Jack Weatherford: evaluation

Transcript context

…What do you think it again, felt like to have this Mongol armada, the horses? The ground must shake when you have that many horses. What do you think it feels like to be in a town when Genghis Khan’s approaching? I think the terror was one of the greatest weapons that he had. He cultivated this reputation of ferocity. Not only did he win battles, but he… he didn’t allow people to write about him, as we said, but he encouraged refugees. And when he conquered a city, he always made sure there are plenty of refugees to go to the next city because it’s going to weaken them. It’s going to weaken their food supply, and they’re going to terrorize the people with tales of the millions of people that the Mongols killed with their steel chisel teeth and eating children and all kinds of horrible tales. Genghis Khan encouraged it. This is propaganda. It’s terrorism of a mental sort to weaken the enemy. And so when you hear, or even if you know they’re coming, you see the dust, you hear the roar that comes with all those horses and the trembling of the earth, it must’ve been truly terrifying. So psychological warfare was a part of the whole process, but as I understand, there was always an offer for the towns and the territories being attacked for them to surrender peacefully without the loss of life.…

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