Short Stuff: Did a vampire legend help win the Cold War? | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

Hey and welcome to the short stuff. I'm. Josh and there's Chuck and Jerry's here. for Dave. So this is short stuff. Giddy. up. >> That's right. And this week we are. talking about uh more nefarious business. by the American CIA. >> Yeah. >> Uh during the Cold War in this case. Uh. but first we should probably tell you. just a short bit about the Philippines, right? >> Yeah. There's 7,000 islands in the. Philippines. more than I did not know. that but that's a lot of.

>> that's a lot. >> Yeah. >> Um there's 175 different languages. Tagalog is one of the um the larger. language families or groups or just. languages. and because there's 7,000 islands. there's a bunch of different languages. There's a lot of cultural different. cultural beliefs, but some of the ones. are spread pretty far and wide across. the Philippines, which would suggest. they're very very old like folk beliefs. And one of them uh that we're going to.

talk about today is the awang. >> That's right. Uh we don't have an exact. correlation here in the in the United. States, but um you might call it like a. vampire potentially because it does suck. blood. Um, but it also feeds on uh. organs and it feeds on fleg, which is. completely disgusting to me. >> One of the worst things I've ever heard. >> Yeah. Feeds on fle uh unborn children. Uh pregnant women. Um it can be a giant. pig. It can be a giant vulture. It can. be like a dog shaped thing.

>> Um and sort of like I can't What was the. one we did this past October about the. the Mexican uh folklore? >> The owl called? >> Yeah, similar to that. I can't remember. the name of that one, but um it's one of. those deals where like any mysterious. death or unexplained illness or any kind. of misfortune that might happen, you. might blame uh blame on the aswang, >> right? And you mentioned a dog. I saw. somewhere that the um name comes from. Aso Wong, which means dog, I think, in. tagalog.

>> Oh, all right. >> So, um you people are like, "Okay, great. What What's up with the name. though? The CIA vampires thing. What are. you talking about, you guys?" Well, this. is what we're talking about. In the Cold. War in the 50s, there was a guy whose. name was Edward Giri Lansdale, and he. worked for the CIA, and he used the the. um tale of the Oswang to try to u. manipulate people into turning against a. gorilla army there.

>> That's right. Uh and you know, if you're. afraid of something like this, it's. probably because it's truly horrific. Aside from feeding on flem, uh, this. thing in humanoid form would, uh, lurk. on rooftops at night. >> y. >> and had a a long tongue, sort of like a. proboscus that it could lower through. what's called a lick hole in the ceiling. of your home. >> Do you have a lick hole? >> Horrible, horrible words put together. Feeding on flem and lick hole. Uh and.

like we said, pregnant women, children, it would suck out their insides with. this tongue and essentially leave. something, you know, devoid of organs. and, you know, disembowled and devoid of. blood. It would suck suck them from the. outside in or inside out rather, >> right? Yeah. And again, um like we don't. have a good analogy to this in the west. the best we can do is like Dracula. essentially, but that's that's really. eat sucking or eating blood or consuming.

blood is that's where the similarities. end. >> That's right. Uh so Ed Lansdale comes. along. He was pre-war uh World War II. He was a ad guy. And so once he got in. the war uh they said, "All right, you're. pretty sharp tech. uh we're going to. move you over to the OSS, the Office of. Strategic Services, which predated the. CIA. And they said, since you're an ad. guy, you know what you'd be great at is. SCOPs. Um you know, using media and. marketing and propaganda to help win the.

war, like um demonize the enemy because. that's basically what you do as an. advertiser. >> Exactly. And he was a whiz at it, so he. excelled at SCOPS himself. And he took a. different view of things. He said. normally that when people think about. SCOPs conventionally um they're talking. about dropping leaflets that try to. demoralize the enemy maybe using like a. Tokyo Rose type to talk about how GI's. girlfriends are um hooking up with other.

guys back home. Those are SCOPs and. they're really kind of a lowhanging. fruit. What Landdale was doing was. really trying to dig into the local. culture to figure out how to turn that. culture's beliefs and superstitions. against it to win the war. >> That's right. Uh that feels like a. pretty good time for a break. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> All right. We're going to come right. back and talk about what happened in. 1950 right after this.

All right. So, I promised talk of 1950. That is when Lansdale came to the. Philippines. Uh, he was undercover as a. CIA guy. He was officially there as an.

air force officer and adviser to the. president of the Philippines who was uh. Ramon uh mages magi. >> I'm going with magi. >> May. I don't know why I said seesaw. Uh. so he was assigned there in the. Philippines uh because the US uh was. backing that regime and they were. fighting a war against communist rebels. there uh known as the hooks. It was H U. KS and they were, you know, they fought.

uh the Hooks fought, you know, pretty. heroically in the Philippine Army um. against the Japanese in World War II. But after the war, uh they along with. their leader whose name was, I guess, uh. Louie Taruk um said nuts to this. government, uh to borrow a Josh Clark. term, uh because the Philippine Trade. Act of 1946 basically said the American. government gets equal rights to the. natural resources and the Hawks weren't. down with that. >> Yeah. Yeah. And I'm not sure if the. Hooks were actually like communist or if.

they were just labeled as communist. insurgents to help drum up public. support against them because they really. were this revered like like infantry. that really helped the get the Japanese. out of the Philippines and the US troops. even fought alongside of them. But after. they broke with this American backed um. administration, they were they were. persona nonrada, right? They they had to. be gotten rid of because they weren't. just like protesting. They were carrying. out a guerilla war to try to overthrow.

this USbacked um regime, I guess. >> Yeah. Not only US backed, but sort of. US- elected because those supposedly. free elections in the Philippines that. brought this party into power were. totally rigged by the CIA and US. operatives. So, uh it was all dirty. dealing going on in the CIA uh back. then. Um not like these days. >> No, not like today. And by the way, um, since we're talking about the CIA, I. have another show recommendation for. you. It's called The Agency Colon.

