Throughout modern history, nations have waged silent wars for hearts, minds, and narratives. The battlefield? Human perception. The arsenal? Subterfuge, propaganda, and carefully crafted half-truths. This article spotlights 24 of the wildest and most notorious psychological operations (“psyops”) ever concocted — some overshadowed by myth, others meticulously documented in declassified files. Each entry includes the technique’s name, operational dates, major sponsors, a brief synopsis, and the cultural or historical commentary that followed.
1. The Ghost Army (World War II)
Dates: 1944–1945
Sponsor/Operator: U.S. Army, 23rd Headquarters Special Troops
Technique Overview: The Ghost Army was a covert unit of artists, actors, and sound engineers tasked with deceiving Axis forces. They employed inflatable tanks, phony radio chatter, and pre-recorded soundscapes of troop movements.
Commentary: Long classified, their feats came to light in the mid-1990s. Documentaries, books, and traveling exhibitions highlight how creative camouflage and illusion can literally alter the outcomes of battles — no bullets necessary.
2. Operation Bodyguard (1943–1944)
Dates: WWII, specifically pre-D-Day (June 1944)
Sponsor/Operator: Allied Supreme Command under General Dwight D. Eisenhower
Technique Overview: A massive deception campaign to mislead Nazi Germany about the location of the Allied invasion. Fake divisions, double agents, and counterfeit plans led the Axis to believe the main landing would happen at Pas-de-Calais instead of Normandy.
Commentary: Widely praised as one of the most successful strategic deceptions in military history. Operation Bodyguard has inspired countless spy thrillers, illustrating how misinformation can shape the tide of war.
3. Operation Mincemeat (1943)
Dates: WWII
Sponsor/Operator: British Intelligence (MI5)
Technique Overview: The British planted false invasion plans on the corpse of a homeless man dressed as a Royal Marine officer and let it wash ashore in Spain. German command took the bait, redirecting resources away from the true Allied invasion target.
Commentary: Immortalized in books (notably by Ewen Montagu) and the 2022 film Operation Mincemeat. This real-life spy story underscores just how macabre — and effective — psyops can be.
4. Tokyo Rose (World War II)
Dates: 1941–1945
Sponsor/Operator: Imperial Japanese Army, though multiple female broadcasters were collectively dubbed “Tokyo Rose”
Technique Overview: English-language radio broadcasts aimed at demoralizing Allied troops in the Pacific. They mixed propaganda messages with popular music.
Commentary: The Tokyo Rose persona became legendary; American GIs both ridiculed and were oddly captivated by the broadcasts. In the aftermath, one broadcaster (Iva Toguri d’Aquino) was famously tried and eventually pardoned, stirring debates on propaganda’s legal and moral dimensions.
5. Axis Sally (World War II)
Dates: 1942–1945
Sponsor/Operator: Nazi Germany’s Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft
Technique Overview: Similar to Tokyo Rose, “Axis Sally” referred primarily to Mildred Gillars, who broadcast English-language propaganda to Allied soldiers in Europe. She taunted their morale and glorified the Nazi cause.
Commentary: Gillars was convicted of treason after the war, shedding light on how potent a single radio voice can be in shaping battlefield psychology.
6. Operation Wandering Soul (Vietnam War)
Dates: 1969–1970 (Vietnam War)
Sponsor/Operator: U.S. Army 6th PSYOP Battalion
Technique Overview: U.S. forces played ghostly wailing sounds over loudspeakers in the jungle to exploit Vietnamese cultural beliefs about ancestor spirits wandering if not properly buried.
Commentary: A blend of cultural anthropology and psychological manipulation, Operation Wandering Soul is cited as an eerie example of leveraging spiritual beliefs on the battlefield. Documentaries and articles have questioned its ethical implications.
7. COINTELPRO (1956–1971)
Dates: 1956–1971, with some leftover activities beyond
Sponsor/Operator: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
Technique Overview: The FBI conducted covert actions to surveil, infiltrate, discredit, and disrupt U.S. political organizations, from civil rights groups to anti-war activists.
Commentary: A trove of declassified documents has shown the extent of these domestic psyops. The revelations sparked outrage among the public and spurred reforms in intelligence oversight.
8. Operation CHAOS (1967–1974)
Dates: 1967–1974
Sponsor/Operator: Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Technique Overview: Tasked with gathering information on U.S. citizens involved in anti-war movements, the CIA broke numerous legal boundaries. The operation’s existence was heavily denied until exposed by journalists.
