intimate knowledge of the audience, but on scientific aids as well. The
research of anthropologists, psychologists, sociologists, political scien-
tists and historians provides a body of material on almost every group
in the human race. Properly used, these scientific aids will bring to
light enemy weaknesses and traits which even the most acute untrained
observation would not reveal.

154. THE LISTENER. It is sound propaganda, in most cases,
to presume a single listener or reader as target. Propaganda should be
personal, emphatic, direct, simple, reiterative. Few radio programs or
leaflet series can count on hitting the same man regularly enough to
build up grandiose cumulative effects. The more concretely the one-man
audience at the other end is visualized, the better his worries and hopes
are understood, the more that he feels the propagandist. "talks his lan-
guage" with more than words, the more successful the operation will be.
Propaganda has little room for the general, the abstract, the formal, or
the large-audience appeal. It must get inside somebody's skin; to do so,
it must keep the target individual in mind. The only time for formality
is the occasion when the listener, by his own customs, expects it.
(Note the correct Japanese reaction when President Roosevelt died. The
Germans, gibbering with hate, called him nasty names and offended Ameri-
cans. The Japanese, in a formal, silly, naive but appealing way, extended
their condolences to the American people. American public opinion
mocked them for doing it, but their action on that occasion helped build
up a picture--later to become useful to them--of the Japanese as incom-
prehensible, gauche, but with all their faults a very courteous people.
The Japanese considered their American listener; the Germans forgot
and amused themselves, attaining no real advantage.)
155. SPECIFIC TECHNIQUES. Specific techniques are among
the trade secrets of every major propaganda organization. Some of
them are found in the academic literature on propaganda (see Chapter
IX). Most of them are evident to common sense. The goals dictate the
technique to be used in each concrete situation; some of the permanent
goals are to prepare the enemy for defeat in war, to disunite enemy
opposition, to promote belief in the utterance of the propagandist, to dis-
credit enemy news sources, to make the individual enemy feel he has
friends on this side.
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