- 5/16/2025
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00:30Deception has always been a vital part of military warfare.
00:41It's often been the basis of stunning victories.
00:47It can save equipment and lives, reducing the cost of victory.
00:54Modern deception came of age in the planning rooms and on the battlefields of World War
00:58II.
01:03Both sides embraced battlefield deception and employed an assortment of curious gadgets
01:08to deceive the enemy.
01:13But the use of deception on the battlefield comes with a price, because deception itself
01:18has long been considered a weapon of the weak.
01:23The only difference between using deception in a powerful army and a weak army is the
01:28powerful army has the option not to use deception and still, you know, go about their business.
01:34A weaker army has no choice.
01:35If they don't use deception, they might as well all go home because they'll all be dead
01:38pretty soon.
01:39The weak have to use it, and that's why we have this sense that deception is something
01:43the weak use.
01:44There's no reason for the strong to abandon deception.
01:49Merely because I'm strong and can crush the enemy, doesn't mean I shouldn't economize
01:56on my blood and treasure.
01:59Deceptive practices are often taken for granted.
02:02All armies routinely use camouflage, develop plans to confuse the enemy, and apply counterintelligence
02:09techniques to ensure that they're not fooled themselves.
02:15These tactics are fundamental to military operations.
02:20Without them, victory is almost impossible.
02:25There's probably no more important tactic in military warfare than being able to deceive
02:30the enemy.
02:31I mean, you can fight the enemy one of two ways.
02:34You can fight him head on and very often lose, or you can try and outsmart him.
02:41Commanders aren't the only ones who make use of deception.
02:45The individual soldier frequently depends on simple deceptive techniques.
02:54The most common are concealment, camouflage, and moving with stealth.
03:01Concealment is simply finding a place to hide.
03:03If they can't see you, they can't shoot at you, especially if they've never seen you
03:07at all.
03:09Camouflage is the use of techniques that will hide your people to make them look like something
03:15else, to make a truck look like a tank, to make an ammunition dump look like a forest.
03:24Camouflaging has become institutionalized.
03:27Uniforms and vehicles are patterned uniformly to minimize their visual impact.
03:32For winter fighting, there's one pattern, while another is used in desert fighting.
03:38Fighting in the jungle and forest demands still another look.
03:43Whatever the season or the region, camouflage working with concealment helps make troops,
03:48their equipment, and their movement nearly invisible to the enemy.
03:56Battlefield deception extends beyond facial camouflage and foxholes.
04:00The desire to believe that a situation is developing one way, despite substantial evidence
04:05to the contrary, is self-deception, and that is one of the most dangerous traps of all.
04:13In the Korean War, both sides fell prey to self-deception.
04:19The first to suffer from its deadly consequences were the North Koreans.
04:29Following their surprise attack in the early morning on June 25, 1950, the North Koreans
04:35had American and South Korean troops retreating.
04:41They were confident that they would be victorious in a matter of days.
04:45Their confidence swelled as they easily pushed their way down the Korean peninsula.
04:52And they kept telling themselves that victory was theirs, in spite of intelligence warnings
04:57that General Douglas MacArthur, the United Nations commander, was planning an invasion
05:01at Incheon.
05:06But North Korea's leader, Kim Il-sung, was convinced that a landing at Incheon would
05:11be impossible because of the intense tidal conditions there, which can fluctuate up to
05:1635 feet a day.
05:19MacArthur's own generals and admirals also believed it couldn't be done.
05:24For this very reason, MacArthur insisted on landing there.
05:28In the early morning hours of September 15, 1950, U.N. forces headed toward the Incheon
05:34coast.
05:40MacArthur knew he had only two hours in which to get two whole divisions ashore.
05:45His naval advisors had told him that if he missed that two-hour window, all of his landing
05:50craft would be stranded on mudflats.
05:52But MacArthur's timing was impeccable.
05:57The landing at Incheon was almost completely unopposed.
06:04North Korean troops in the south were suddenly cut off from their supply lines.
06:11Surprise is the payoff for deception.
06:13That's the payback.
06:15In Korea, we had a historical, an example of historical proportions, where we landed
06:22behind the North Korean lines at Incheon and basically destroyed the North Korean army
06:26by that very act.
06:29MacArthur had pulled off the most daring, brilliant maneuver of his career.
06:35So there was an example of deception and a feint worked extremely well, which made it
06:42even more ironic that within a few months MacArthur would suffer the biggest defeat
06:46of his career because of a deception pulled off by the enemy.
06:51Tasting victory, MacArthur pushed north in hot pursuit of the enemy.
06:56Across the North Korean border, the Chinese leadership monitored the U.N. advance uneasily.
