Mass Psychology in Geopolitics 5 of 9
Contents
The “Counterculture” Counterrevolution
Acknowledgements
This work has made extensive use of the research and publications of Joshua Stylman[1] and ICE-9.[2] It is strongly recommended to study their work.
The “Counterculture” Counterrevolution
The power of mass psychology for manipulating the masses may be best exemplified by the 1960s to 1970s “Counterculture Revolution,” a counterrevolution that targeted the Baby Boomers generation in the US and that had a profound impact on youth globally.
Historical Background
At the start of WWII most of the world was colonized by the European powers, Britain, France, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and Belgium. This constrained the economic growth of the rising economic powers US and Germany. Germany was defeated in the WWII and the US emerged as a superpower along with the USSR. In the aftermath of WWII, the US pressured the European colonialist nations into decolonizing.[3]
In 1947 The US issued the Truman Doctrine[4] of Containment ushering the Cold War era: a democratic West; aka the “Free World” led by the US and the dollar versus a Socialist East led by the USSR and the ruble. Each camp vied to expand its sphere of influence globally in the period of decolonization. Due to the balance of military power between the two camps, “soft power” was a leading instrument during this period for attracting the newly decolonized nations.
The “Free World” was handicapped by having the colonial powers in its camp. Furthermore, the US, leader of the “Free World,” was engaged in direct military interventions and coups against indigenous liberation movements in East Asia, Southeast Asia, Southwest Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Additionally the “Free World” supported the racist regime in South Africa, while at home African Americans were subjected to legalized racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement, leading to a growing Civil Rights movement. Despite the protests being non-violent, violence was used against African Americans, including police brutality, unleashing attack dogs by a mayor,[5] mob beatings, arson, murder, and lynching.[6]
Three black men taken from police station and lynched
It was therefore clear in the early 1950s that the “Free World” packaging of the West was far from enough to win the global soft power contest. President Eisenhower was concerned with how racism in the US affected America's international reputation,[7] as was his Secretary of State Dean Acheson, who wrote in the amicus brief to the Supreme Court regarding the case Brown v. Board of Education, in December 1952:[8]
The United States is under constant attack in the foreign press, over the foreign radio, and in such international bodies as the United Nations because of various practices of discrimination in this country. . . . Soviet spokesmen regularly exploit this situation in propaganda against the United States. . . . The hostile reaction among normally friendly peoples . . . is growing in alarming proportions. . . . [T]he continuance of racial discrimination in the United States remains a source of constant embarrassment to this Government in the day-today conduct of its foreign relations; and it jeopardizes the effective maintenance of our moral leadership of the free and democratic nations of the world.
In parallel with African American Civil Rights movement protests, an anti-war movement was developing.[9] Passage of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964[10] and the consequent increase in number of draftees resulted in a significant growth of the anti-war movement.
Annual number of US military personnel conscripted via the draft from 1964 to 1972[11]
Protesters taunt a line of soldiers during an anti-Vietnam War protest outside the Pentagon.[12]
Young woman screaming as she crouches beside the body of a student when National Guardsmen shot and killed four students at Kent State University in Ohio on May 4, 1970.[13]
Collaboration between the Civil Rights movement and the student anti-war movement significantly expanded the impact of the anti-establishment revolt. Protest movements grew into a powerful anti-establishment force as it grew with the joining of Asian Americans, Chicanos, clergy, sectors of organized labor, veterans, environmentalists, journalists, and others, threatening the establishment at the very heart of “Free World”.[14]
While the leader of the “Free World” was aggressively fighting liberation movements, undertaking coup d’états and imposing ruthless dictatorships all over the globe and supporting racism both in South Africa and at home, the USSR was supporting liberation movements and providing developmental assistance to the newly decolonized countries.
To make matters worse for the “Free World,” the USSR was achieving great strides in science and technology as reflected by space and military achievements:
1957, Oct 4: USSR launches first artificial Earth satellite, Sputnik 1.
1960, May 5: USSR shoots down U-2 spy plane over the USSR and captures pilot.
1961, Apr 12: USSR launches first human to orbit earth, Yuri Gagarin.
1961, Oct 3: USSR tests the most powerful nuclear bomb in history.
Quoting John Kennedy’s Peace Speech at American University, June, 1963:[15]
But we can still hail the Russian people for their many achievements in science and space, in economic and industrial growth, in culture and in acts of courage.
To address the rapidly deteriorating “Free World” soft power it was necessary to:
Take the wind out of the revolutionary tempo at home.
Reaffirm the US as the bastion of human rights, freedom, and technological leadership.
