Confessions of a Cold War Propagandist

[Overpaid Slacker]

At the not insubstantial risk of igniting another political firestorm, I had to share this article w/ my Pelican brethren. I don't post it as a slap at Kerry. I share this b/c the first-hand confessions of a Cold War senior propagandist might, just might -- it's difficult to admit you've been suckered -- get one or two "Useful Idiots" thinking about where a lot of the anti-American sentiment comes (and came) from. Useful Idiots is Lenin's term to describe the gullible and easily incited to self-loathing Western Left.

Enjoy.

JP

NationalReview.com
February 26, 2004, 8:28 a.m.
Kerry’s Soviet Rhetoric
The Vietnam-era antiwar movement got its spin from the Kremlin.

By Ion Mihai Pacepa

Part of Senator John Kerry's appeal to a certain segment of Americans is his Vietnam-veteran status coupled with his antiwar activism during that period. On April 12, 1971, Kerry told the U.S. Congress that American soldiers claimed to him that they had, "raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned on the power, cut off limbs, blew up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in a fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan."

The exact sources of that assertion should be tracked down. Kerry also ought to be asked who, exactly, told him any such thing, and what it was, exactly, that they said they did in Vietnam. Statutes of limitation now protect these individuals from prosecution for any such admissions. Or did Senator Kerry merely hear allegations of that sort as hearsay bandied about by members of antiwar groups (much of which has since been discredited)? To me, this assertion sounds exactly like the disinformation line that the Soviets were sowing worldwide throughout the Vietnam era. KGB priority number one at that time was to damage American power, judgment, and credibility. One of its favorite tools was the fabrication of such evidence as photographs and "news reports" about invented American war atrocities. These tales were purveyed in KGB-operated magazines that would then flack them to reputable news organizations. Often enough, they would be picked up. News organizations are notoriously sloppy about verifying their sources. All in all, it was amazingly easy for Soviet-bloc spy organizations to fake many such reports and spread them around the free world.

As a spy chief and a general in the former Soviet satellite of Romania, I produced the very same vitriol Kerry repeated to the U.S. Congress almost word for word and planted it in leftist movements throughout Europe. KGB chairman Yuri Andropov managed our anti-Vietnam War operation. He often bragged about having damaged the U.S. foreign-policy consensus, poisoned domestic debate in the U.S., and built a credibility gap between America and European public opinion through our disinformation operations. Vietnam was, he once told me, "our most significant success."

The KGB organized a vitriolic conference in Stockholm to condemn America's aggression, on March 8, 1965, as the first American troops arrived in south Vietnam. On Andropov's orders, one of the KGB's paid agents, Romesh Chandra, the chairman of the KGB-financed World Peace Council, created the Stockholm Conference on Vietnam as a permanent international organization to aid or to conduct operations to help Americans dodge the draft or defect, to demoralize its army with anti-American propaganda, to conduct protests, demonstrations, and boycotts, and to sanction anyone connected with the war. It was staffed by Soviet-bloc undercover intelligence officers and received about $15 million annually from the Communist Party's international department — on top of the WPC's $50 million a year, all delivered in laundered cash dollars. Both groups had Soviet-style secretariats to manage their general activities, Soviet-style working committees to conduct their day-to-day operations, and Soviet-style bureaucratic paperwork. The quote from Senator Kerry is unmistakable Soviet-style sloganeering from this period. I believe it is very like a direct quote from one of these organizations' propaganda sheets.

The KGB campaign to assault the U.S. and Europe by means of disinformation was more than just a few Cold War dirty tricks. The whole foreign policy of the Soviet-bloc states, indeed its whole economic and military might, revolved around the larger Soviet objective of destroying America from within through the use of lies. The Soviets saw disinformation as a vital tool in the dialectical advance of world Communism.