07:02They feared that MacArthur, unchecked, would invade their homeland, but they did not want
07:06to intervene.
07:07It wasn't their war.
07:10In late September, China's leader, Mao Zedong, received a series of secret cables from Joseph
07:16Stalin.
07:19The Soviet leader pressured Mao to send troops in to turn back the U.N. forces.
07:25Reluctantly, Mao agreed, but he did it his way, the way of the wily guerrilla fighter.
07:33And so they were able to sneak into North Korea by crossing the Yalu River at night,
07:37only moving cross-country at night, and moving over the mountains through the roughest terrain
07:42where we would never expect them.
07:45In this manner, Mao managed to sneak nearly 500,000 Chinese soldiers into Korea in just
07:51four weeks without MacArthur's knowledge.
07:55But MacArthur should have known about it.
07:57Some intelligence had emerged.
07:59This time, the U.N. forces were blinded by self-deception.
08:04When small groups of Chinese troops were captured north of Seoul, General Charles Willoughby,
08:09MacArthur's intelligence officer, shrugged it off as individual Chinese serving voluntarily
08:14in the North Korean army.
08:17MacArthur agreed, saying that the Chinese were not foolish enough to take on the enormous
08:21firepower of a mechanized Western army.
08:27By keeping his troops well hidden in the mountains, Mao led MacArthur and his staff to conclude
08:32that if Chinese soldiers were in Korea, their numbers were insignificant.
08:37The element of surprise remained with Mao.
08:41MacArthur continued moving his forces toward the Chinese border.
08:45On November 24th, 1950, Mao signaled his field commanders in North Korea that the time
08:52had come for a main offensive.
08:59Three days later, at the Chosin Reservoir, over 12,000 U.S. Marines and 2,000 U.S. Army
09:05soldiers settled in for the night.
09:08Among them were Howard Mason of Long Beach, California, and Bob Hammond from Las Vegas,
09:16Nevada.
09:18The word was we'd be home by Christmas.
09:20It looked like we were going to have a very quick victory.
09:24Then there came rumors of a Chinese entry into the war.
09:30We saw no evidence of it.
09:33They were in total concealment.
09:35We had not the slightest idea that there were a division of Chinese troops surrounding
09:41the 7th Regiment.
09:44More than 100,000 Chinese troops completely surrounded the Marines and the soldiers.
09:51Shortly after midnight, they attacked.
09:54They fell on us like a swarm of locusts in the night.
10:01They could get up to within 10 or 15 feet of you without you ever knowing they were
10:07there sometimes.
10:10The Chinese came at the U.S. forces in human waves, thousands at a time, adding a shock
10:16effect to their element of surprise.
10:20Later during that night, Chinese were running all through our position, and there were firefights
10:27everywhere.
10:30Just before morning, just before dawn on the 28th of November, I found myself almost alone
10:38at my 105 howitzer.
10:42From about 100 yards away, they came out of nowhere, 200 or 300 of them, blowing bugles,
10:50whistles, screaming and yelling at us, and charging and firing at us.
10:55It scared the hell out of me.
10:58And I got up and yelled at the guys who were in the bunkers behind me, get out of there.
11:05Here they come.
11:07It took the U.S. forces several weeks to fight their way out of the Chinese trap at the Chosin
11:12Reservoir.
11:21Many were killed, captured or wounded.
11:24Bob Hammond was one of those wounded.
11:27He was the only survivor of his seven-man gun squad.
11:32Those who lived through the brutal fighting at the reservoir call themselves the Chosin
11:36Few.
11:41MacArthur had fallen victim to Mao's deception.
11:45The facts and the numbers were there.
11:48And from the Marines who I was associated with, we had not a very high regard for General
11:57MacArthur, nor his intelligence system.
12:02At the time of the Korean War, it was known that the Soviet Union was behind North Korea.
12:07But how much has always been somewhat of a mystery until now.
12:12Newly declassified information from Russian archives reveals that Joseph Stalin controlled
12:18much of the Korean War from Moscow.
12:27Joseph Stalin's involvement in the Korean War has been debated for years.
12:32Now secret KGB documents made public after the collapse of the Soviet Union show that
12:38he was totally committed to the war.
12:42He provided arms and Soviet advisers who actually wrote battle plans for the North Koreans.
12:49He had thousands of Soviet warplanes put in crates and secretly shipped to air bases along
12:54the Manchurian border.
12:58First of all, we provided the Chinese with aircraft and with the pilots too, because
13:03the Chinese couldn't run the aircraft.
13:08They were just, well, learning this job.
13:12The Soviets went to extraordinary lengths to disguise their activity.
