From the Wikipedia page: > At any moment, however, an alliance could shift and the two states that had previously been at war with each other may suddenly ally

From the Wikipedia page: > At any moment, however, an alliance could shift and the two states that had previously been at war with each other may suddenly ally against the other. When this happened, the past immediately had to be re-written—newspapers retyped, new photos glued over old—to provide continuity. In many cases that which contradicted the state was simply destroyed. How many Americans remember today that Iraq used to be an ally? Edit: BTW the line about Eastasia is a direct quote from 1984 - it's not implying that Iraq is in East Asia