---
title: Cold War propaganda:US and Soviet posters, radio and leaflets
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/cold-war-propaganda/
description: Cold War propaganda was the persuasion and disinformation that the United States and the Soviet Union, with their allies and clients, aimed at foreign…
section: Learn
---

![Illustration: a pre-1914 imperial intelligence-dossier collage of colonial telegraph logs, sepia field photography and empire maps.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/detail/hero-pre1914.jpg)

[Learn](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/) · Basics

# Cold War propaganda:US and Soviet posters, radio and leaflets

On this page

## Short answer

Cold War propaganda was the persuasion and disinformation that the United States and the Soviet Union, with their allies and clients, aimed at foreign publics, at each other's populations and at their own from about 1947 to 1991. Both sides used radio, print, posters, leaflets, films, cultural programmes and covert operations. They differed in scale, in who controlled domestic information, and in what was concealed and how it later came to light. This archive applies one definition to all of them ([What is propaganda? Definition, history and examples](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/what-is-propaganda/)).

## The United States side

**Open institutions.** The Voice of America began broadcasting in February 1942, and the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 barred the government from distributing its foreign-audience material at home [1][2]. President Eisenhower's Reorganization Plan No. 8 created the U.S. Information Agency (USIA) on 1 August 1953, combining the government's overseas information programmes, including the Voice of America; it was abolished on 1 October 1999 [1]. Military psychological operations doctrine is described in [U.S. Army and Joint Staff, Psychological Operations doctrine (1987-2013)](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/us-psyop-doctrine/).

**Concealed funding.** Radio Free Europe (broadcasting from 1950) and Radio Liberty (from 1953) were presented as the work of private citizens' committees, and the Crusade for Freedom asked Americans to give "Truth Dollars" to support them. Most of the money came from the CIA. Senator Clifford Case put this on the Senate record on 25 January 1971, and open congressional funding replaced it in 1973 [3]. The full story is in [The Crusade for Freedom: Truth Dollars for a CIA-funded radio, 1950-1971](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/crusade-for-freedom-radio-free-europe/). This is gray propaganda in the working definition's colours: the message is public, the sponsor is blurred. The CIA also ran Radio Swan for Cuba under a cover company ([The Cuba-United States radio war: Radio Swan's cover story and Havana's 'gusanos'](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/cuba-us-radio-war/)), and the FBI placed material about U.S. political groups in the press and mailed items that did not name it as the source between 1956 and 1971 ([COINTELPRO: the FBI's covert media and information operations against U.S. groups, 1956-1971](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/cointelpro-media-operations/)). A domestic Cold War case is Senator McCarthy's 1950 loyalty charges, whose numbers shifted between speeches ([McCarthy's numbers: 205, 57, 81 and the move from 'card-carrying Communists' to 'security risks' (1950-54)](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/mccarthy-wheeling-numbers-1950/)).

**Leaflets and defection appeals.** In Vietnam the Chieu Hoi ("Open Arms") programme, begun in 1963 at U.S. initiative, printed posters and safe-conduct leaflets urging Viet Cong and North Vietnamese fighters to rally to the Saigon government. RAND's 1973 history counted over 194,000 defections [4]. North Vietnam ran its own appeals to U.S. soldiers on Radio Hanoi. See [Chieu Hoi and Radio Hanoi: both sides' propaganda aimed at the other side's soldiers in Vietnam](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/vietnam-chieu-hoi-and-radio-hanoi/).

**The 1952 rebuttal poster.** In 1952 North Korea and China accused the United States of using germ weapons in Korea. The State Department answered with a poster, "The Communists caught in the act of lying", issued in nine languages, that set the Soviet delegate's charge beside U.S. and UN denials ([Les communistes pris en flagrant délit de mensonge (The Communists Caught in the Act of Lying)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/communists-caught-lying-1952/)). Its photographs of UN medical work do not bear on whether germ weapons were used; the appeal is to the Red Cross and UN symbols. A 1953 Soviet Presidium resolution, published from Russian archive copies in 1998, states that the accusations "were fictitious"; some historians question the copies' provenance [5][6]. The case is in [The Korean War germ-warfare charges: commissions, confessions and the 1953 recall](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/korean-war-germ-warfare-allegations/).

