Winning Hearts and Minds
A strategy in which one side seeks to prevail not by the use of superior force, but by making emotional or intellectual appeals to sway supporters of the other side.
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Origin
British colonial administrator Sir Robert Groves Sandeman wrote in 1891 that success on the frontier required dealing "with the hearts and minds of the people and not only with their fears." French general Hubert Lyautey first used the phrase methodologically during the 1895 Tonkin campaign. British General Gerald Templer applied it to counterinsurgency during the 1952 Malayan Emergency. American President Lyndon B. Johnson famously invoked it on May 4, 1965, saying "the ultimate victory [in Vietnam] will depend upon the hearts and the minds of the people."
Updated February 22, 2026