The art of military tactical deception is as old as war itself. The Chinese warrior Sun Tzu's classic study on war written in 510 B.C., Ping Fa (The Principles of War, akaThe Art of War), recognizes that all warfare is based upon deception; make your way by unexpected routes, Sun Tzu writes, attacking unguarded spots. The Chinese have studied Tzu's work carefully for centuries. The Japanese, wanting to learn more about their enemy, studied the work as well, as did the Americans after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
In the dictionary the word deception means to deceive, to cause another to believe what is not true. To mislead. At face value, this is quite immoral. Generally, we would say it would be highly improper to mislead anyone to believe something that is not true. Yet Sun Tzu endorsed this practice in his Art of War. Like many concepts in life (and as you might expect), nothing is as simple as it seems.
