Dr. Mervyn Roberts is a History instructor at Central Texas College in Killeen, Texas as well as Reserve Adjunct at the Joint Special Operations University in Tampa, Florida. Mervyn’s dissertation, “Let the Dogs Bark: The Psychological War in Vietnam 1960-1968,” uses GIS data sets to help analyze PSYOP effects during that period. This data includes the Hamlet Evaluation System, Viet Cong Initiated Incidents file and Terrorist Incident Reporting System file. Mervyn has served 30 years in the US Army, most recently as First Sergeant for the 345th PSYOP Company. He served two tours in Afghanistan as a PSYOP Specialist and speaks Dari and Farsi.

Publications

General

  • “Analysis of Radio Propaganda in the 1953 Iran Coup.” Iranian Studies. November 2012.
  • “Measuring Effectiveness of Psychological Operations in Support of Irregular Warfare” in Special Warfare Magazine, Sep/Oct 2009.
  • Villages of the Moon: Psychological Operations in Southern Afghanistan. (Baltimore: Publish America, 2005).
  • “History of the 345th PSYOP Company,” 16-minute documentary, script and video editor.

Papers and Presentations

  • “Myth and Propaganda and the Battle of Ap Bac, 1963,” Texas A&M History Conference, March 2015.
  • “Visualizing the Vietnam War: Using GIS to Analyze Psychological Operations.” Graduate Student Exhibition, University of North Texas, March 2014.
  • “United States Psychological Operations in Support of Counterinsurgency: Vietnam, 1960 to 1965.” Vietnam Experience Conference, University of Houston-Victory, June 2013.
  • “The Texas Colored Infantry, 1880-1906: Common Bonds Undone” Texas Tech Graduate History Conference, February 2013.
  • “Exciting a Spirit of Disaffection: The Propaganda Campaign against German Auxiliaries in the American Revolution.” Texas A&M History Conference, March 2010.