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Mixtape: The Wandering Soul

As the Vietnam war dragged on, the US military began desperately searching for any vulnerability in their North Vietnamese enemy. In 1964, they found it. It was an old Vietnamese folktale involving a ghost, eternal damnation and fear - a tailor made weaponizable myth. And so, armed with tape recorders and microphones, the military set out to win the war by bringing this ghost story to life. Today, the story of these efforts and their ghosts that still haunt us today.  Mixtape is reported, produced, scored and sound designed by Simon Adler with original music throughout by Simon. Indispensable reporting and production assistance was provided by Eli Cohen. This episode was produced by Annie McEwen, with original music by Annie. Original reporting was contributed by Trung Dung Vo and Nguyễn Vân Hà. Special thanks to: Allison Boccia, Jared Tracy and Herb Friedman. And to Mathew Campbell for introducing me to the Wandering Soul tape to begin with. And to Erik Villard for all his help pulling those tapes and voices for us.  Support Radiolab by becoming a member today at Radiolab.org/donate. 
Duration
42m
Broadcast on
05 Nov 2021
Audio Format
other

As the Vietnam war dragged on, the US military began desperately searching for any vulnerability in their North Vietnamese enemy. In 1964, they found it. It was an old Vietnamese folktale involving a ghost, eternal damnation and fear - a tailor made weaponizable myth. And so, armed with tape recorders and microphones, the military set out to win the war by bringing this ghost story to life.

Today, the story of these efforts and their ghosts that still haunt us today. 

Mixtape is reported, produced, scored and sound designed by Simon Adler with original music throughout by Simon. Indispensable reporting and production assistance was provided by Eli Cohen.

This episode was produced by Annie McEwen, with original music by Annie. Original reporting was contributed by Trung Dung Vo and Nguyễn Vân Hà.

Special thanks to: Allison Boccia, Jared Tracy and Herb Friedman. And to Mathew Campbell for introducing me to the Wandering Soul tape to begin with. And to Erik Villard for all his help pulling those tapes and voices for us. 

Support Radiolab by becoming a member today at Radiolab.org/donate. 


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Want more radio lab? Now you can get more radio lab on our YouTube channel. Catch up on new episodes, hear classics from our archive, plus watch other cool things we did in the past, music videos, short films, animations, behind-the-scenes features, complete radio lab live shows, come meet the team, check out the starter kit of some of our favorite episodes, plus discover plenty more stuff you won't find in the podcast feed, take a look, explore, subscribe, just get more radio lab at youtube.com/radiolabpod. I'm Simon Adler. This is Mixtape, and before we start today, do you know that feeling, have you had the experience when someone you love or someone you know has died, and then maybe a week or a month or a year later you hear their voice, their recorded voice again? There's something about that, it's strange, it's eerie, but also precious. Anyhow, this is the story of that feeling multiplied 3.3 million times. And one of this cassette focuses on the means by which these realistic simulations begin. Understand that this tape is designed to assist you, because the army takes these very seriously. Let's begin. How are you this morning sir? Good, you're looking good. Simon? As are you, you're very rosy. We're starting with this man on wind. I am a Vietnamese American. Today he's a retired Coca-Cola executive, who still somehow loves Coke. It's so fresh for me in the morning, lunch, and dinner, crazy. Wow. But back in the 60s, he was growing up right in the middle of the Vietnam War. Oh yes, the US Marines fought against the Viet Cong in front of our house. Literally in front of your house, there were bullets. Right in front of my house. Wow. And I called him up because of this one story he remembers hearing as a kid that scared the pants off him. My uncles and cousins, they went out together hunting in the mountains. Maybe lucky they killed some small animals. But mostly they're looking for dry woods to bring home for burning. Their home was a remote village in the valley of these mountains. And like so many other villages in Vietnam at this time, this one had been caught in the crossfire of the war, and so they'd been living under the constant threat of air raid and invasion. Anyway, Yae Guacan, mile after mile into the mountains, picking up what as they went, only turning to head home after the sun had set. During the mountains, when it's dark, it's a most quiet place on earth. With the few winds blow over the top of the trees. And as they're walking along carrying these heavy loads of wood, all of a sudden, a sound that then frees back to back and crouch low to the ground. It's a real noise, like a voice that is sad crying and screaming like a ghost. Finally, maybe 10, 15 minutes later, the voice stopped. The men stood up, gathered their wood, and hurried home. But the next night, late when the village was asleep, The villagers covered their children's ears, they shut their shutters,

Transcription truncated.

As the Vietnam war dragged on, the US military began desperately searching for any vulnerability in their North Vietnamese enemy. In 1964, they found it. It was an old Vietnamese folktale involving a ghost, eternal damnation and fear - a tailor made weaponizable myth. And so, armed with tape recorders and microphones, the military set out to win the war by bringing this ghost story to life. Today, the story of these efforts and their ghosts that still haunt us today.  Mixtape is reported, produced, scored and sound designed by Simon Adler with original music throughout by Simon. Indispensable reporting and production assistance was provided by Eli Cohen. This episode was produced by Annie McEwen, with original music by Annie. Original reporting was contributed by Trung Dung Vo and Nguyễn Vân Hà. Special thanks to: Allison Boccia, Jared Tracy and Herb Friedman. And to Mathew Campbell for introducing me to the Wandering Soul tape to begin with. And to Erik Villard for all his help pulling those tapes and voices for us.  Support Radiolab by becoming a member today at Radiolab.org/donate.