The psychological warfare department in the Ministry of National Defense is to be reactivated in the next two years, defense sources said yesterday.
The department was deactivated six years ago because military leaders considered it no longer to be of vital importance.
But the use of psychological warfare in the US-led war against Iraq became the subject of much discussion at the National Defense University and Fu Hsing Kang College (political warfare college) last year, forcing the military to reconsider its importance
Despite the decision to reactive the department, the ministry refuses to admit it might have made a wrong decision in 1998.
It has been a custom in the military that no military leader take responsibility for any wrong direction he or she has taken.
The resurrected department will be combined with the defense ministry's cultural and political affairs department, which is responsible for the arrangement of propaganda and entertainment activities for the armed services.
A defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the department's reactivation marks the recognition of the importance of psychological warfare.
"Although the department was deactivated six years ago, it was not totally disbanded," he said.
Many of its staff and part of its functions were integrated into the cultural and political affairs department," he said.
"Since these staffers are still in service, they could help the ministry regain psychological warfare capabilities," he said.
There has been no word as yet on what levels of psychological warfare capabilities the ministry wants to regain, but there have been some hints.
The ministry recently absorbed a psychological warfare task force which the army established two years ago on an experimental basis.
The task force, modeled on a unit in the US military, was expected to acquire both defensive and offensive capabilities.
It was led by Major General Hsiao Lu-po (蕭如波), the former political warfare chief of Army General Headquarters.
Before he retired, Hsiao said in private that the task force did not have enough funds to sustain its development.
The lack of money made it difficult for the unit to develop new psychological warfare tactics such as the application of "information psychological warfare."
Information psychological warfare places considerable emphasis on computer technology.
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