The Stockholm conference held annual international meetings up to 1972. In its five years of existence it created thousands of "documentary" materials printed in all the major Western languages describing the "abominable crimes" committed by American soldiers against civilians in Vietnam, along with counterfeited pictures. All these materials were manufactured by the KGB's disinformation department. I would print up these materials in hundreds of thousands of copies each.

The Romanian DIE (Ceausescu's secret police) was tasked to distribute these KGB-concocted "incriminating documents" all over Western Europe. And ordinary people often bought it hook, line, and sinker. "Even Attila the Hun looks like an angel when compared to these Americans," a West German businessman reprovingly told me after reading one such report.

The Italian, Greek, and Spanish Communist parties serviced by Bucharest were much affected by this material and their activists regularly distributed translations. They also handed them out to the participants at anti-American demonstrations around the world.

Many "Ban-the-Bomb" and anti-nuclear movements were KGB-funded operations, too. I can no longer look at a petition for world peace or other supposedly noble cause, particularly of the anti-American variety, without thinking to myself, "KGB."

In 1978, when I broke with Communism, my DIE was propagating the line that Washington's adventure in Vietnam had wasted over $200 trillion. This waste, we warned darkly, would soon generate European inflation, recession, and unemployment.

As far as I'm concerned, the KGB gave birth to the antiwar movement in America. In 1976, Andropov gave my own Romanian DIE credit for helping his KGB do so.

Leftist intellectuals in America now look to Europe — steeped for years in anti-American propaganda from the Soviet Union — for "a sane and frank European criticism of the Bush administration's war policy." Indeed, anti-Americanism in Europe today is almost as ferocious as it was during Vietnam. France and Germany insist we are torturing the al Qaeda prisoners held at Guantanamo Base. The Mirror, a British newspaper, is confident that President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair were "killing innocents in Afghanistan." The Paris daily Le Monde put Jean Baudrillard on its front page asserting that "the Judeo-Christian West, led by America, not only provoked the [September 11] terrorist attacks, it actually desired them."

In June 2002, a documentary film on "U.S. war crimes" in Afghanistan was shown in the German Bundestag by the crypto-Communist Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS). The film faithfully reincarnated the style of old Soviet-bloc "documentaries" demonizing the U.S. war in Vietnam. According to this 20-minute movie, American soldiers were involved in the torture and murder of some 3,000 Taliban prisoners in the region of Mazar-e-Sharif. One witness in the film even claimed he had seen an American soldier break the neck of one Afghan prisoner and pour acid on others.

During my last meeting with Andropov, he said, wisely, "now all we have to do is to keep the Vietnam-era anti-Americanism alive." Andropov was a shrewd judge of human nature. He understood that in the end our original involvement would be forgotten, and our insinuations would take on a life of their own. He knew well that it was just the way human nature worked.

Ion Mihai Pacepa was acting chief of Romania's espionage service and national-security adviser to the country's president. He is the highest-ranking intelligence officer ever to have defected from the former Soviet bloc.

[MFAFF]

Quick question.

Does any of this surprise you?

The Soviet Union was well know for is support of anti-Western organisations, from Trade Unions to CND etc all thro this period to say nothing of support for the IRA etc.

Is it surprising to see an enemy reinforce the discomfort of an opponent by any and all means?

Whilst twenty years later it is easy to see the puppet masters at work at the time they were far more difficult to spot, if not impossible.

Also do you not think that the same games where being played by the West against the USSR and its allies, possibly less successfully but nonetheless still there.

Are we sure this in itself is not part of that game?

[Overpaid Slacker]

It's not surprising to me, but the personal account of someone with intimate knowledge of planning and executing such a scheme is interesting -- especially in the context of Kerry's comments.

This is not merely support for anti-Western organizations, it's using the openness of the West and the vulnerabilities and susceptibilities of lefties to engage in a full-scale disinformation and disruption campaign -- manufacturing stories of US war atrocities and getting them wide coverage in Western media is not the same as sending a check to the IRA! Look at the lasting damage done in the US by the strife of the anti-Vietnam War movement.