Commentary: Alongside COINTELPRO, Operation CHAOS fueled distrust of government agencies and contributed to the formation of the Church Committee, which sought to rein in intelligence abuses.
9. Operation Mockingbird (1950s–1970s)
Dates: Roughly 1950–1976
Sponsor/Operator: CIA, spearheaded by Allen Dulles and later directors
Technique Overview: Allegedly recruited journalists and media outlets to publish or broadcast agency-influenced stories, shaping public opinion during the Cold War.
Commentary: Though partially speculative, Senate investigations in the 1970s revealed CIA ties to the press. In popular culture and conspiracy lore, “Mockingbird” looms large as a prime example of media manipulation.
10. The “Mighty Wurlitzer” (Cold War Era)
Dates: 1950s–1970s
Sponsor/Operator: CIA cultural diplomacy programs
Technique Overview: The CIA covertly funded cultural organizations, magazines, and conferences to promote pro-American sentiments. “Mighty Wurlitzer” was a nickname for this sweeping orchestration of ideas, referencing a grand, multi-piped organ.
Commentary: Historians emphasize how far-reaching these “soft power” tactics were, from literary journals to student groups. Some credit them with subtly winning hearts and minds in contested ideological arenas.
11. Hearts and Minds Campaign (Vietnam War)
Dates: 1964–1975
Sponsor/Operator: U.S. Military, South Vietnamese Government
Technique Overview: A broad public relations and civic action effort aiming to win over the rural Vietnamese population. It included distributing supplies, building infrastructure, and pushing anti-communist messaging.
Commentary: While well-known as a phrase, critics argue the campaign never overcame deeper political grievances. Still, the concept remains a major talking point in counterinsurgency doctrine and scholarship on modern warfare.
12. “Voice of Freedom” (Bay of Pigs Prelude, 1960–1961)
Dates: 1960–1961
Sponsor/Operator: CIA-backed anti-Castro radio broadcasts
Technique Overview: Exiled Cuban and CIA-paid personalities beamed messages into Cuba via clandestine radio, encouraging uprising against Fidel Castro’s regime.
Commentary: The fiasco at the Bay of Pigs overshadowed these broadcasts. Historians see “Voice of Freedom” as a classic example of external agitprop that failed to spark internal revolt, revealing limitations of psyops without on-the-ground support.
13. Operation Northwoods (1962)
Dates: Proposed in 1962 (never officially carried out)
Sponsor/Operator: U.S. Department of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff
Technique Overview: A planned false-flag operation to justify U.S. military intervention in Cuba. Techniques included staging attacks on U.S. soil and blaming Cuba.
Commentary: Declassified in the 1990s, Operation Northwoods caused a stir, showing the extremes to which military strategists would go to manipulate public sentiment and policy.
14. The White House Plumbers (1971–1972)
Dates: 1971–1972
Sponsor/Operator: Nixon Administration operatives (E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy, among others)
Technique Overview: A covert team set up to stop leaks to the media, it soon evolved into break-ins, dirty tricks, and smear campaigns against perceived opponents.
Commentary: Their activities, culminating in the Watergate scandal, forced President Nixon’s resignation. The fiasco endures as a potent warning of psyops turned inward — directed at domestic political enemies.
15. Operation Mongoose (1961–1963)
Dates: 1961–1963
Sponsor/Operator: CIA under the direction of the Kennedy Administration
Technique Overview: Though best known for its assassination plots against Castro, Operation Mongoose also involved propaganda — radio broadcasts, leaflets, and infiltration to destabilize Cuba’s government.
Commentary: Declassified documents reveal a wide range of imaginative sabotage ideas. Popular culture fixates on the sensational details, like exploding cigars, but forgets the quieter propaganda prongs of the campaign.
16. Cuban “Black Propaganda” Flyers (1960s)
Dates: 1960s
Sponsor/Operator: CIA, anti-Castro exiles
Technique Overview: Distribution of counterfeit Cuban government flyers that appeared to come from communist authorities, calling for oppressive measures. The goal was to spark discontent among Cubans.
Commentary: A lesser-known spin-off of anti-Castro efforts. Journalistic exposés in the post–Cold War era have deemed this a prime example of “black propaganda,” where the source is disguised.
