Operation Wandering Soul

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A loadspeaker team plays the "wandering soul" recordings

Not to be confused with Operation Wandering Soul (novel).

Operation Wandering Soul was a propaganda campaign exercised by U.S. Forces during the Vietnam War.

The operation played off the belief of many Vietnamese in the "wandering soul":

"It is the Vietnamese belief that the dead must be buried in their homeland, or their soul will wander aimlessly in pain and suffering. Vietnamese feel that if a person is improperly buried, then their soul wanders constantly. They can sometimes be contacted on the anniversary of their death and near where they died. Vietnamese honor these dead souls on a holiday when they return to the site where they passed away."^[1]

U.S. engineers spent weeks recording eerie sounds and altered voices - which pretended to be killed Vietcong - for use in the operation, with the intended purpose of instilling a sense of turmoil within the enemy. The desired result being for the soldier to flee his or her position. Helicopters were sometimes employed to broadcast recordings [1] , the voices in which called on their "descendants" in the Vietcong to defect and cease fighting.

The extent of the operations success is unknown. The Vietcong usually encountered return fire if they reacted to the recordings, thus nullifying the operations prospected outcome.