13:17They painted Chinese and North Korean insignia on all their planes.
13:22Russian pilots wore Chinese uniforms and used Chinese phrases on their air-to-air and air-to-ground
13:28radio transmissions.
13:30To help ensure that no downed Russian pilots fell into U.N. hands, Stalin restricted their
13:35flights to a small zone above the North Korean-Chinese border.
13:42And the pilots were given the instruction that if something happens, you must commit
13:48suicide.
13:49You see, never say that you are a Soviet pilot.
13:56Soviet intelligence officers were used to interrogate American prisoners of war.
14:05The status of a number of those American POWs still remains a mystery.
14:13Declassified cables also show that Stalin had become an obstacle to the peace process.
14:19Both sides wanted to end the war and were willing to accept a ceasefire agreement.
14:25But Stalin was using the war as a means of gathering intelligence on the Americans without
14:30the loss of Russian lives.
14:32He saw no reason to bring it to a quick conclusion.
14:39His death in March 1953 enabled both sides to bring the Korean War to an end.
14:45A ceasefire began just three months after Stalin's death.
14:51Korea has remained divided along the 38th parallel for over 50 years and the North Koreans
14:57continue to deceive.
15:01Across the DMZ separating the two Koreas is a small village.
15:05It's clearly visible to anyone looking from the South.
15:09It's the picture of tranquility and prosperity, but it's all a hoax.
15:14The village's inhabitants are brought in each morning to act on a stage replete with all
15:19the right props.
15:21This charade has gone on for decades, ironically called Freedom Village by the Americans.
15:28Its existence is in stark contrast to the millions of starving North Koreans that Westerners
15:34reportedly are not allowed to see.
15:38Numerous infiltration tunnels were found under the DMZ over the past several decades.
15:44Several of the bigger tunnels are wide enough for the movement of vehicles and artillery
15:48pieces.
15:52The use of tunnels to mislead an opponent is a centuries-old tactic, but the modern
15:58masters were the Vietnamese communists.
16:02Faced with a heavily armed enemy flown into battle in helicopters, their very existence
16:07depended upon not being seen.
16:10To counter their enemy, they dug the most complex tunnel and bunker system in modern
16:15warfare.
16:16When they were finished burrowing underground, hundreds of miles of tunnels from Cambodia
16:21to Saigon connected cities to towns and towns to villages.
16:29Tunnel systems were so abundant and so well-concealed that the U.S. Army's 25th Infantry Division
16:34unwittingly built its headquarters on top of one of the biggest in Vietnam.
16:40It was over a hundred miles long and consisted of many branches connecting to underground
16:46hideouts, shelters, and entrances to other tunnels.
16:51These were the tunnels of Cu Chi, where the communists planned the 1968 Tet Offensive.
16:57The Americans on the ground directly above the tunnel system never detected what was
17:02going on right beneath their feet.
17:08Just about anything that could be done above ground, the Viet Cong accomplished below ground.
17:15The tunnel system contained storage rooms for weapons and food, hospitals to care for
17:20the wounded, large rooms for teaching classes or planning battles, dormitories and kitchens
17:27for quartering and feeding soldiers.
17:30Some of the larger systems used by high-ranking officials had all the comforts of home.
17:37Lighting and plumbing, in some cases, and they even had generating plants and sewage
17:44disposal facilities and whatnot, so they were quite elaborate.
17:49Tunnels were also constructed to cover and conceal escape routes after a battle.
17:55Such was the case following the well-planned Viet Cong ambush of an American convoy on
18:00Highway 1 on November 21, 1966.
18:05The seasoned guerrilla leader of the Dong Nai Regiment set up his veteran force of 1,500
18:10Viet Cong along a well-concealed, desolate stretch of Highway 1, just west of Xuan Loc.
18:19When the Americans, members of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, entered the ambush kill
18:23zone, the VC opened up with superior firepower.
18:29The element of surprise was in their favor.
18:32Still, the Americans repelled the ambush.
18:40Their gunships and fighter aircraft helped seal the victory.
18:44Despite the American success, they failed to destroy many of the VC.
18:51The tactic that saved a majority of the enemy was their rehearsed withdrawal down narrow
18:56jungle trails covered by camouflage.
18:59They then slipped into tunnels hidden off the trail by thick jungle, none of it visible
19:05from the air.
19:08U.S. troops conducting search-and-destroy missions were often frustrated when they discovered
19:12the tunnels.
19:15When the Americans made contact, the Viet Cong seemed to disappear.
19:21If an underground passage was found, a search often found the tunnel empty.
19:26Finding the ways in and out was not always easy for the Americans.