The unwitting Left fifth column was snookered, and continues to be snookered by this crap, at the same time viewing with extreme skepticism the expressions of their own government. Not that you shouldn't be skeptical of the gub'ment, but to be so easily beguiled by these insidious and intended-to-be-destructive ploys does not bolster the claims of the Left to intellectual superiority.

Our efforts behind the Iron Curtain were nowhere near as succesful, by the very nature of the Soviet system (state-run monopolistic media; the severest of punishments for deviating from state-approved information; one in five people working for the state's intelligence apparatus -- one in three for the STASI in the DDR, etc.). Not that I participated in these efforts or can say so w/ personal experience, but, at one point, I studied the literature and reports on these matters w/ some interest.

JP

[concentric]

Originally posted by Overpaid Slacker


Part of Senator John Kerry's appeal to a certain segment of Americans is his Vietnam-veteran status coupled with his antiwar activism during that period. On April 12, 1971, Kerry told the U.S. Congress that American soldiers claimed to him that they had, "raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned on the power, cut off limbs, blew up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in a fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan."
[/I]

So, OS, do you really believe that stuff like this didn't happen in Vietnam? Because the way both sides tell it (and I have some personal friends that were pretty deep in the ****), torture was de rigeur for everybody involved.

Especially true when viewed against events like Mi Lai.

JCM

[Overpaid Slacker]

I'm not sure whether to believe a lot of it or not - I'll stipulate that some terrible things were done, but I don't know how endemic it was, and Mr. Pacepa makes an interesting point about the contrivance and conveyance of information in general, using the Vietnam matter as an example from his personal experience. It likely happened that there was some (not "much") torture and the propagandists inflated it to biblical proportions; one or two real events leveraged into dozens or hundreds of stories. Pacepa admits to having done just this sort of thing on a global scale, for premeditated political destabilizing purposes -- so, though I don't know how many actual incidents occured, I believe that many if not most of the stories were fabricated.

I would like, as Pacepa recommends, to drill down and find who said these things, and if they were simply widely "known", or if there are people willing to stand up and be very specific in how they know. Believe it or not, this isn't to vilify Kerry, who probably believed what he was saying in his testimony (insert snide comment about his ability, nay propensity, to believe, or at least espouse, any number of conflicting viewpoints on matters, depending upon the day of the week).

JP

[tabs]

I don't care what terrible things were done...or more importantly what is being done NOW. Liberals are fking idiots....they drive around in their SUV's completely oblivious what it takes to keep them in those vehicles. If they had their way Al Qadea would be driving around in thier SUV's while they(the Liberals) are mouldering in their graves. Do U fking idiotsa get it...there are US special forces out there right now doing those "Terrible Things." It's those terrible things that allow the People all the people in this country to sleep in relative security that you won't have your throat cut in the night, by someone who hates your fking guts. So boyz get off your high horses/ and or your heads outa your a$$es and smell the roses.

[djmcmath]

Easy, Tabs -- let's try to keep it halfway calm here.

OS -- I find your article to be very interesting. It had never occurred to me that the KGB was behind a huge amount of the anti-American propaganda. Not to say that propaganda isn't based at least partially in the truth, but it's still fascinating to see what's been done. The harder question, unfortunately, is what to do? Knowing that some percentage of the anti-US sentiment I'm liable to find abroad stems from lies generated by communists, what can I do to help fix the situation?

Sadly, I suspect that the liberal news media, which thrives on entertainment rather than information, will continue to pass such anti-US stories -- even here in the US -- because it is entertainment. Bummer, huh?

Dan

[tabs]

Liberal live in a fantasy world of lollipops and cotton candy...thinking everything is sugar and spice...but the real world is a brutal place, where if you don't take care of yourself you get eaten for dinner. Some people play the game for real you know!

[concentric]

Originally posted by tabs
Liberal live in a fantasy world of lollipops and cotton candy...thinking everything is sugar and spice...but the real world is a brutal place, where if you don't take care of yourself you get eaten for dinner. Some people play the game for real you know!