To achieve the above objectives, two options existed: change reality or change the perception of reality.
The former would require the US to eliminate racism in all its forms at home, stop the Vietnam and other wars, stop meddling into Third World nations’ affairs, stop its coups d’états and imposition of vassal dictators, stop exploiting resources of Third World nations, stop supporting racism abroad, etc. In brief this would gave been the first case in history of “end of empire” by suicide. Clearly this was not an option for the Empire’s ruling elite, the other option would be to change the perception of reality; this would require significant efforts but would be possible by implementing major mass psychology operations of global reach.
The Jazz Ambassadors
The first step to address the perception of racism outside US was to launch the Jazz Ambassadors program, run from 1954 to 1963[16] by the State Department[17] and the CIA.[18] Jazz musicians were selected to demonstrate “racial equality, and harmony” in the US.[19] The first ambassador was to be Louis Armstrong, but he refused, stating:[20]
The way they are treating my people in the South, the government can go to hell!
Civil Rights Legislation
While the Jazz Ambassadors program contributed somewhat to whitewashing America’s image abroad, it had no impact on the civil rights movement. To appease the civil rights movement, several pieces of federal legislation were enacted:
The Civil Rights Act of 1964,[21] which banned all discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin, including in schools, employment, and public accommodations.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965[22] restored and protected voting rights for minorities and authorized oversight of registration and elections in areas with historic under-representation of minority voters.
The Fair Housing Act of 1968,[23] passed shortly after Martin Luther King’s assassination, forbade property owners from discriminating in the rental or sale of housing.
The above laws provided the perception of ending racial injustice, since well over sixty years after enactment of these laws, blacks remain very far from achieving equality:
Median household wealth: White households 9 times wealthier than black households.[24]
Incarceration rate: Blacks 5 times higher than whites.[25]
Murder victims’ rate: Blacks 6 times higher than whites. [26],[27]
Endnotes
[3] Super Imperialism. The Economic Strategy of American Empire, Third Edition, Michael Hudson, Islet, 2021
[4] The Truman Doctrine, 1947, President Harry Truman, History, US Government, Mar 12, 1947
[5] The Jazz Ambassadors, Dan Clendenin, Medium, Oct 8, 2018
[6] Civil rights movement, Wikipedia
[7] Jazz ambassadors, Wikipedia
[8] Brown v. Board of Education Overseas, Anthony Lester, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 148, No. 4, p 455, Dec 2004
[9] The Military Draft During the Vietnam War, University of Michigan, 2015
[10] Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, Britannica,
[11] Annual number of United States military personnel conscripted via the draft from 1964 to 1973, Statista, 2025
[12] 'I couldn't comprehend why we were there': Many Americans hated the Vietnam War but then forgot about it, RT, Mar 29, 2022
[13] 49 Years After the Kent State Shootings, New Photos Are Revealed, Yahoo news, May 5, 2019
[14] Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War, Wikipedia
[15] Full Transcript: President Kennedy’s Peace Speech at American University (June 10, 1963), Pangambam S, Singju Post, May 16, 2006
[16] The Jazz Ambassadors, Dan Clendenin, Medium, Oct 8, 2018
[17] The Paradox of Jazz Diplomacy: Race and Culture in the Cold War, Lisa Davenport, Jan 2015
[18] The Cool War, The Nation, Brian Morton, Jun 17, 2005
[19] Jazz ambassadors, Wikipedia
[20] “I’m Still Louis Armstrong–Colored”: Louis Armstrong and the Civil Rights Era, Ricky Riccardi, May 11, 2020
[21] Civil Rights Act (1964), National Archives, Jul 2, 1964
[22] Voting Rights Act (1965), National Archives, Aug 6, 1965
[23] The Fair Housing Act of 1968 passes one week after Martin Luther King Assassination, Tony Delgado, LinkedIn, Jan 17, 2022
[24] Wealth gaps across racial and ethnic groups, Pew Research, Dec 4, 2023
[25] The Racial Makeup of America’s Prisons, Adriana Rezai, USNews, Oct 13, 2021
[26] Number of murder victims in the United States in 2023, by race, Statista, 2025
[27] U.S. Population Racial Breakdown (1990-2023), Visual Capitalist, Sep 17, 2024
If they can fake moon landings (and all the nations go along), then everything needs to be reevaluated, including virology, fundamental physics like the big bang theory, and a whole lot of history including the tumultuous 1960s. Many statues are being toppled. We never realized how much manipulation has been going on.
But that doesn't lead directly to the conclusion that we are helpless, in fact it leads to the opposite conclusion, because their machinations are finally being revealed (to a wider audience).
The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.
- Aristotle