## The Soviet side

**Standing party machinery.** The Communist Party's Agitation and Propaganda Department (Agitprop), under various names from 1920 to 1991, set the message for the press, schools and workplace agitators ([The Agitprop Department: the Communist Party's standing propaganda apparatus, 1920-1991](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/soviet-agitprop-department-institution/), [Lenin and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the agitprop model (1902-1991)](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/soviet-agitprop/)). TASS, founded in 1925 as the central wire service, supplied newsrooms, and the censor Glavlit read every page before publication ([Pravda, Izvestia and TASS: the institutional structure of the Soviet press monopoly, 1912-1991](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/pravda-tass-soviet-press-institution/)). There was no independent domestic press to contradict the line, until the controlled opening of glasnost ([Glasnost: the controlled opening that outran the Soviet state (1985-1989)](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/glasnost-end-of-soviet-information-control/)).

**Radio.** Radio Moscow began foreign-language broadcasting in 1929 [7]. The Soviet Union and several allies also jammed Western broadcasts from 1948 until the last jamming stopped in November 1988 ([Cold War radio jamming (1948 to 1988)](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/cold-war-radio-jamming/)). Jamming targets the audience's access to other sources rather than answering a message.

**Active measures.** The KGB's term *aktivnye meropriyatiya* covered forgeries, planted stories and front organisations. In 1984 forged letters on Ku Klux Klan letterhead threatened athletes from African and Asian countries planning to attend the Los Angeles Olympics. A CIA assessment and the U.S. Attorney General attributed them to the KGB, Moscow denied it, and the archive of the defector Vasili Mitrokhin later described a Soviet active measure [8][9]. See ['For whites only': the forged Klan letters sent to Olympic committees in 1984](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/kgb-olympic-klan-letters-1984/).

**Operation INFEKTION.** In 1983 an Indian newspaper, *Patriot*, printed a claim that AIDS was created in a U.S. military laboratory. Soviet media repeated it in 1985, and an East German biophysicist co-wrote a 1986 pamphlet that gave it a scientific gloss. Historians call the campaign INFEKTION (Boghardt) and note that the East German Stasi's code name was "Denver" (Selvage) [10][11]. The State Department's Active Measures Working Group (1981 to 1992) publicised the evidence against it; after Gorbachev protested to Shultz in 1987, the Soviet side backed away, and in 1992 Russia's foreign-intelligence chief acknowledged the KGB's role ([The Active Measures Working Group (1981 to 1992)](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/active-measures-working-group/)).

## China and other actors

China's Central Propaganda Department ran a parallel domestic system ([Zhongxuanbu: the Central Propaganda Department as the ruling party's standing ministry of message, 1949-2026](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/ccp-central-propaganda-department-institution/)), and its 1976 state mourning for Mao Zedong is recorded in [Grief on schedule: Mao's death, Hua Guofeng's succession and the 'two whatevers', 1976-1978](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/mao-death-succession-propaganda-1976/). Cuba's state media and the Tricontinental network addressed Latin America and the developing world ([The peoples of three continents: OSPAAAL, a Havana secretariat, and Tricontinental](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/cuba-ospaaal-tricontinental/)), while Egypt and Britain fought a radio war over Suez ([Voice of the Arabs and the Voice of Britain: the Arab radio war, 1953-1967](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/suez-radio-war/)). In Somalia, the Barre government's 1976 mural merged the leader's portrait into the flag (below).

## Recurring techniques

Both sides drew on the same handful of methods, each defined in the archive's taxonomy:

- [Narrative laundering](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/narrative-laundering/): a message passes through a seemingly independent sponsor, such as a citizens' committee or a scientific commission.
- [Testimonial](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/testimonial/): defectors, prisoners and eminent scientists vouch for a claim.
- [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/): the prestige of a bell, an emblem or a flag is moved onto a cause.
- [Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/): evidence is selected, or checking is refused.
- [Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/) and [Bandwagon](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/bandwagon/): death warnings and running counts of defectors appear on the same leaflet.
- [Astroturfing](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/astroturf/): forged grassroots or extremist voices.
- [Identity fusion](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/identity-fusion/) and [Manufactured consensus](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/manufactured-consensus/): a leader or party fused with the nation, in a media system without independent rivals.