Central Intelligence. It's a really. stupid name, but it is a really well. done um, suspenseful, but also really. dramatic um, show. It's Michael. Fospender, Richard Deer does it like. I've never seen him act like he is in. this one. Um, Jeffrey Wright, >> it's just this really great show. It's a. great cast. Everybody does wonderfully. Even the people I've never heard of. before, everybody does great. >> You know what we should do? We should do.

a little 15inute show once a week where. we recommend stuff to people. >> That's a great idea. Where'd you get. that idea? >> I don't know. Let's hear from you. Do Do. people want that? >> Let's find out. >> All right. So, uh, some of these cy. tactics, uh, they got busy doing their. stuff, like kind of doing research on. the the Filipinos and like what would. kind of what would sway them, what would. work. Uh they did some studies of the. people like especially the peasants. living in the hook areas. Um one of the. sort of I guess sort of low hanging. fruit like you were talking about that.

they used was uh they would fly over. these areas with you know kind of. low-flying light aircraft. >> to broadcast curses and tagalog. >> Um if anyone was like if you're a. villager and you're going to help the. hook soldiers this curse will befall. you. >> Um that sort of worked a little bit. Uh. he would also um paint the what's called. the eye of God. It was just kind of a. scary looking thing. >> on houses of hook sympathizers like on. their front door and that would kind of. scare people out. Uh but kind of nothing.

like what he did with Oswang, right? >> No, this was definitely a different. level than those other ones that you. mentioned because there was a CIA. trained um that Lansdale helped oversee. um group of government Filipino. government military operatives. That's a. really clumsy way to put it, but um they. were basically set out, they were. unleashed on this village um where a. bunch of hook uh rebels, I think a 100.

to 300 of them were encamped nearby and. they were intimidating the villagers. into um being quiet, giving them. supplies, that kind of stuff. So the CIA. found out about this and they really. wanted to get this hook um detachment. out of this area. And this is when they. they um unleashed this Oswang rumor. They they basically had these Filipino. commandos go into the village and start. a rumor that the um Oswang was haunting. this area where the Hook rebels were.

were camped out. >> Yeah. And you think, all right, well. that doesn't sound much different than. the other thing. Like they're spreading. a rumor that might scare them into not. helping these local soldiers there in. the nearby hills. Uh but they took it. one step further and they had uh these. these agents go in and oswang them. Basically, they would kidnap hook. fighters and disembowel them and and. clean them out uh asswang vampire style. and leave their bloodless corpses.

behind. >> Well, I saw also one of the things that. they did was put puncture holes in their. neck and drain them of blood. And that. is not really Oswang at all. That's. Dracula stuff and that's just shoddy um. research of a poor quality if you're. really trying to scare off people based. on their superstitions. >> Yeah. I mean there was a guy that wrote. a book about this uh in addition to. Lansdale wrote his own memoir but um. there's a researcher I think his last.

name was Clark. What's. >> Jordan Clark he talked to I think he. talked to Dave Ruse who wrote this for. How Stuff Works. >> Oh okay. Well, he basically backed up. what you're saying is like if they would. have done their research, they would. have believed that the true local. creature they were scared of uh was not. oswang. It was a a self-segmenting. um kind of oswang, but it kind of. strictly fed on the fetuses of pregnant. women and was not a blood sucker. >> Uh and he's also not sure that like this. thing worked, but he's not sure if it.

worked because they thought it was an. aswang or whatever the local I can't. even how do you pronounce that? Uh, Mana Mananal. >> Yeah, I think so. >> Was the was the local boogeyman. >> Uh, if it worked because they thought it. was that or if it was because they were. like, "Holy crap, these they're so. twisted. They're sucking the blood out. of and draining blood out of people to. make it seem like so like either way, don't mess with these guys. It's awful.". >> Yeah. But it worked. It didn't win the. war. Jordan Clark points out like this.

this worked this one time. I think it. was only used one time and it did. dislodge those hook um insurgents, but. the the war was run by grinding them. out. They basically fought Yeah. >> over the years and Luis Terra. um finally surrendered in 1954. I think. he secured a pardon for himself and his. troops. >> That's right. >> And he said, "Did you see what happened. with the Osw years back?" Yeah. And they.

were just like, >> "That's it.". >> Does that mean your stuff is out? >> All right. Stuff You Should Know is a production of. iHeart Radio. For more podcasts, iHeart. Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple. Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your. favorite shows.