Terry Prone: Most powerful tool to owning the outcome is communication

In war, if the objective is to capture the public mind, rather than enemy terrain, communication is the most powerful weapon

Former US president Donald Trump can thank another former US president Ronald Reagan for weakening the ‘Fairness Doctrine’ — a protective fence around public information.

A number of people around his cabinet table gave out hell to Abraham Lincoln at one point during the American civil war because he continued to employ Ulysses S Grant as a key general, despite Grant being a notorious binge-drinker whenever his wife wasn’t present to influence him towards sobriety. Lincoln, as was his practice, listened attentively to the data being presented about Grant’s worrying drinking bouts, but at the end of the discussion, refused to fire him. Instead, the president said: “I need this man. He fights.”

It was a persuasive point. During the civil war, Lincoln had to put up with a number of generals who, despite all their training at West Point, paradoxically didn’t fight. These commanders never saw a battle they liked the look of and were geniuses at avoidance-behaviour. In fact, his top military man early on was George McClellan, who was adored by his men, perhaps, it might cynically be suggested, because he so rarely committed them to battle. McClellan always needed reinforcements. Twenty thousand men, he insisted one night, changing his mind after a good night’s sleep. Waking up, he doubled that number.