3rd Reproduction Company Psy Ops Leaflets, CLDW 56

[Folder Number], 3rd Reproduction Company Psy Ops Leaflets, CLDW 56, Cold War Papers, Military Collection, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, N.C.

The collection is composed of two original U.S. Army psychological warfare training leaflets printed by the 3rd Reproduction Company, 1st Radio Broadcasting and Leaflet Battalion, around 1955. The leaflets were created as part of a training mission for the Psychological Warfare Center at Fort Bragg, N.C. They feature scary graphics and slogans intended to weaken the psychological strength of Army soldiers as part of their training to resist psychological warfare by the enemy in periods of war or military operations during the Cold War-era. One of the leaflets is entitled "Need Help? Where is it?," featuring an injured soldier lying in the middle of a red cross for medical care. The other leaflet is entitled "Be Careful At Night!," including a scared Army soldier wearing a helmet, with a slogan about the danger of black widows spiders in the area. The leaflets are typical of the type of psychological warfare training conducted at Fort Bragg in the 1950s.

Psychological warfare training was used by the U.S. Army to counteract Communist psychological warfare, training American soldiers in mental fortitude to resist being disheartened from their service and mission. The goal was to teach American soldiers the types of fake promises and lures the Communists would utilize on enemy troops.

The 1st Radio Broadcasting and Leaflet Battalion (referred to as the 1st RB&L) was activated as part of the U.S. Army's Psychological Warfare (PSYWAR) Division of the Army General School at Fort Riley, Kansas, on November 8, 1950. The unit arrived in Japan in August 1951 to take over the conduct of psychological operations from the Psychological Warfare Section, which, after its arrival, was responsible for planning and supervising psychological operations during the Korean War in the Special Projects Branch, G-2 Division of Headquarters, Military Intelligence Far East Command (FECOM), U.S. Department of Defense. This branch was tasked with responsibility for developing strategic and tactical warfare plans during the Korean War. The 1st RB&L consisted of the 4th Mobile Radio Broadcasting Company, and the 3rd Reproduction Company. The 1st Radio Broadcasting and Leaflet Battalion is also referred to in U.S. Army literature as the 1st Radio Broadcasting and Leaflet Battalion Group, which was the theater operating agency in the Korean War

The Special Projects Branch in which the 1st RB&L served was redesignated as the "Psychological Warfare Section" in 1951. The 1st RB&L existed for only the Korean War-era in the Far East Command, and was deactivated in 1954. However, the 1st RB&L would be stationed in the mid-1950s at Fort Bragg, N.C. At Fort Bragg, its name was listed as "1st RB&L." The 3rd Reproduction Company helped produce training psychological warfare flyers, leaflets, and materials for use by the Psychological Warfare Center at Fort Bragg. The Psychological Warfare Center and School had been established at Fort Bragg in 1952, after being moved there from Fort Riley. Flyers and leaflets such as those produced by the 1st RB&L were often dropped from aircraft over the training areas around Fort Bragg, to simulate the type of Communist or enemy propaganda that U.S. Army soldiers may encounter in combat or during military actions during the Cold War.

[Information for this historical note was taken directly from the following sources: "1st Radio Broadcasting And Leaflet Group 1951-1954," partly taken from the 7th Psychological Operations Group Unit History, posted on a webpage created and hosted by U.S. Army veteran Tim Yoho, on http://timyoho.us/BVApage/1stRadioBL/1stRBL.html; Psychological Operations: Principles and Case Studies, editor Frank L. Goldstein (Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air University Press, 1996); US Army Special Warfare: Its Orgins-Psychological and Unconventional Warfare, 1941-1952, by Alfred H. Paddock Jr. (Fort McNair, Washington, D.C.: National Defense University Press, 1982); and "National Defense and the United States Army,""Chapter 3, U.S. Army Center of Military History, viewed online at https://history.army.mil/books/pd-c-03.htm].

Collection Contents

The collection was received by the Military Collection at the State Archives of North Carolina from a private donor in 2019, with the donation completed in July 2020.