The real world, tabs, is a combination of the good and the bad. And obviously the good is outweighing the bad or humanity would have ceased to exist a long time ago.

I thought you were supposed to be a realist? The reality is that the world is a rough place, but I would argue that humans can't live without hope, love, or faith. What else makes life worth living, excepting a fear of death?

It's sure easy for someone in your position to sit back and say what you just said. It certainly doesn't look to me like you're playing the game for real.

Regards and whatever,

JCM

P.S. Stop using the word "Liberal" like it actually means something

[MFAFF]

I think you'll find that support for the IRA went a little beyond putting check in the mail.....like supply both the arms and the training facilities for them and so forth.

But you are correct, the system exploited the very tenents of the 'Free World'.
Now where do we stand on believing all of that? If you do then, retrospectively you were suckered, although I do think that they were adding detail to events as opposed to outright fabrication of all of them.

If we do not then the who do you believe? The Government? Do you think that the 'truth' they put out is anymore 'real' or correct. Afterall few in the US adminstration would have really been too proud of actions in Latin America and been honest about what was happening there.....

I find tabs' response interesting...especially in the light of his building problems. Free market economy, low taxes etc all good stuff, but when you do rely on Public Servants (Building Inspectors) then there are not enough and instead you spend more on Lawyers and litigation.

Either way you are out of pocket to a greater extent.
Now he has the resources to retrospectively defend his interests, both financially and mentally which is to his advantage.

Taking a more Left leaning view, would he have spent more or less if a greater number of better building inspectors, tax funded, had been avaliable to ensure that these defects were picked up in the first place?

[RoninLB]

Jane Fonda in her Glory sitting on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun mount.

[pwd72s]

Funny how we're supposed to forget about Hanoi Jane, isn't it?

[RoninLB]

Originally posted by pwd72s
Funny how we're supposed to forget about Hanoi Jane, isn't it?

Not by wording.

" a traitor whose hands are covered with the blood of so many patriots. There are few things I have strong visceral reactions to, but Hanoi Jane's participation in blatant treason, is one of them."

[nostatic]

A couple of points. First, I do not doubt the account given in the National Review. Nor do I doubt that the US did and continues to do the exact same thing. SOP.

As far as liberals being idiots for believing propaganda tripe, you could easily make the same argument about conservatives believing jingoist tripe that proffers "America or the highway", the government knows what's best, and other countries can't possibly have anything worthwhile to add to discussions that involve US interests.

Ignorance knows no bounds, left or right.

[Overpaid Slacker]

I'm not saying conservatives are immune to propaganda, by any means. What I meant (and what I wrote) was that a few of the knee-jerk Blame America First crowd might want to do some kind of regression analysis to determine where it was started, by whom, and for what ends -- b/c it certainly wasn't meant to "improve" America or make it a better place through reasoned discourse.

Much of the liberal keening is about their inherent, unique ability to see root causes and primum mobile uncluttered (so the story goes) by such base motivations as conservatives suffer. In short, the Liberal ideological stock-in-trade is some kind of [I was going to type "God-given", but that won't work for the fashionably athiest] insuperable moral high ground resulting from predetermined intellectual superiority. This insufferable sanctimony is pierced by Pacepa's article, demonstrating that we benighted conservatives' cultural/moral/intellectual betters got suckered-- and many remain suckered.

It's not so much (as far as I'm concerned) whether there was torture by US forces in Vietnam or how much there was -- but rather that, when hostile foreign interests deliberately overstated the facts, and frankly just made a lot of ***** up, the bleeding hearts fell for it hook, line and sinker. Whether one guy got his ears cut off or 1,000, the Soviets and hostile foreign intelligence agencies found in the American and Western Left an audience ready and eager to believe the worst, and the US is still paying the price for their blindered righteousness.