## Featured images

![U.S. State Department poster, 1952, "The Communists Caught in the Act of Lying" (French edition), answering the germ-warfare charges](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/communists-caught-lying-1952.jpg)

*United States, 1952. Public domain (U.S. government work).*

![Mikhail Suslov, Central Committee secretary for ideology, photographed for TASS, February 1948](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/images/soviet-agitprop-department-institution-suslov-1948.jpg)

*Soviet Union, 1948. Portrait of the Communist Party's ideology secretary, from the TASS archive; public domain (PD-Russia and PD-US-no-notice).*

![Tiananmen Gate draped for the state memorial meeting for Mao Zedong, Beijing, September 1976](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/images/mao-death-succession-propaganda-1976-tiananmen-mourning-1976.jpg)

*China, 1976. Photograph by Karl-Heinz Wellmann, CC BY-SA 4.0.*

![Mural in Somalia, 1976: Siad Barre's portrait merged into the national flag with marching soldiers and warplanes](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/siad-barre-mural-1976.jpg)

*Somalia, 1976. CC0, University of Wisconsin Libraries.*

## The collection

The collection section below is generated from the archive's records and grows as objects are added. Only public-domain or openly licensed images are hosted, and most Soviet-era posters are still in copyright, so the images shown here reflect licensing, not the historical record. The Soviet side is covered in the case studies linked above.

## From the collection: Cold War

65 objects, listed by issuing country: United States 34, East Germany 4, Netherlands 3, China 2, Hungary 2, Iran 2, Belgium 1, Czechoslovakia 1, Democratic Republic of Vietnam 1, Iraq 1, Kenya Colony 1, Korea Under Us Military Government 1, New Zealand 1, North Korea 1, Peoples Republic of The Congo 1, Portugal 1, Republic of Indonesia 1, Romania 1, Somalia 1, South Korea 1, South Vietnam 1, Soviet Union 1, West Germany 1, Yugoslavia 1. This list is generated from the collection records, so it changes as objects are added.

### United States (34)

- [Give Freedom to the Captive Nations! Fight Communism!](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/crusade-for-freedom-stamp-1951/) (1951 · Transfer)
- [Message to the 45th North Korean Division: Kim Il Sung as a marionette](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eusak-kim-puppet-leaflet-45th-division-1951/) (1951 · Name-calling, Fear appeal). Content note: Wartime leaflet cartoon showing named North Korean and Soviet leaders as marionette and puppeteer, with a death warning.
- [You Are a Filipino / My Dear Son (voting poster sheet for the Philippines)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/you-are-a-filipino-my-dear-son-1951/) (1951 · Glittering generalities)
- [Freedom-Gram: Help Truth Fight Communism](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/freedom-gram-1952/) (1952 · Narrative laundering, Transfer)
- [Les communistes pris en flagrant délit de mensonge (The Communists Caught in the Act of Lying)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/communists-caught-lying-1952/) (May 8, 1952 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [建設馬來亞 / 破壞馬來亞 (Building Malaya / Destroying Malaya)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/building-and-destroying-malaya-1953/) (1953 · Scapegoating, Glittering generalities)
- ['Mossadeq's Spy Service' (CIA-prepared propaganda text, Iran, 1953)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cia-mossadeq-spy-service-1953/) (1953 · Card stacking, Name-calling)
- [Invest a "Truth Dollar" in Radio Free Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/truth-dollar-1954/) (1954 · Narrative laundering, Glittering generalities, Transfer)
- [A Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/frank-statement-1954/) (Jan 4, 1954 · Bothsidesism, Card stacking)
- [Crowd at the Arkansas State Capitol protesting school integration, with signs reading "Race mixing is Communism," Little Rock, Arkansas](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/race-mixing-is-communism-1959/) (Aug 20, 1959 · Semantic hijacking, Transfer)
- [Civil rights March on Washington, D.C.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/march-on-washington-reflecting-pool-1963/) (Aug 28, 1963 · Transfer)
- [President Johnson's Gulf of Tonkin 'Midnight Address'](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gulf-of-tonkin-address-1964/) (Aug 4, 1964 · Card stacking)
- [Peace, Little Girl ("Daisy")](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/daisy-ad-1964/) (Sep 7, 1964 · Fear appeal)
- [Số hồi chánh viên tại Phú-Yên đã lên đến hơn 2400! (Ralliers in Phu Yen Have Risen to Over 2,400!)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/chieu-hoi-phu-yen-2400-1966/) (1966 · Bandwagon, Testimonial, Fear appeal)
- [คอมมิวนิสต์ หรือ เสรีภาพ (Communism or Freedom), Thai-language poster no. II, religion panel](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/communism-or-freedom-thai-religion-1966/) (1966 · Fear appeal, Transfer)
- [Why should we help communists kill Americans?](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/mothers-crusade-help-communists-kill-americans-1966/) (1966 · Card stacking, Fear appeal)
- [Chúng tôi đã rời bỏ hàng ngũ V.C... Các bạn còn chần chờ gì nữa? (We Left the VC Ranks... What Are You Still Waiting For?)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/chieu-hoi-reunion-spring-1967/) (1967 · Testimonial, Bandwagon)
- [Việt-Cộng hãy coi chừng!! (Viet Cong Beware!)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/viet-cong-beware-blackhorse-1967/) (1967 · Fear appeal)
- [You can jail a revolutionary, but you can't jail the revolution ...](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/black-panther-party-fred-hampton-1969/) (1969 · Name-calling)
- [The New Left is revolting](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/yaf-new-left-is-revolting-1969/) (1969 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [He needs a mind of his own ... he needs Radio Free Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/rfe-mind-of-his-own-1970/) (1970 · Transfer, Narrative laundering)
- [Prisoner of the Soviet secret police: Boris Penson, Soviet Jew: let my people go!](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sssj-boris-penson-let-my-people-go-1970/) (1970 · Transfer)
- [Meany in Miami Beach with our union dues](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/plp-meany-miami-beach-union-dues-1971/) (1971 · Card stacking)
- [Abortion Action Week, May 1-6, 1972](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abortion-action-week-1972/) (1972 · Glittering generalities)
- [There are but two sides in a war: she fights on the side of African freedom, Gulf finances the other: Boycott Gulf](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/pan-african-liberation-committee-boycott-gulf-1972/) (1972 · Transfer)
- [U.S. out of S.E. Asia now! Stop racism! Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, Washington, D.C.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sds-us-out-of-se-asia-inauguration-day-1973/) (1973 · Name-calling)
- [Nixon with the edited White House tape transcripts](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/nixon-edited-transcripts-1974/) (Apr 29, 1974 · Limited hangout)
- [SWAPO: The People Armed (c. 1976 solidarity poster)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/swapo-the-people-armed-1976/) (1976 · Testimonial, Transfer)
- [We need handguns like we need a hole in the head](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/we-need-handguns-hole-in-head-1976/) (1976 · Fear appeal, Card stacking)
- [We asked four leading crooks for their opinion on gun control](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/four-leading-crooks-gun-control-1977/) (1977 · Card stacking)
- ["Right to Life" demonstration, at White House and Capitol](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/right-to-life-abortion-is-murder-1978/) (Jan 23, 1978 · Glittering generalities)
- [Nancy Reagan holds up a 'Just Say No' sign for press photographers](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/just-say-no-sign-ranch-1986/) (Sep 6, 1986 · Testimonial)
- [President Bush holds up a bag of crack in the Oval Office](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bush-crack-bag-address-1989/) (Sep 5, 1989 · Card stacking, Fear appeal, Transfer)
- [Desert Storm surrender leaflets (CIA museum display)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cia-desert-storm-surrender-leaflets-1991/) (1991 · Fear appeal)