19:32Any animal that burrows in the ground, they have more than one exit.
19:35And the communists realized they could use this technique, not just to escape, but if
19:42we thought we had them one place, they'd pop up behind us and take a shot at us.
19:47Keeping entrances to tunnels covered and concealed was a top priority to the Viet Cong.
19:57Here in the middle of the jungle is a trap door that hid an entrance to the Cu Chi tunnel
20:02complex.
20:03The VC used a variety of safeguards to keep the tunnels hidden.
20:09On a secret cross-border mission into Laos in 1970, Sergeant Lloyd Byland came across
20:15a most curious sight in an enemy area his team had under observation.
20:23Probably the most striking thing I noticed about that area were a very, very sophisticated
20:31stove that they could use.
20:33The smoke was actually absorbed into the soil.
20:39If the Americans were lucky enough to get close to the tunnels, they might find the
20:43entrances protected with booby traps made with hand grenades or sharpened bamboo called
20:49punji stakes.
20:51Deadly snakes tethered to sticks were also popular.
20:56The insides of the tunnels were designed to throw off an intruder.
21:01Tunnels that appeared small sometimes had undetectable trap doors that led to larger
21:06compartments.
21:08Tunnels with apparent dead ends gave the impression of a smaller, less important crawlspace.
21:14Underground passages would zigzag, making it impossible to fire at someone at close
21:19range.
21:20While the Viet Cong tunnel system frustrated many of the Americans in Vietnam, communist
21:25infiltrators in the Allied ranks were proving to be even harder to find.
21:39One of the greatest deceptions of the Vietnam War was the large number of people in the
21:43South Vietnamese government and military who were actually working for the communists.
21:54One of the problems you always have when you get involved in a civil war, whether
21:58it be Vietnam or Korea for that matter, or Kosovo, is that it's hard to tell who the
22:06good guys and the bad guys are.
22:08One of the interesting aspects of the deception in the war was the extent to which we know
22:16that the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese had infiltrated the civil and military apparatus
22:22of South Vietnam.
22:25U.S. military estimates of infiltration in some units ran as high as 30 percent, while
22:30fewer in number, communist infiltrators among the mercenaries hired by the U.S. Army Special
22:35Forces posed a deadly and immediate threat.
22:39Every Green Beret quickly learned to keep one eye on where the enemy might be and the
22:43other on the South Vietnamese soldiers around him.
22:50So it became a fairly common deception for them to have some of their troops dress up
22:55as South Vietnamese troops, either to distract or to be part of the attack force, to come
23:00in there and to then quickly open fire.
23:04The inability to determine who was who proved fatal for those at Ngoc Tavac, a temporary
23:10special forces operating base built around an old French fort near the border of Laos.
23:17May 10, 1968.
23:21In the early morning hours, enemy mortars and rockets pounded the camp, followed shortly
23:26by a North Vietnamese Army battalion blasting through the wire.
23:31At the same time, artillerymen on loan from the Marines were approached by a large number
23:36of the camp's mercenaries.
23:39Thinking they were coming to help defend their position, the Marines gladly let them advance.
23:45Suddenly the mercenaries began firing and throwing grenades, killing and wounding several
23:50Americans.
23:54It was later determined that about 20% of the camp mercenaries had actually been Viet
24:00Cong.
24:02Fighting at Ngoc Tavac went on throughout the night, and by morning the camp was lost.
24:08Those who survived were forced to escape and evade through the jungle, with the NVA following
24:14quickly from behind.
24:16Most escaped and were picked up by Marine helicopters.
24:20Others were listed as missing in action.
24:25So this was another form of deception, deceiving the enemy into thinking that all the people
24:29he had as allies were true allies, and many of them were not.
24:35Agents working for the Communists were by no means restricted to the rank and file.
24:40Several high-ranking officials and civilians were counted among the moles, and worked for
24:45the South with considerable distinction.
24:53They were known to plant agents, people in their 20s, and wouldn't expect them to mature
24:58for 20 or 30 years.
25:01I know that we had a hard time trusting the Vietnamese Special Forces, and it turns out
25:07after the war we find out that they planted one of their agents in a position back in
25:15the 40s before it was even important, and by the time of the war he was a major general.
25:22The South Vietnamese Special Forces general was Pham Dinh Tu.
25:26So mysterious was he that to this day no known photo of him exists.
25:33One of the most damaging and successful long-term deep-penetration agents was the bureau chief
25:39for Time magazine in Saigon.
25:43According to Congressional Committee records, Pham Xuan An was actually a colonel in the
25:47North Vietnamese Intelligence Service.
25:51The Congressional reports credited Colonel An as a major source of misinformation during
25:57the entire war.
