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CNN Saturday Morning News

Interview With William Nash

Aired October 13, 2001 - 07:32   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: Whether it's dropping leaflets or transmitting radio broadcasts the war of words is part of the arsenal in the battle against terrorism. There's also the information campaign to garner support among those within enemy borders. Joining me to talk about so called psychological operations is Retired Major General William Nash. General, thanks so much for joining us this morning.

MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM NASH (RET.), U.S. ARMY: Good morning, Jeanne.

MESERVE: First of all, how do you design a campaign against a specific country, in this case Afghanistan?

NASH: Well, I guess the first part would be that you have to make sure it's consistent with the larger global and regional messages that are being sent. And then you want to make sure you know your audience. I tell folks that there's much more anthropology than psychology in psychological operations.

MESERVE: And what exactly do you mean by that?

NASH: Well, I mean you have to know your audience. You have to know the people you're talking to and it's not the way you say it, it's the way they hear it. And you must understand the fact that you're dealing in this particular case with a much different society -- the cultural aspects, religious aspects must be taken into account as you formulate your message.

MESERVE: Now have you seen the leaflets the U.S. is dropping in Afghanistan or can you make a guess as to what they might contain?

NASH: Well, for the first part, I know the story is that, number one, that this is a war on terror and not a war against the Afghani people or Islam. Second of all, I think we're trying to make it very clear that we're working hard to deliver the humanitarian support necessary to demonstrate the fact that we're not against the Afghani people.

MESERVE: No the food and medicine we're dropping is itself part of the psychological campaign, isn't it?

NASH: That's exactly right. One of the essential keys of any kind of psychological operations or any information campaign element is insuring that your actions match your words. MESERVE: Can you tell me whether people on the ground are actually looking at the written material? In Afghanistan I don't imagine there's too high a rate of literacy to begin with.

NASH: Well, some say the literacy rate is less than 50 percent but I would say to you that the messages can be designed largely using pictures or other graphic illustrations of what we're doing. And likewise the use of the commando solo C-130 aircraft to transmit radio and television broadcasts on frequencies that they're used to hearing is another means to distribute the information.

MESERVE: I have to imagine that all this stuff is being countered from within Afghanistan by some material with exactly the opposite message.

NASH: Well, that's exactly right. I think Jamie Rubin was talking earlier on your show about the fact that there is a competitive messages being put out and it's necessary for us to counter the views of Osama bin Laden and the Taliban regime at the same time try to promote our positive message.

MESERVE: Do psychological operations work? Can you give us some concrete examples?

NASH: Well, number one, as the secretary of defense has said, there is no silver bullet in this war on terror. So the psychological operations adds to our overall effort.

In the past we've used it successfully both in the Gulf War before that in Panama and to varying degrees of success during Vietnam.

In the Gulf War we used leaflets to inform the Iraqi soldiers that it was to their advantage to surrender rather than fight. And, again, to match those words, the bombing would often take place at a prescribed time after the dropping of leaflets.

MESERVE: And we have to leave it there. Major General William Nash, thanks so much for joining us.

NASH: Thank you.

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