17. Soviet “Active Measures” (Cold War Era)
Dates: 1920s–1980s (though the term “Active Measures” peaked in the 1960s–1980s)
Sponsor/Operator: KGB and other Soviet intelligence agencies
Technique Overview: A broad campaign of disinformation, forgery, and rumor-spreading to undermine enemy governments — especially the U.S. Operations included planting false stories in newspapers worldwide.
Commentary: Scholars argue the Soviets’ mastery of disinformation ironically fueled reciprocal Western psyops. Today, “Active Measures” stands as a blueprint for modern “fake news” and cyber-warfare.
18. GCHQ’s “Online Covert Action” Slides (Early 2010s)
Dates: Released by Edward Snowden in 2013 (covering activities around that time)
Sponsor/Operator: UK’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)
Technique Overview: Classified training slides describing how to manipulate public opinion online — tactics ranging from social media infiltration to sowing discord in hostile groups.
Commentary: Journalists and civil liberties groups criticized these revelations, sparking debate over governments’ involvement in shaping digital narratives — no cloak, just clicks.
19. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (1949–Present)
Dates: Founded in 1949, active through the Cold War and beyond
Sponsor/Operator: Originally funded by the CIA, now U.S. Congress
Technique Overview: Broadcasts into Soviet Bloc nations to spread pro-democracy views, news censored by local regimes, and anti-communist perspectives.
Commentary: While widely lauded for offering uncensored information to Eastern Europe, critics label it Western propaganda. In the aftermath of the Cold War, it remains a symbol of “soft power” psyops.
20. Operation Just Cause “Rock Music Psyop” (1989)
Dates: 1989–1990 (Invasion of Panama)
Sponsor/Operator: U.S. Southern Command
Technique Overview: U.S. troops blared rock music (from bands like Van Halen and Guns N’ Roses) outside the Vatican Embassy in Panama City, where General Manuel Noriega had taken refuge. The goal was to drive him out via psychological harassment.
Commentary: Media coverage was initially amused, but the tactic raised questions about ethics. Still, it became a pop-culture footnote: the “heavy metal siege” that forced a dictator’s surrender.
21. “Pied Piper” Election Strategies (Leaked in 2016)
Dates: 2015–2016 U.S. Election Cycle
Sponsor/Operator: Internal DNC strategy memos (according to hacked/leaked emails)
Technique Overview: Allegedly, certain political campaigns elevated extreme candidates (the “pied piper” figures) in rival parties, believing they’d be easier to defeat in a general election.
Commentary: Though not a traditional military psyop, journalists and critics labeled it psychological manipulation on a national stage — proof that high-level strategists can shape entire electoral narratives by subtly boosting certain voices.
22. “Cyber Herding” on Social Media (2010s–Present)
Dates: Not a single operation, but an ongoing phenomenon
Sponsor/Operator: Multiple governments and private contractors
Technique Overview: Troll farms, botnets, and fake influencers used to nudge public sentiment, create illusions of consensus, or demoralize specific groups.
Commentary: Russia’s Internet Research Agency is the most famous example, but many nations reportedly engage in digital psyops. Documentaries like The Great Hack highlight the staggering new frontiers of mind manipulation.
23. Saddam Hussein’s “Mother of All Battles” Broadcasts (1990–1991)
Dates: Gulf War
Sponsor/Operator: Iraqi state-run media
Technique Overview: Lavish propaganda describing the Gulf War as “The Mother of All Battles,” asserting unstoppable Iraqi might. Included inflated casualty reports of Coalition forces and morale-boosting claims.
Commentary: The grandiose language became a focal point of Western news coverage. Historians see it as a textbook attempt at boosting domestic morale in the face of overwhelming odds.
24. Fake Leaflets in Afghanistan (Post-9/11)
Dates: Early to mid-2000s
Sponsor/Operator: Alleged U.S. and coalition force psyops
Technique Overview: Leaflets depicting Taliban fighters in humiliating scenarios or promising rewards for information. Some leaflets mimicked Taliban messaging, attempting to sow confusion among insurgents.
Commentary: Journalists embedded with troops reported on the “propaganda bombs” dropping leaflets. The success rate remains debated, but they highlight how the classic “paper drop” approach continues in modern warfare.
Where Facts and Fabrications Collide
From broadcasting eerie wails through jungle canopies to inflating tank battalions and turning pop music into a siege engine, these 24 psyops illustrate the boundless creativity and moral gray zones of psychological warfare. In each instance, the ultimate goal was to mold beliefs, prompt confusion, or steer entire populations — often without a single shot fired.
