Ultimate Weapon of War

by Janice F. Baca
(Texas, USA)

Negativity kills hopes, dreams, and visions. It's what the North Koreans called the "Ultimate Weapon of War" during the Korean War.

Reading How Full Is Your Bucket?: Positive Strategies for Work and Life by Tom Rath, PhD and Donald O. Clifton changed my life.

Major (Dr.) William E. Mayer, U.S. Army's chief psychiatrist studied approximately 1,000 American prisoners of war who were detained in the North Korean camp during the Korean War. He discovered one of the most devastating psychological warfare on record.

The American soldiers imprisoned in a North Korean Camp were not tormented by cruel or unusual conventional standards. In fact, they had adequate food, water, and shelter. They were not physically tortured at all. Yet many died in those camps and were not surrounded by guards, or fences and they never attempted to escape!

Their technique was so effective that when survivors were released, they were given an opportunity to phone loved ones. Only a few made the call. When the soldiers returned home, the soldiers maintained no relationship with each other. In fact, Mayer described each man as being in a "solitary confinement cell" without any steel or concrete.

What caused the problem with the men? It's called hopelessness. The torture inflicted on the men was an extreme hopelessness that the soldier would many times wander into his hut, sit down, pull a blanket over his head and die within two days. This extreme hopelessness raised the death rate in the North Korean POW to 38%. This was the highest POW death rate in U.S. military history.

Can you imagine? Death from hopelessness?

What were their tactics: First, the North Koreans would give prisoners rewards for snitching on one another which turned the men against one another.

Second, the the men were gathered into groups of 10 or 12 and each was required to stand up in front of the group and confess all the bad things he had done or all the good things he could have done but failed to do. This confession destroyed each other's respect and trust.

Third, the soldier's allegiance to his superiors was destroyed. They no longer kept their ranks, their respect for superiors or their position of belonging. Each was out for himself. There was even one case that 40 men took three of their ill soldiers and threw them outside the mud hut and left them to die. Since they no longer had a relationship, they didn't care about one another.

Lastly, if the soldier received an encouraging letter, their captors would destroy it immediately. The negative letters, however, were delivered right away. An example is one where the wife would write to her husband telling him she has given up. She no longer believed he was alive or returning home. Can you imagine? A wife writing to her husband saying that she has given up with the idea that he could be alive and she is marrying again? In fact, they even delivered overdue bills to the soldiers!

The constant negativity broke the spirit of each man to the point of death. They were extremely hopeless and felt they had no reason to live.

Negativity kills. The enemy still uses the same tactics he did then. He doesn't want you to see purpose in your future.

If negativity has this much power, can you imagine how much MORE power God's word has? The enemy can only imitate what is already created by the Lord. Therefore, he created an imitation of the positive love and hope of God's word.

We have the true ultimate weapon of war. It's speaking, singing, writing God's word. It's surrounding yourself with positive, hopeful, faithful people in Christ. In doing this, you will reach your goal through the power of Christ!


© 2009-2010, Janice F. Baca, All Rights Reserved