### East Germany (4)

- ['Deutscher, hilf den Frieden erhalten' (German, help preserve peace): banner on a state farm, Petkus, East Germany](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/deutscher-hilf-den-frieden-erhalten-petkus-1950/) (Nov 18, 1950 · Glittering generalities)
- [FRIEDENSVERTRAG: East Berlin street board on a German peace treaty](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gdr-friedensvertrag-board-1961/) (1961 · Name-calling, Transfer). Content note: Cartoon caricature of a West German militarist figure marked with SS runes and an Iron Cross mace.
- ["Am 13. August gab's roten Pfeffer": house-community banner, Bitterfeld](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bitterfeld-red-pepper-banner-1961/) (Aug 29, 1961 · Name-calling, Manufactured consensus). Content note: East German banner using insult words ('agents', 'yappers') for named West Berlin figures and a radio station.
- ["Der Schutzpatron der Westberliner Spionageorganisation Lemmer": ADN photomontage](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/adn-lemmer-photomontage-1962/) (Feb 9, 1962 · Name-calling)

### Netherlands (3)

- ['Johnson Oorlogsmisdadiger' (Johnson, war criminal): placard at an anti-American demonstration, Amsterdam](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/johnson-oorlogsmisdadiger-banner-1968/) (Mar 16, 1968 · Name-calling)
- ["Boycot Outspan" Protest Outside Albert Heijn, Amsterdam (1973)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/boycot-outspan-albert-heijn-1973/) (May 23, 1973 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- ["Na atoomreagan geen zonneschijn": banner at a Dutch anti-nuclear demonstration](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/na-atoomreagan-banner-1982/) (Apr 17, 1982 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)

