HCO POLICY LETTER OF 16 FEBRUARY
1969
ISSUE II
REISSUED 24 SEPTEMBER 1987
(Reissued with updated distribution.)
Limited Distribution
:
IMEC
OSA
NW
LRH PRs
Confidential
BATTLE TACTICS
(This is a defense paper on material
developed after 18 years of ceaseless attack by a foreign enemy. Nothing in this
paper advocates physical violence or invites the physical destruction of
persons.)
In these days of "cold war" when actual
warfare is impossible due to atomic weapons, the warfare is waged in the press
and public in the form of ideas.
If you uniformly apply the tactics and
strategy of battle to the rows we get into, press or legal or public
confrontation, you will win.
The enemy uses "groups" and meetings of
groups like one would use squads.
If we and they are considered as two
hostile and opposing nations at war, then a huge array of tactics and strategy
become visible.
One parallels in the field of
thought what is used and done in the field of battle in other
ages.
You don't have to know too much about
the tactics and strategy of warfare to apply this but it helps.
The end product of war, according to
Clausewitz, the authority on it, is (condensed) "to bring about a more amenable
frame of mind on the part of the enemy."
But there are also wars of attrition.
We are engaged in one where total destruction of us has been the enemy's aim
for, at this writing, 19 years. This is barbarian warfare, thus the enemy must
have had very positive fears and terrors about us. Since he fought for total
attrition. In this case it is not safe to hope for any half-way win. We must ourselves fight on the basis of total
attrition of the enemy. So never get reasonable about him. Just go all the way
in and obliterate him.
It is bad warfare to fight
battles on your own terrain, in your own subject area. It is not good to fight
in the territory of allies. Fight battles wherever possible only on enemy
terrain, in and about his subject and his people, not ours. You can gauge
your relative success by this. When all your battles are fought on his terrain,
you are winning.
A good general expends the maximum of
enemy troops and the minimum of his own. He makes the war costly to the enemy,
not to himself.
Copyright (c) 1969 by L. Ron Hubbard.
All
Rights Reserved.
HCO PL 16.2.69 II
Reiss. 24.9.87 |
-2-
|
One
cuts off enemy communications, funds, connections. He deprives the enemy of
political advantages, connections and power. He takes over enemy territory. He
raids and harasses. All on a thought plane - press, public opinion, governments,
etc.
Seeing it as a battle, one can apply
battle tactics to thought actions.
Intelligence identifies targets and finds out enemy
plans and purposes, enemy connections, dispositions, etc. It is fatal to attack a
wrong enemy. But it is good tactics to make the enemy attack wrong targets or
persons himself.
Good intelligence pinpoints who when
where what.
Good PRO plans an action and
operations fights the battle.
Legal is a slow if often final battle
arena. It eventually comes down to legal in the end. If intelligence and PRO
have done well, then legal gets an easy win.
You can win a battle even without
legal and by PRO alone. You intend to win it without legal wherever
possible.
The
prize is "public opinion" where press is concerned. The only safe public opinion
to head for is they love us and are in a frenzy of hate against the enemy. This
means standard wartime propaganda is what one is doing, complete with atrocity,
war crimes trials, the lot. Know the mores of your public opinion, what they
hate. That's the enemy. What they love. That's you.
You
preserve the image or increase it of your own troops and degrade the image of
the enemy to beast level.
Always be ready to parley but watch
for tricks. Don't give the enemy breathing space.
Capture and use his comm lines. A press magnate on
your side is a big win.
You have in one of these publicity
wars all the factors of modern wars complete with artillery, cavalry,
infantry.
For example at this writing, all
fighting has been on our terrain; they knew our generals we didn't know theirs;
they had all the press, funds, government control. We are reversing this. We are
fighting now on their ground. But we have a long way to go.
We will make it all the way providing
we look on this in terms of active battle and not as a "if we are saintly good
we will win." The people who win wars have a saintly image but they win the war
by clever and forceful use of the rules of tactics, strategy and battle.
Wars are composed of many battles.
Never treat a war like a skirmish. Treat all
skirmishes like wars.
|
HCO PL 16.2.69 II
Reiss. 24.9.87 |
-3-
|
The cold war is a war. The West is
losing it because it is fighting by other rules than the rules of war. We
mustn't lose it.
| |
L. RON HUBBARD
Founder
Adopted as official
Church policy by
CHURCH OF
SCIENTOLOGY
INTERNATIONAL |
LRH:CSI:jk.ja |