26:00They also suggested that his manipulation of media coverage contributed to fueling the
26:05American anti-war climate back in the States.
26:12How much damage the undercover communists' agents inflicted cannot be known, but their
26:18presence was a masterful feat of deception.
26:24The Americans also used a variety of deceptions to mislead the enemy.
26:30Some of the best practitioners were the men of the Long Range Reconnaissance Patrols,
26:34or LRPS, the elite of the infantry profession.
26:40Our missions varied.
26:43Sometimes they were linear recon where you just get on the ground, strike an azimuth,
26:47and follow it.
26:49Sometimes it was trail watch.
26:51Sometimes it was river watch.
26:53Sometimes it was down pilot rescue.
26:55Sometimes it was POW snatch.
26:59Getting LRPS into the jungle by helicopter where they could hide and spy on the enemy
27:03took a different kind of deception.
27:07That's where fake landing zones came in.
27:10Dubbed LZ fake, this illusionary maneuver called for helicopters to drop to ground level
27:16as if they were discharging troops.
27:19But the troops would not disembark.
27:22Only after several of these false landings would the recon team eventually jump out and
27:26disappear into the jungle.
27:31In small teams of six to ten men, they would canvas enemy territory, often with thousands
27:37of enemy troops near them.
27:41At any moment, they could have been discovered.
27:45Their very survival depended on stealth and cunning.
27:51Well the key, any time you go on the ground, is number one, to not be seen, and number
27:56two, to not be heard.
27:59Multicolored camouflage paints were used to darken faces.
28:04Camouflage fatigues that blended into the jungle were worn.
28:08Moving through the bush without making a lot of noise required silent signals.
28:14When the enemy was encountered, the team remained silent.
28:23Silence was it.
28:24One of the things I would do with my team was once they were all loaded up and ready
28:30to go, to have each man jump up and down in place.
28:34And if he rattled, we had to find out what was rattling and stop it from doing it.
28:41If a LERP team was discovered, they had to break contact with the enemy fast.
28:45One way was to return enemy fire with a captured enemy rifle.
28:51Its distinct sounds and tracer ammunition were enough to confuse the enemy and buy precious
28:56time.
29:01Our tracers are red.
29:03Theirs are green.
29:05You get in trouble.
29:08You have to return fire.
29:11You return fire and all of a sudden the enemy sees green tracers coming at him.
29:15He is confused.
29:16What?
29:17Have I hit my own people?
29:19Many times that is just enough to buy you the time you need to break contact.
29:26If a recon team was compromised, they would be extracted immediately.
29:32This was called a hot extraction.
29:34The most common means of removal was by helicopter, but if the helicopter could not land, various
29:39rigs were used to pull out the team members.
29:44On my second mission, I came out hot and they dropped a ladder to us and we used the ladder
29:51to actually climb inside the helicopter.
29:54On another mission, I came out on a McGuire rig, which really is nothing more than a great
29:57big swing with a little strap that you put your hand through and you tighten it so that
30:05if you are hit or in any way rendered unconscious, that you won't fall out of it.
30:12The stable rig was another means for extracting recon members, but this required team members
30:18to carry specially designed gear while they were on patrol.
30:23It replaced the load bearing equipment that was normally issued.
30:28The pistol belt was strung through it and then there were leg straps that were S-folded.
30:38For using it, you actually undid the leg straps, brought them between your legs and hooked
30:42them in front.
30:44What the aircraft dropped was a set of snaps on the end of a rope and you hooked these
30:51into the D-rings that were on the harness of the stable rig and that's the way you
30:56came out.
30:59Bold and swift movements of personnel, such as putting special operations people behind
31:03enemy lines or relocating entire divisions at rapid speeds, can be deceptions in and
31:09of themselves.
31:11By the time they're done, it's too late for the enemy to do much about them.
31:15That's exactly what happened in Operation Desert Storm.
31:23U.S. Army General Norman Schwarzkopf, commander of the coalition forces, had the mission to
31:28run the Iraqi army out of Kuwait as quickly as possible at the lowest cost in coalition
31:33lives.
31:35To accomplish his mission, General Schwarzkopf and his planners created a tactical plan that
31:40became known as the Hail Mary.
31:42The plan called for a half dozen mechanized divisions to charge across the open desert
31:47to the west of the Iraqi defensive lines, hook around their exposed flanks and smash
31:53them from behind.
31:58To accomplish this, the mechanized force would have to secretly move inland to a place in
32:03the middle of the Iraqi desert where the attack would begin.
32:10Schwarzkopf knew his tactical plan had little chance of working unless it was married to
32:15a clever deception plan that combined feints, displays, demonstrations, and stealth.
