Vietnam Diary

Hello, Is Anybody Down There Listening?

Some of the less publicised roles of the Army’s 161 Reconnaissance Flight were Signals Intelligence gathering and Psychological Warfare. Between 1966 and 1972 it’s estimated that 161 flew over six thousand hours on these missions.

Imagine a thousand-watt stereo system playing ‘Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport’ from a battery of low-fidelity horn speakers. Have the whole contrivance whipping around the sky at seventy knots and you’ve a Doppler-distorted cacophony. This abomination was the Voice Aircraft.

Most readers are familiar with the loudspeaker-equipped Hueys in the movie ‘Apocalypse Now’. But contrary to the image created by F F Cuppola, the function of such aircraft wasn’t to lead the Air Cavalry into battle with Wagnerian accompaniments. Instead they were intended for use in Psychological Warfare ops against the VC. Another of 161’s lesser known roles, Voice Missions (VMs) were supposed to lower the enemy’s morale and make them surrender en masse. This was called the Chieu Hoi or Open Arms program. Like gas warfare I feel VMs were a double edged sword which depended on which way the wind was blowing.

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