This is an excerpt from another interesting and as usual excellent article by Teri Kanefield.
The World’s First Disinformation Manual
"Chandragupta Maurya, born in 340 B.C.E., was the founder of the Maurya Empire. He needed some help winning wars. His prime minister, Kautilya (also known as Chanakya), taught him that are two kinds of wars: open wars, and concealed wars. Open wars are fought at a particular place and time and always result in casualties on both sides. They are always risky.
On the other hand, a clever ruler could entirely vanquish his enemy in a concealed war and never suffer a single casualty or have to manufacture a single weapon.
What Kautilya called a “concealed war” we would call a “disinformation campaign.” The goal was to sow discord in the enemy country (or the enemy army) by means of lies. Clever enough lies could even result in the enemy king being assassinated by his own enraged subjects. These tactics are similar to modern Russian disinformation tactics.
Kautilya collected all of his ideas into a practical handbook on how to run an empire. The book, written in Sanskrit, is called the Arthashastra. It is the earliest known written tract describing propaganda and disinformation tactics."
Click the link to read the article in full, Teri's book is now on my reading list! 👍
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