ABSTRACT
Shortly after 9/11 (11 September 2001), the US began efforts to depose the Taliban government in Afghanistan. Even before hostilities, some of the Afghan people, especially the Pashtuns, had a negative view of the US and were less than supportive of US involvement in their country. The Taliban and Al Qaeda attempted to convince the people of Afghanistan that America was attacking their religious faith (Friedman 2002). In October 2001, the US military’s 4th Psychological Operations Group (POG) was called on to develop a strategy to engender among the Afghan people more favorable attitudes toward US involvement in Afghanistan. The battle for people’s “hearts and minds” was set. The topic of this chapter is US psychological operations, in particular, those performed
in the early stages of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF).1 I describe the purpose of psychological operations in this context and how content for media was developed, disseminated, and evaluated. I respond to important questions about evaluating psychological operations: What are psychological operations? How has the US military used psychological operations in past conflicts? More specifically, what psychological operations were conducted during the early stages of OEF, and to what extent were operations effective? Responses to these questions inform and improve future evaluation studies.