32:24Schwarzkopf had studied the Iran-Iraq War of 1980 through 1988.
32:29He knew something about the Iraqi army's tactics.
32:33So when the Iraqis built elaborately fortified positions along the Kuwaiti-Saudi Arabian
32:38border, Schwarzkopf saw that the Iraqis were expecting an attack straight through those
32:43positions.
32:45Schwarzkopf decided to build his deception plan around Saddam Hussein's expectations.
32:53I think the biggest problem in conducting the Hail Mary operation was deploying all
32:57the forces into theater, assembling them, preventing the Iraqis from knowing where the
33:03forces were going to be, protecting those forces, and at the same time preparing for
33:08an attack while deceiving the Iraqis from where that attack would come.
33:14The deception plan hinged on the initial bombing campaign.
33:18High on the list of targets were Iraqi warplanes.
33:25Enough were destroyed on the ground to give the coalition command of the skies.
33:32With the absence of Iraqi aerial observers, the coalition planners controlled the activities
33:37they wanted the Iraqis to see and hid others.
33:47The first illusion the coalition put on was an impressive yet conspicuous amphibious assault
33:52force lying off the coast of Kuwait.
33:56But this powerful and credible force was a display, a ploy intended to distract Saddam's
34:03attention away from the coalition's real intentions of attacking from the west.
34:09Display is letting the enemy see what we want him to see, because it fits into our intentions
34:17as to tricking him.
34:19The coalition then let the unsuspecting media help in the deceit.
34:24To help ensure that Saddam Hussein was aware of U.S. intentions to attack his coastal fortifications,
34:31a spokesman briefed the world's electronic and print media about their ongoing amphibious
34:36assault training exercises, which often began with a landing, followed by breaching forces
34:42going through the wire.
34:44The Pentagon had an interest in creating the impression that there would be some type of
34:50amphibious landing along the coast of Kuwait.
34:53So for that reason, you saw a lot of release of information about naval activities within
34:58the Persian Gulf.
35:00In fact, I wrote about it in magazine articles predicting that there would be an amphibious
35:04landing along the Kuwaiti coast.
35:09Images of the exercises were sent around the world by satellite.
35:13Saddam Hussein reportedly saw some of those images on a CNN news broadcast and was even
35:18more convinced that the attack would come right through the middle of his double-line
35:23fortifications.
35:25Saddam Hussein, like other military officers who think that CNN or other parts of news
35:31media would provide better information than actual intelligence and combat information,
35:37led themselves into believing that what they saw was what they would get.
35:43As the amphibious landing display was being so masterfully performed for media cameras,
35:48a ruse was taking place, away from the press and from the watchful eye of Saddam Hussein.
35:55Just half of Schwarzkopf's forces along the Kuwaiti border secretly maneuvered 200 miles
36:00northwest to the Iraqi border in preparation for the main attack.
36:08Numbering around 100,000 troops and 12,000 vehicles, this movement began with the redeployment
36:14of the U.S. Army's 18th Airborne Corps.
36:19They shifted from the far right of the coalition lines and raced across the desert wastelands,
36:25some 360 miles.
36:31The corps then stopped south of the main highway crossing the Iraqi desert, rolled
36:35into defensive positions, and silently waited for the hour of attack.
36:43While the main army force remained hidden, air mobile forces sneaked deep into Iraq,
36:48establishing forward staging areas.
36:53Several days after the 18th Airborne Corps moved, the 7th Corps dashed from its old position
36:58to a new one, 140 miles away.
37:03The coalition wanted the Iraqis to see this movement, or at least part of it.
37:09In this deception maneuver, called a demonstration, the idea was to make Saddam believe the troops
37:15he was seeing were much weaker than they were.
37:19This was done by deliberately leaving a huge gap between adjoining flanks.
37:25When the main attack began, fast-moving armored elements came up from the rear and quickly
37:32filled the gap.
37:35Miles and miles of heavy armor rapidly occupied what had earlier been open desert.
37:41The Iraqi troops were, for the most part, shocked.
37:45Some fought bravely, most fled in panic.
37:49Others surrendered right in the spot.
37:51Rapidly advancing coalition forces could only rush past them as they headed for their next
37:56objective.
37:57The job of rounding up Iraqi prisoners was left to the military police.
38:02To make the deception more effective, 7th Corps left behind an entire decoy military
38:08base in the position they had just vacated.
38:11Complete with disabled vehicles and heavy radio traffic, the decoy base was intended
38:16to lead the Iraqis to believe that major elements had not left.
