Recently, at the Queen Sofia Museum in Madrid, I saw some astonishing examples of anti-fascist propaganda posters from the years of the Spanish Civil War, posters with vibrant colors to arrest the eye and vivid images to carry a message to the masses. All this brought to mind my own experience with political persuasion, for I know a thing or two about propaganda, having seen high quality work early in my life.
Fifty-odd years ago, Korea was the front line of the Cold War, and I was a schoolteacher in Chunchon, not far from the DMZ, a day’s march, or about twenty miles as the missile flies. But even though the missiles didn’t fly when I was living there, other things did fly — bbira.
In contemporary Korean, 삐 라 — bbira — was one of those odd loan words, in this case borrowed from handbills, meaning leaflets. They were released from hot air balloons flying just north of the DMZ on days when the wind blew south. They were intended for soldiers serving on the front, and most were written in Korean, aimed at the huge South Korean army defending the front line.
But some were in English. Most of the fifty thousand American soldiers in Korea were deployed farther west on the DMZ, in the area just north of Seoul, but there were some Americans at a missile base between Chunchon and the DMZ, and these American soldiers were treated to their own version of Pyongyang’s best efforts in psychological warfare.
The civilian population, including a few stray American teachers, understood that we were not supposed to pick up bbira if we saw them, and instead we must immediately report this to the police, who would come to collect the evidence. But on the rare occasions when I saw one in English, the temptation was irresistible.
Once, in company with another teacher from our school, on a mountain path a few miles north of town, we came upon one and I could see it was in English, and to my friend’s astonishment and concern, I picked it up and read it. It only took a moment and I put it back where I found it, but it made a strong impression. This happened again another time when I had a longer moment to read it, but I knew better than to put it in my pocket so I dropped it on the ground.
Decades have passed but I still have a clear recollection of the general content and tone of the bbira. Certainly I recall being surprised by the quality of the English — far better than what one might expect — and the intent of the message was also memorable, and despite the passage of time I believe I can reconstruct it:
American soldier! What are you doing here?You have no quarrel with anyone in Korea, so why would you take arms for one side against another in a war that can mean nothing to you? Why play the part of a running dog for the regime in Washington and the corrupt politicians in Seoul who line their pockets with American tax dollars while you are paid almost nothing for risking your life?
And you are so cold this winter day! Perhaps you are from California or Florida and you could be warm in your hometown, but here you shiver, your fingers frozen to your rifle and your feet numb in your boots. You dream of home and the girl you left behind, but you’ve had no letters for weeks now, and you begin to wonder, perhaps she warms another man’s bed — perhaps one of your friends? And they do this while you fight another country’s war!
Drop your weapon and come over to us, American soldier! We have a warmer bed for you, and good food and charming company, here in the workers’ paradise on our side of the line. Come, join us in peace and safety…
It went on in this vein, tempting the soldier to cross over to what would be — assuredly! — a better life. In those years, one heard stories of soldiers who actually defected, joining the American prisoners who had not returned in the prisoner exchanges at the end of the war. Were these rumors true? And more to the point, did these things actually happen? Did the bbira work?
Apparently they did. There are well-documented cases of six American soldiers who defected to the North in the 1960s and 70s and as late as 1982, most of them taking the dangerous path across the DMZ minefields. It appears they all had different personal, non-political reasons for defecting, but after the last one crossed over, a search of his possessions left behind revealed his collection of — yes! — bbira! We can’t know his thoughts as he read these leaflets but we can readily believe they were persuasive, for he crossed the line and was never heard from again.
What became of these men? Some defectors played roles in propaganda films or made recordings or taught English to students who later served in the North Korean government. They may have drafted the language of leaflets or polished the texts. Clearly these propaganda leaflets were worth the effort and yielded a return on investment.
Well-crafted propaganda is effective with a receptive audience, and regardless of whether the message comes from the right or the left on the political spectrum, the purpose and techniques are the same. In a larger sense all propaganda appeals to people who know (or at least sense) that life has cheated them and someone must be to blame, and somewhere in this notion is, very often, a grain of truth or something that resonates with the propaganda audience.
The past hundred years, right up to the present, offer several examples of effective propaganda. In Weimar Germany it was the “stabbed in the back” narrative claiming that the German Army had won the war at the front but was betrayed at home; in Spain in 1936, Republican political art aimed at the belief that the landowners’ oppression of the campesinos and industrialists’ exploitation of the working class were supported by the Army and the Catholic Church; in South Korea in the post-war years the Seoul government propaganda targeted the completely rational fear of the North attacking again; and nowadays in our country, one kind of propaganda —or, if you will, alternative facts — addresses one demographic group’s fear of being “replaced” by another which, in purely statistical terms, is a reasonable concern. In each instance, the message addresses some truth or a close approximation, and then leans hard in the direction the audience is already inclined, stoking their fear and fanning the flame of their resentment.
And the audience, hearing confirmation of what they already believe, falls in line, commits to serve the cause, demands immediate action, shouting Lock her up! Lock her up! like running dogs baying loudly in their fervor.
December 14, 2022