The enduring lesson? Whether carried out via radio signals, leaflets raining from the sky, or phantom divisions on social media, human minds remain the greatest battlefield of all. And as these stories show, in the realm of perception, fiction often becomes reality — or, at the very least, outstrips it in sheer audacity.
It doesn’t take a history degree to know there are many things the U.S. government has kept classified over the years. Most of them are fairly benign (think, for example, details related to military security and personal privacy). But others involve secret U.S. government operations—and that’s where things get interesting.
Many of these covert affairs sound straight out of the movies: evil doctors, government surveillance and hidden bunkers are much more real than you might think, and the details of each will render you speechless.
Project Sunshine: Steal corpses
In the 1950s, in an effort to study the effects of nuclear weapons, the federal government established a worldwide network to secretly collect tissue samples from more than 900 human cadavers. The “body snatching” took place in secret, without notification or permission from each deceased’s next of kin.
In 1994, President Bill Clinton formed an advisory committee to investigate so that these government secrets wouldn’t stay secret or continue to inspire conspiracy theorists. The result was a 900-page report acknowledging the unethical and illegal actions taken during Project Sunshine.
Operation Northwoods: Plan fake terrorist attacks
In response to Fidel Castro’s burgeoning dictatorship and the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion in Cuba, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff circulated a memo on March 13, 1962, with the subject line “Justification for U.S. Military Intervention in Cuba.”
In the missive, the Joint Chiefs outlined suggestions to provoke Cuba, such as “Start rumors (many),” “Sink ship near harbor entrance. Conduct funerals for mock-victims” and “…blow up a U.S. ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba.” Days later, President John F. Kennedy rejected Operation Northwoods, and Lyman Lemnitzer, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was denied a second term of office.
Operation Paperclip: Hire Nazi scientists
A bloody conflict like World War II is bound to result in some secret U.S. government operations, but this one is especially cringeworthy. In August 1945, with the smoke of World War II still clearing, President Harry Truman approved the hiring of more than 1,500 German scientists, technicians and engineers.
Among them were Wernher von Braun, the chief rocket engineer of the Third Reich, and Walter Schreiber, the German Army’s wartime chief of medical science, who authorized dangerous experiments on humans. To assure security clearance in the United States, the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency created false records for the scientists, many of whom were considered wartime criminals.
Operation Mockingbird: Spy on reporters
In a plot worthy of an Orwell novel, between March and June 1963 the CIA spied on two reporters, who, according to the agency, disclosed sensitive national security information in national newspapers. The illegal activity, noted in documents declassified in 2007, included wiretaps on the reporters’ home and office telephones. The CIA noted that the project was “particularly productive in identifying contacts of the newsmen … including senators, members of Congress and other well-placed individuals.”
Project Greek Island: Build secret bunkers
The Greenbriar Hotel in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, may look like just another luxury resort. But the U.S. government secrets lying beneath the hotel’s west wing remained hidden for 30 years. Built in 1961, a 112,544-square-foot bunker, complete with enough dormitories to accommodate 1,100 people, functioned as a shelter for members of Congress in the event of a nuclear bomb. Revealed by a Washington Post reporter in 1992, the bunker was quickly decommissioned. Don’t worry, the hotel still offers tours.
Operation CHAOS: Investigate antiwar protests
In the mid-1960s, public disapproval of the Vietnam War was widespread. President Johnson and the CIA teamed up to investigate the protests on college campuses and throughout the United States. They were searching for foreign influences on the antiwar movement, particularly from Communist countries.
For the next several years, stretching into the Nixon administration, CIA agents went undercover to investigate organizations like the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Washington Urban League. They never found any Communist influences, but they compiled thousands of files on innocent individuals. Not to mention, the entire operation was illegal, since the CIA was only legally permitted to collect foreign intelligence.
Project Azorian: Recover a sunken submarine
This six-year project was one of the most complicated that the CIA ever undertook. In the late 1960s, a Soviet submarine with the name “K-129” sank about 1,500 miles north of Hawaii, taking a trio of ballistic missiles with it. The CIA and the Department of Defense realized that this provided a valuable opportunity to gain Soviet intelligence, so they began a covert operation to put together a massive deep-sea vessel with a mechanical claw that would lift the submarine more than three miles to the surface.