38:22These forces consisted of inflatable balloons that kind of looked like tanks, numerous other
38:27heat elements to deceive Iraqi forces, and communication devices to indicate that we
38:33still had major forces in that area.
38:37Other phony headquarters were set up to the rear of would-be assault routes.
38:42With no more than a few troops in the middle of the desert using portable equipment, these
38:47fake headquarters sent out a great number of encrypted radio messages over the airways.
38:53The idea was to give Iraqi listeners the notion that major forces were operating in the area.
39:01Coalition aircraft bombed targets to the west at the same rate as in previous weeks while
39:06they increased their bombing of targets in Kuwait.
39:10These strike packages suggested that Kuwait would be the object of the main ground attack.
39:17Small unit skirmishes along the Kuwaiti border also drew Iraqi attention away from the west.
39:24Reminiscent of the desert rats of World War II fame, squads of infantry mounted on dune
39:29buggies raced up toward Iraqi positions and laid down heavy volumes of firepower.
39:36As quickly as they appeared in the scene, they would turn around and vanish back toward
39:40friendly lines.
39:44Prior to the main attack, Special Forces personnel flew by helicopter or were parachuted into
39:49Iraq at different locations to radio back warnings of enemy reinforcements coming from
39:55the north to attack the Hail Mary flankers.
40:01To prevent Iraqi observers from seeing them in the sky with their parachutes open, the
40:06team and members leaped out of the aircraft at high altitude, free-falling at death-defying
40:13speeds toward the desert below.
40:17At just 500 feet above the ground, they pulled their ripcords.
40:22After landing, they moved to their observation posts.
40:28As the ground troops raced to their destination, misleading activities in the Persian Gulf
40:34continued.
40:37Allied ships began bombarding the Iraqi positions as they would normally do in preparation for
40:42an amphibious assault.
40:45Marine amphibious craft maneuvered offshore as if getting into position for landing.
40:51The credibility of this huge pretense and the safety of thousands of coalition forces
40:56further inland fell to Task Unit Mike, a 15-man SEAL team.
41:04Their job was to conduct a feint.
41:09A feint is where you are trying to get the enemy to think you're going someplace where
41:16you're not.
41:18The SEAL team sneaked to shore by rubber boat right under the noses of the Iraqi defenders
41:23at Minas Saud and set up explosives.
41:26At the signaled time, the SEALs fired their heavy machine guns and grenade launchers and
41:31detonated explosive charges.
41:34To the Iraqi defenders at Minas Saud, there was no doubt that the final preparation for
41:39an amphibious invasion had just taken place.
41:44Their job done, the SEALs retreated and sped home.
41:50The bomb and light show at Minas Saud turned out to be hugely successful.
41:55Not only did the Iraqi forces keep their guns pointed east toward the Persian Gulf,
42:01but they even moved some of their forces east, which took off the pressure of the invading
42:09Marine forces that were coming up north from the western side.
42:15And then when the offensive came, the Marines stayed afloat.
42:18Saddam Hussein had kept several divisions guarding that coastline, and they just ended
42:25up being part of the huge bag of prisoners.
42:27It was a feint, it was a perfect feint, it worked wonderfully.
42:33The Hail Mary maneuver had taken the Iraqis by surprise.
42:37One hundred hours after the ground attack began, the Iraqi army in Kuwait and southern
42:42Iraq was all but destroyed.
42:47A carefully thought out and executed deception plan was key in the coalition's victory.
42:53But the Iraqis did have one success in the war, achieved solely through deception.
43:04A major part of the Allied bombing campaign was to destroy the Iraqis' Scud missile launch
43:10sites.
43:12Within a few weeks of the bombing, the coalition military commanders were reporting that most
43:17of the launch sites had been destroyed, but they weren't.
43:21Each night, Scud missiles landed in Saudi Arabia and Israel.
43:25By targeting Saudi Arabia, and especially Israel, the Scud missiles were not only a
43:31military threat, but a political one as well.
43:35Saddam Hussein knew full well that the strength of the coalition forces was its unity.
43:41And if he could in any way undermine that unity, then if he could do so, he could fracture
43:46the coalition.
43:47One way to do that was for Iraq to fire Scud missiles at Israel.
43:53The search for Iraq's elusive Scud missiles soon became a top priority.
43:58What the coalition forces didn't know initially was that the Iraqis had built launchers on
44:03regular truck-trailer chassis.
44:06From the air at night, these chassis looked just like ordinary truck trailers.
44:11During the day, the launchers were concealed beneath trees, highway overpasses, abandoned
44:16buildings, and even in the sand.
44:21They might be buried underground.
