radio broadcasts, newspapers, posters, photographs, films and other ...

(OWI) launched a large-scale information and propaganda campaign both at home and abroad through radio broadcasts, newspapers, posters, photographs, films and other forms of media, but ''psychological warfare'' operations had been run by special military units. After the end of the war President Truman transferred the operations of the OWI as well as control over

overseas radio network to the Interim International Information Service (IIS) within the State Department. The State Department, eager to assert leadership in this area, organized a civilian-sponsored project on new methods and approaches to

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

propaganda, code-named Project Troy. Convened in October 1950 at the State Department's request, it brought together for a period of almost three months a group of twenty-one distinguished scientists, social scientists, and historians, most of whom were academics. It can be assumed that the Truman administration tried to implement plans established by the Project Troy in the project ''Overload and Delay''. The purpose of the latter was to break the

Stalinist Stalinism (, ) is the totalitarian means of governing and Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1927 to 1953 by dictator Joseph Stalin and in Soviet satellite states between 1944 and 1953. Stalinism in ...

system by increasing the number of input points in the system and by creating complex and unpredictable situations requiring action.

Memorandum on the Troy Report

On 26 March 1951 Robert J. Hooker delivered a memorandum on the Troy Report to the Director of the Policy Planning Staff

Paul Nitze Paul Henry Nitze (January 16, 1907 – October 19, 2004) was an American businessman and government official who served as United States Deputy Secretary of Defense, U.S. Secretary of the Navy, and Director of Policy Planning for the U.S. Sta ...

, asserting that the report "deserves the most serious consideration. It lays down principles and techniques for the conduct of political warfare which, with few exceptions, seem worthy of adoption."

References

{{Reflist Political science Psychological warfare United States Department of State Cold War history of the United States