### China (2)

- [ORDER: safe-conduct pass of the Chinese People's Volunteers' Headquarters](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cpv-safe-conduct-order-1951/) (1951 · Card stacking)
- ["为革命实行计划生育" (Practise family planning for the revolution), Shanghai poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/family-planning-for-the-revolution-china-1975/) (1975 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)

### Hungary (2)

- [May Day parade satire: dollar-throne figure and 'US'-helmeted puppets, Budapest](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/budapest-mayday-dollar-throne-1953/) (May 1, 1953 · Name-calling, Scapegoating). Content note: Costumed parade satire of the United States: a dollar-sign throne, striped costume and helmets marked 'US', some worn with dark full-face coverings.
- [Sovetskie soldaty! Russian-language appeal to Soviet troops, Budapest 1956](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hungarian-youth-appeal-soviet-soldiers-1956/) (1956 · Name-calling, Scapegoating)

### Iran (2)

- [Melati bedonbal-e shah-e khod (A Nation Following Its Shah): Pahlavi government poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/pro-shah-nation-follows-shah-1965/) (1965 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Ya abna' al-jaysh al-'iraqi (O Sons of the Iraqi Army): Iranian Army leaflet](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/iran-army-leaflet-to-iraqi-army-1981/) (1981 · Name-calling, Transfer)

### Belgium (1)

- ["Vous l'aimez votre pays": Communist Party of Belgium election poster, Brussels](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/belgian-communist-votez-555-1968/) (Mar 18, 1968 · Glittering generalities, Plain folks)

### Czechoslovakia (1)

- [Pražané! (Praguers!): leaflet from the first days of the 1968 occupation](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/prazane-leaflet-prague-1968/) (Aug 1968 · Glittering generalities, Name-calling)

### Democratic Republic of Vietnam (1)

- [À qui le crime profite-t-il? (Viet Minh leaflet on the back of a French Indochina one-piastre note, 1948)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/viet-minh-piastre-leaflet-1948/) (1948 · Scapegoating, Transfer)

### Iraq (1)

- [Payam: Ay Iraniyan (Message: O Iranians): Iraqi armed forces notice with image of Imam Ali](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/iraq-notice-to-iranians-imam-ali-1980/) (1980 · Fear appeal, Transfer)

### Kenya Colony (1)

- [Kenya Government Surrender Pass for Mau Mau Fighters (1955)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kenya-mau-mau-surrender-pass-1955/) (1955 · Card stacking, Testimonial)

### Korea Under Us Military Government (1)

- [총선거 5월 10일 (General Election, May 10): 총선거로 독립문은 열린다 (The General Election Opens the Independence Gate)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/general-election-may-10-poster-south-korea-1948/) (1948 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)

### New Zealand (1)

- [Apartheid Kills: Stop the Tour, Day of Shame (Wellington protest poster, 1981)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/apartheid-kills-stop-the-tour-wellington-1981/) (Jul 1981 · Bandwagon, Name-calling)

### North Korea (1)

- [1953년 새해를 맞는 米帝 强占下의 南半部風景 (Scenes of the Southern Half under U.S. Imperialist Occupation, at the 1953 New Year)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kpa-new-year-1953-south-scenes-leaflet-1953/) (1953 · Card stacking, Name-calling)

### Peoples Republic of The Congo (1)

- [Laissez-Passer of the People's Republic of the Congo, Stanleyville (1964)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/stanleyville-laissez-passer-lumumba-1964/) (1964 · Transfer)

### Portugal (1)

- [Partido Socialista posters on a Lisbon building front, early 1975](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/partido-socialista-posters-lisbon-1975/) (1975 · Glittering generalities)

### Republic of Indonesia (1)

- [Bangsa "Merdeka", Negara "Merdeka": Inilah Tudjuan Kita! (Free Nation, Free State: This Is Our Goal!)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bangsa-merdeka-negara-merdeka-1948/) (1948 · Glittering generalities)

### Romania (1)

- ["Frontul Democrației și Unității Socialiste - cel mai larg organism politic": Romanian wall chart](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/romanian-front-of-democracy-and-socialist-unity-1985/) (1985 · Semantic hijacking, Glittering generalities)

### Somalia (1)

- [Barre Cult of Personality Mural](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/siad-barre-mural-1976/) (1976 · Identity fusion, Transfer)

### South Korea (1)

- ['Japan's pro-communist policy: let us smash it!' (日本의容共政策을粉碎하자): school banners at a rally, South Korea](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/smash-japans-yonggong-policy-rally-1955/) (May 23, 1955 · Name-calling)

