@article{ART003388148},
author={CHUNG, Yong Wook},
title={The U.S. Army Operations Research Office: Research Activities during the Korean War},
journal={military history},
issn={1598-317X},
year={2026},
number={140},
pages={197-238}
TY - JOUR
AU - CHUNG, Yong Wook
TI - The U.S. Army Operations Research Office: Research Activities during the Korean War
JO - military history
PY - 2026
VL - null
IS - 140
PB - Military History Institute, MND
SP - 197
EP - 238
SN - 1598-317X
AB - The Operations Research Office (ORO), a civilian research organization established in 1948 through a contract with Johns Hopkins University, deployed civilian scientists and specialists to the Korean War front from September 1950 onward. During the conflict, more than 150 ORO personnel served under the Far East Command (FEC) and Eighth United States Army (EUSAK), with over half the organization’s total staff assigned to the combat theater at any given time.
ORO’s field research operated along two lines: producing studies and recommendations on ongoing operations, and gathering data for broader subsequent research. The scope of inquiry ranged from weapons and equipment performance, armor operations, close air support, and logistics, to the tactical employment of atomic weapons, utilization of Korean indigenous manpower, and civil affairs and military government — encompassing both immediate tactical demands and longer-term strategic requirements.
Most striking is that psychological warfare (psywar) research accounted for nearly half of all ORO projects in the theater. Working within the framework designed by Paul Linebarger, ORO pursued two principal lines of psywar inquiry. The first evaluated the organization, conduct, and effectiveness of psywar operations — leaflets, radio broadcasts, and theater- level staff organization. The second, led by Lessing Kahn, developed target vulnerability analysis: a systematic psychometric study of North Korean and Chinese prisoners of war held at camps in Pusan and Koje-do. Involving more than 5,100 POWs, this represented an unprecedented scale of enemy-soldier experimentation in American military history.
ORO’s psywar research went beyond measuring tactical effectiveness. Because the Korean War was simultaneously a civil war and an ideological conflict, the research extended to constructing the conceptual foundations for Cold War psychological strategy. Murray Dyer’s synthetic assessment reconceptualized psychological warfare as “political communication” and elevated it to a core instrument of statecraft. In this way, ORO’s Korean War psywar research evolved from tactical field studies into the theoretical groundwork for the United States military’s strategic psychological warfare doctrine during the Cold War.
KW - Operations Research Office (ORO);Korean War;Psychological Warfare;Target Vulnerability Analysis;Prisoners of War;Paul Linebarger;Lessing Kahn;Kim Kilchoon;Cold War Knowledge Production;Political Communication
DO -
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CHUNG, Yong Wook. (2026). The U.S. Army Operations Research Office: Research Activities during the Korean War. military history, 140, 197-238.
CHUNG, Yong Wook. 2026, "The U.S. Army Operations Research Office: Research Activities during the Korean War", military history, no.140, pp.197-238.
CHUNG, Yong Wook "The U.S. Army Operations Research Office: Research Activities during the Korean War" military history 140 pp.197-238 (2026) : 197.
CHUNG, Yong Wook. The U.S. Army Operations Research Office: Research Activities during the Korean War. 2026; 140 : 197-238.
CHUNG, Yong Wook. "The U.S. Army Operations Research Office: Research Activities during the Korean War" military history no.140(2026) : 197-238.
CHUNG, Yong Wook. The U.S. Army Operations Research Office: Research Activities during the Korean War. military history, 140, 197-238.
CHUNG, Yong Wook. The U.S. Army Operations Research Office: Research Activities during the Korean War. military history. 2026; 140 197-238.
CHUNG, Yong Wook. The U.S. Army Operations Research Office: Research Activities during the Korean War. 2026; 140 : 197-238.
CHUNG, Yong Wook. "The U.S. Army Operations Research Office: Research Activities during the Korean War" military history no.140(2026) : 197-238.