44:24And when it was time to use them, say, we're going to launch one tomorrow, tonight we'll
44:27dig it out from under the ground, we'll put it on a vehicle, and we'll transport it to
44:31where we need to put it.
44:35To find the elusive mobile Scud missile launchers, General Schwarzkopf called upon the Special
44:40Operation forces.
44:45Aboard specially equipped Black Hawk helicopters, the Special Operations team members ventured
44:50behind enemy lines to within 35 miles of Baghdad in what became known as the Scud Hunt.
45:00Flying in complete darkness, using only night vision goggles, the pilots stayed low to the
45:05ground to avoid detection by Iraqi radar.
45:11In some cases, the Special Operations helicopters would fly as low as 10 or 15 feet off the
45:17ground.
45:18In fact, I remember talking to one Special Ops helicopter pilot who was flying along
45:23at over 100 miles an hour and had to jerk his plane up just so he wouldn't hit a goat.
45:30Special Operations forces roamed all over western Iraq looking for mobile Scud missiles
45:35that could be knocked out from the air.
45:38But after an extensive investigation by the U.S. Air Force and Army bomb damage experts,
45:44there's some dispute as to whether any mobile Scud missiles were actually destroyed.
45:52There is absolutely no evidence, zero evidence, that any of the mobile launchers, transporters,
46:00or erectors, any of those pieces of equipment devoted to the mobile use of Scud missiles,
46:05or any Scuds themselves, other than those on fixed sites, were ever attacked or destroyed.
46:12None.
46:13And in large part, that's because we could never find them.
46:18The reluctance of western powers to expose large numbers of military men to open combat
46:24and the high costs of manning mass armies will most likely lead to a greater use of
46:29unconventional forces.
46:31These are highly trained soldiers who, in small numbers, are capable of accomplishing
46:36their missions with the minimum of casualties.
46:40Deception will, no doubt, play a major role.
46:44Stealth and speed will be paramount.
46:46U.S. Navy SEALs will continue to use the rubber inflatable Zodiac boats to sneak onto enemy
46:52beaches undetected, but their mothership will be the new Mark V.
46:58Equipped with highly classified electronic equipment, the heavily armed craft can get
47:03in and get out of any position and situation.
47:09Because men in parachutes do not show up easily on radar, parachuting in from extremely high
47:15altitudes will be used more frequently.
47:18One method is the high-altitude, high-opening, or hay-ho jump.
47:25Special operations forces can parachute out of an airplane from 30,000 feet, immediately
47:30open their chutes, and with the use of sophisticated navigational devices, steer themselves 20
47:36to 30 miles across borders with pinpoint accuracy to a target deep within enemy territory.
47:45High-altitude, low-opening, or hay-ho jumps also start with an exit from an aircraft at
47:50high altitudes, but the parachute isn't opened until the jumper is less than 1,000 feet from
47:56the ground.
47:59Small teams of soldiers operating away from the main forces will soon be carrying their
48:04own aerial reconnaissance devices.
48:08One such aerial robot is the micro air vehicle, or MAV, a robotic air sensor no more than
48:14three inches wide.
48:17Equipped with cameras or acoustic sensors, the mechanical insect flies behind the lines
48:22and signals back intelligence on the enemy.
48:29Some battles in the future may be fought in urban areas.
48:33Such battles would require seeing what the enemy is doing behind closed doors.
48:40The Cypher, with its sensor package of infrared video cameras and its laser rangefinder, does
48:46this both day and night.
48:51The Cypher is also equipped to listen to what the enemy is doing.
48:55It can drop acoustic sensors behind enemy lines and fly away undetected.
49:04The need to control perception and to circulate information will increase in importance for
49:09battlefield commanders.
49:11They will need improved countermeasures in misinformation and jamming.
49:17As electronic technology improves in such areas as communications within armies and
49:23electronic signals between guided weapons, masters of deception are sure to increase
49:29their use of electronic interception and disruption.
49:35A lot of it will involve deception, being able to blind the enemy, being able to confuse
49:41the enemy electronically so that he thinks a force is in one place when it's really
49:46in another.
49:48You're going to have everything from virtual reality to computer viruses.
49:54New and clever ways to fool the enemy are constantly being invented.
50:01New tactics are being adapted to new technologies and conditions.
50:07But basic deception techniques will not change.
50:13Just as in the wars of the past, those who outsmart the enemy will have much to gain,
50:18and those who fail to recognize when they are being tricked may never have another chance.
50:28When do you need to use deception, loses, and tricks?
50:33When you're weak, when you're strong, when you're winning, when you're losing, when you're
50:38advancing, when you're retreating, in peace and in war.
50:44In short, as the ancient Chinese adage puts it, there can never be enough deception.
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