Let's not forget Hanoi Jane, during her tour, scolding POW pilots "are you sorry you bombed babies?" The pilots, thinking it was an act (I mean it HAD to be an act, right?) each slipped her small bits of paper w/ their SSN's - so that when she got home, at least their families would know they're alive. Once the cameras were shut off, Hanoi promptly turned to the North Vietnamese officer and handed him the pieces of paper. The story goes that 3 of the pilots didn't survive the beatings that resulted. This story may or may not be true (I wasn't there, I don't know) but if it is, I am hard pressed to imagine anything more despicable than that act of self-righteous masturbation by that see you next tuesday.

JP

[nostatic]

JP, we are in total agreement. Many liberals are chock full of self-righteousness, and will latch on to any scrap of questionable information that furthers their cause. And to blindly forge ahead, ignoring the sources, veracity, and act in ways that put others at risk is reprehensible.

My point is that it cuts both ways. Take what I said above, and take out "liberal" and put in "Cheney/Bush". Instead of the Hanoi Jane/Vietnam scenario, instead consider intel leading up to the Iraq invasion.

To quote you, should we also seriously ponder the possibility that going into Iraq was an "act of self-righteous masturbation"?

I don't want to turn this into the usual Bush-bash, but rather offer that it is important for intelligent people to question ALL angles of the issues, and carefully consider ALL of the possible motives of the players.

[Overpaid Slacker]

OK, I'll agree to that.

JP

[RoninLB]

Originally posted by Overpaid Slacker
OK, I'll agree to that.

Uh oh !
me too

[350HP930]

The next thing we know slacker will be telling us the actions of Hugh Thompson are some fairy tale made up by communist agents and his being awarded the Soldier's Medal for stopping the Mi Lai massacre was just some treasonous action by commie agents In the military.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/guides/debate/chats/thompson/

If slacker digs deep enough through the national review I am pretty sure he can come up with articles suggesting that MLK and the civil rights movement were also backed and formented by 'commies'. I am sure a few of hoover's retired agents will still be willing to testify that MLK was a communist agent.

There are only a couple days of black history month left so you had better hurry.

[350HP930]

Originally posted by Overpaid Slacker
Let's not forget Hanoi Jane, during her tour, scolding POW pilots "are you sorry you bombed babies?" The pilots, thinking it was an act (I mean it HAD to be an act, right?) each slipped her small bits of paper w/ their SSN's - so that when she got home, at least their families would know they're alive. Once the cameras were shut off, Hanoi promptly turned to the North Vietnamese officer and handed him the pieces of paper. The story goes that 3 of the pilots didn't survive the beatings that resulted. This story may or may not be true (I wasn't there, I don't know) but if it is, I am hard pressed to imagine anything more despicable than that act of self-righteous masturbation by that see you next tuesday.

By the way slacker, before you pass along libelous propaganda as possible fact you should research your subjects a little better.

Passing along internet chain letters is not the best way to educate yourself and your associates about reality.

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/h/hanoijane.htm

How the email story about the POWs got started is not known, but it has been widely circulated.

TruthOrFiction.com located Jerry Driscoll who said that the accounts about him in the email are "...the product of a very vivid imagination" and he requests that people please stop passing it on to others.

TruthOrFiction.com also contacted Mike McGrath, President of NAM-POWs, who says the Larry Carrigan events never happened either. He says Carrigan calls the story a "hoax" and does not want to be associated with it. McGrath also says that some versions of the email include an account from a Dave Hoffman and that his story is true. Hoffman says he was tortured (hung by a broken arm) until he agreed to go before Jane Fonda. He was among a small group who witnessed one of her radio broadcasts for Hanoi.

The part of the email that begins with "To Whom it may concern" is true. It's a quote from an article titled SHAME ON JANE originally published on the Advocacy And Intelligence Index website on April 28, 1999 and written by Michael Benge who was a civilian captured by the North Vietnamese in 1968. In his statement, he also makes reference to a missionary nurse who died in captivity. For your interest, that was Betty Olsen, a Christian Missionary Alliance nurse from New York.