In the end, the ship was only able to recover a single section of the submarine. To make matters worse for the CIA, thieves broke into the company that built the ship and stole secret documents related to the project. They eventually exposed the story, forcing the CIA to abandon its attempt to recover the remainder of the submarine.
Operation Gold: Intercept Soviet communications
Considered the first covert CIA operation of the Cold War, Operation Gold sought to tap Soviet lines of communication at their military headquarters in Berlin. The CIA, together with the British Secret Intelligence Service, hoped to access the underground cables below the city. Accomplishing this required a massive endeavor, and in 1954, digging began on a nearly 1,500-foot tunnel, precariously located just underneath a major thoroughfare. About nine months after digging began, the first taps were installed.
Unfortunately for the CIA, however, a Soviet mole had become privy to the plans, and in April 1956, a Soviet maintenance crew uncovered the tunnel, forcing the American agents to vacate it. In the 11 months the tunnel was functional, they were able to monitor hundreds of thousands of conversations.
Operation Merlin: Plant fake nuclear blueprints
In the late 1990s, the CIA set out to hinder Iran’s nuclear program, which they viewed as an increasingly dangerous threat. To do that, they arranged for Tehran’s scientists to receive a nuclear blueprint that was intentionally incorrect and wouldn’t produce a working bomb. They gave the blueprints to a Russian scientist, who passed the plans along to the Iranians. However, the scientist noticed the plans were flawed and pointed it out to the Iranians.
Stargate Project: Investigate psychic abilities
This might be the weirdest of all these U.S. government secrets. Starting in the 1970s, the CIA conducted a series of experiments in hopes of unlocking the secret to “remote viewing.” This process, theoretically, allows people to “see” or experience things that are far away by reaching out with their minds. In other words, they wanted to unlock the mystery of psychic abilities. Though the project was small—it only had 15 to 20 participants—it lasted almost 20 years. The CIA wouldn’t shut it down until 1995, when they finally concluded that it hadn’t produced any effective results. Go figure.
Throughout history, governments have authorized psychological operations (PSYOP) that range from culturally manipulative audio recordings to bizarre Cold War experiments. Now often referred to by the U.S. military as Military Information Support Operations (MISO), these tactics aim to influence the emotions, reasoning, and behavior of foreign audiences
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Notorious and Unusual Operations
Operation Wandering Soul (Vietnam War): The U.S. military exploited Vietnamese spiritual beliefs by broadcasting "Ghost Tape Number Ten" via loudspeakers. The recording featured eerie music and the voices of "dead soldiers" pleading with their comrades to desert and return home to avoid becoming wandering souls.
Project MK-Ultra: A clandestine CIA program that conducted hundreds of experiments, often on unwitting citizens, to identify drugs and procedures (such as LSD and sensory deprivation) that could be used in interrogations or to weaken individuals through mind control.
The "Extra Small" Condom Plan: During the Cold War, the CIA reportedly considered dropping oversized condoms labeled "Medium" or "Small" over Soviet territory. The goal was to demoralize Soviet men by implying American anatomical superiority.
Operation Merlin: In the late 1990s, the CIA attempted to sabotage Iran's nuclear program by providing their scientists with intentionally flawed nuclear blueprints. The plan backfired when the Russian intermediary noticed the errors and pointed them out to the Iranians.
Ghost Army (WWII): The U.S. 23rd Headquarters Special Troops used inflatable tanks, sound trucks, and fake radio transmissions to trick German forces into believing the Allied army was larger and positioned elsewhere than it actually was.
Operation Sea-Spray: In 1950, the U.S. Navy sprayed a supposedly harmless bacterium (Serratia marcescens) over San Francisco to study how a biological weapon might spread in a coastal city.
Classification of PSYOP
White PSYOP: Acknowledged by the government and used to provide truthful information to a target audience.
Grey PSYOP: The source is deliberately ambiguous or not identified.
Black PSYOP: Designed to appear as if it originates from a hostile source; the U.S. government would deny responsibility for these covert actions.
Modern Evolution
In 2026, psychological operations have shifted toward the digital domain. Current strategies often involve perception management through social media algorithms, AI-generated content, and tailored messaging designed to exploit existing societal divisions. Researchers have noted the rise of "PSYOP capitalism," where the tools of influence used by the military—such as surveillance and data analytics—are mirrored in the private sector to shape consumer behavior.
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