### South Vietnam (1)

- [Bỏ phiếu cho nhà cách mạng Ngô-Đình-Diệm (Vote for the Revolutionary Ngo Dinh Diem)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/vote-for-diem-revolutionary-1955/) (1955 · Glittering generalities)

### Soviet Union (1)

- [Дым, в котором мы живём (The Smoke in Which We Live)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dym-v-kotorom-my-zhivyom-1988/) (1988 · Fear appeal, Transfer)

### West Germany (1)

- ["Denkt an Ungarn: Seid wachsam!" CDU poster, 1957 Bundestag election](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cdu-denkt-an-ungarn-1957/) (1957 · Fear appeal, Transfer)

### Yugoslavia (1)

- ["Delavci, tovarne so vaša last!" (Workers, the factories are your property!), workers' council election poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/delavci-tovarne-so-vasa-last-yugoslavia-1951/) (1951 · Glittering generalities)

## How the sides differed

The methods overlap, but the settings differ. In the Soviet Union one party controlled the press, broadcasting and schooling, and it jammed foreign radio; in the United States a press outside government also operated, and Congress and journalists exposed the RFE funding and the FBI's press placements. Forged or falsely attributed material is documented on both sides: the KGB's Klan letters, and FBI mailings written as if from members of the groups it targeted ([COINTELPRO: the FBI's covert media and information operations against U.S. groups, 1956-1971](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/cointelpro-media-operations/)). The U.S. cases above also involve concealed sponsorship, selective evidence and, in Radio Swan, a covert broadcast under a cover company. Neither side's conduct excuses the other's: each case is judged by its own method.

## Sources

1. U.S. Department of State. "USIA's History at a Glance." *State Magazine*, September 1999. https://1997-2001.state.gov/publications/statemag/statemag_sept99/featxt1a.html ; National Archives. "Records of the United States Information Agency (RG 306)." https://www.archives.gov/research/foreign-policy/related-records/rg-306 ; Reorganization Plan No. 8 of 1953. https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title5a-node35-leaf92&num=0&edition=prelim
2. Britannica. "Voice of America (VOA)." https://www.britannica.com/topic/Voice-of-America ; Smith-Mundt Act (1948): Congressional Research Service. *U.S. Public Diplomacy: Legislative Proposals to Amend Prohibitions on Disseminating Materials to Domestic Audiences*, R42754. https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/R42754.html
3. Johnson, A. R. (2010). *Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty: The CIA Years and Beyond*. Woodrow Wilson Center Press / Stanford University Press. https://gbv.wilsoncenter.org/book/radio-free-europe-and-radio-liberty-the-cia-years-and-beyond ; Cummings, R. H. (2010). *Radio Free Europe's "Crusade for Freedom"*. McFarland.
4. Koch, J. A. (1973). *The Chieu Hoi Program in South Vietnam, 1963-1971*. RAND R-1172-ARPA. https://www.rand.org/pubs/reports/R1172.html
5. Weathersby, K., & Leitenberg, M. (1998). New evidence on the Korean War. *Cold War International History Project Bulletin*, 11. https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/cwihp-bulletin-11
6. Endicott, S., & Hagerman, E. (2001). Twelve newly released Soviet-era "documents" and allegations of U.S. germ warfare during the Korean War. *Asian Perspective*, 25(1), 249-257. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/784903
7. Britannica. "Radio: broadcasting in continental Europe." https://www.britannica.com/topic/radio/Continental-Europe
8. Central Intelligence Agency (1984, 17 July). *Alleged KKK Death Threats to Third World Olympic Athletes: A Soviet Active Measure*. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp85t00287r001400750001-6
9. Andrew, C., & Mitrokhin, V. (1999). *The Sword and the Shield*. New York: Basic Books.
10. Boghardt, T. (2009). Soviet Bloc intelligence and its AIDS disinformation campaign. *Studies in Intelligence*, 53(4). https://www.cia.gov/resources/csi/studies-in-intelligence/volume-53-no-4/soviet-bloc-intelligence-and-its-aids-disinformation-campaign
11. Selvage, D. (2019). Operation "Denver": The East German Ministry of State Security and the KGB's AIDS disinformation campaign, 1985-1986 (Part 1). *Journal of Cold War Studies*, 21(4), 71-123. https://direct.mit.edu/jcws/article/21/4/71/13815/Operation-Denver-The-East-German-Ministry-of-State

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