Ladislav Bittman
On April 20, 1950, President Harry Truman gave an address to the annual convention of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. Flanked by some of the most prominent and influential media moguls of the time, Truman took the opportunity to formally state a pivotal shift in American foreign policy. “Deceit, distortion, and lies are systematically used by [the Kremlin] as a matter of deliberate policy,” Truman said.
To combat the Soviets in the new information war, western democracies led by the United States “must make ourselves heard round the world in a great campaign of truth.” Little did those in attendance know that they were only one small piece of what became America’s most comprehensive information campaign in history; a campaign that relied just as much on stretching the truth as on the truth itself.
During the Cold War, the United States fought fire with fire, combatting Soviet information warfare operations with operations of its own. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) spearheaded numerous active measures—covert or semi-covert state-backed operations designed to manipulate public opinion and destabilize adversaries without military action. As much as it was nuclear deterrence and savvy diplomacy that won the Cold War, it was the soft power of enabling people behind the Iron Curtain to hear jazz over the radio, read glossy American magazines, and watch Apollo 11 land on the moon.
Now, we find ourselves once again engaged in an information war. Russian trolls are sowing distrust in our democratic institutions. Chinese content farms are infiltrating social media in an attempt to destabilize Taiwan. Iranian operatives are spreading deepfakes to stoke unrest and inflame tensions across the Middle East.
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