4 ms·

The CIA's 3-Decade Effort to Mold the World's Views (1977)

44 points by AndrewBissell 5y ago

XiS 5y ago
https://archive.li/wjFaL https://archive.li/wjFaL
arthurcolle 5y ago
Not a single mention of Operation Mockingbird?
- TurkishPoptart 5y ago
  Article is from '77 so may be from before that operation was known to the general public. And still, the NYT is one of the most useful publications to the Agency, so there's that.
- dredmorbius 5y ago
  Google's Ngram Viewer shows no instances of that phrase in print prior to the early 1990s, and even the early hits there look questionable. The project likely was not known, perhaps at all, and at least under that name, in 1977. https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Operation+Mockingbird&year_start=1970&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Operation+Mock... The Wikipedia article does not make clear when the term entered the public domain, though the associated reference (Deborah Davis) seems to have been published in 1979.
Hokusai 5y ago
Interesting how bad is the USA image after 2003 invasion of Irak. The West supported USA after 9/11, people felt really sorry for what happened. It felt like a betrayal when all that good will was used to steal oil at the cost of destabilizing the region, killing hundreds of thousands and delaying green energy sources. There is a limit on what propaganda can fix. Russia seems to play the game differently. They just want to cause chaos, maybe because they are playing defense. China is also growing influence and propaganda in the West, and if the USA does not fit it's internal problems it can become the next world power in the minds of most people. Interesting read. It feels part of a past that is not coming back.
- lowdose 5y ago
  Russia has the economy size of Italy, it’s just chaos for attention.
  - KozmoNau7 5y ago
    And is much harder to govern, the biggest reasons being the harsh geography and climate, and how thinly the population is spread outside of western Russia.
- redis_mlc 5y ago
  The parent comment is nonsense, almost every single word. - As the only superpower, the US doesn't have to care. Other Western countries cooperated with the US because the same Islamic terrorism was already happening in their countries. - Hussein was already destabilizing the region - he wanted to control all of his neighbors, which is why he warred with Iran, Kuwait and KSA. The US was paid by KSA to defend it. - if by "stealing the oil" you mean reparations for having to invade Iraq, sure, that was a stated goal. But the oilfields ended up being leased to non-US companies. - Russia is almost a failed state in terms of finances and population growth, thanks to Communism and now kleptocracy. The one good thing I will say is that Russia only waged proxy wars, not large-scale ones with the West. - the CCP is trying to conquer the world, but corona has revealed the monsters that they are. Their next mis-step will be in seizing the Himalayan headwaters, which guarantees endless wars with India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. - if you want to bring up the US and Afghanistan, I don't have any answers there. Their neighbors should police that country.
motohagiography 5y ago
Not to be nihilistic, but this was the case over 40 years ago, and if something similar were still true today, it would mean 70+ years of officially constructed popular perception. (e.g. your grandparents beliefs were manufactured) This rabbit hole goes very deep, where a lot of famous writers and artists were funded by cold war efforts, where writers and editors for magazines were selected and funded to produce narrative for either soviet or american interests. Whether the story is apocryphal or real, former CIA Director William Casey apparently said, "We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false," - and from a certain perspective, whether it's real or not doesn't actually matter either way. When you look at what you can really verify as true or evident in the world, it all has a pretty high bar. If it's not made of math or physics, it's a representation made of artifacts of language that reinforce belief. Symbols are comforting, and they provide a means to negotiate some physical security for our organisms to thrive without cannibalizing each other, but I'd ask whether constructing and maintaining a false reality is necessary to that end, or if is it just a kind of low, sadistic pleasure. We can't just write the CIA infiltrating all mass media and culture off as "other humans with jobs doing their best." There are ethical and noble ways to provide stability and order that encourage people grow and for life to thrive. This article twigged me, as I just don't see converting 70+ years of managed deception into an addictive panopticon as the right thing to do.
dredmorbius 5y ago
I've dug out the other articles (six total) in this series, running between December 25--30, 1977. This is the sort of coverage which might have produced a book, though I don't find anything authored by John M. Crewdson at Worldcat. The full series (includes the article linked here): 1. "The CIA's 3-Decade Effort to Mold the World's Views (1977)" (1977-12-25) https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/25/archives/the-cias-3decade-effort-to-mold-the-worlds-views-agency-network.html https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/25/archives/the-cias-3decade... 2. "Worldwide Propaganda Network Built by the C.I.A." (1977-12-26) https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/26/archives/worldwide-propaganda-network-built-by-the-cia-a-worldwide-network.html https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/26/archives/worldwide-propag... 3. "C.I.A. Established Many Links To Journalists in U.S. and Abroad" (1977-12-27) https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/27/archives/cia-established-many-links-to-journalists-in-us-and-abroad-cias.html https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/27/archives/cia-established-... 4. "Colby Acknowledges U.S. Press Picked Up Bogus C.I.A. Accounts" (1977-12-28) https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/28/archives/colby-acknowledges-us-press-picked-up-bogus-cia-accounts-tells.html https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/28/archives/colby-acknowledg... 5. "U.S. Correspondents Give Views on C.I.A." (1977-12-29) https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/29/archives/us-correspondents-give-views-on-cia-4-at-a-house-hearing-say-any.html https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/29/archives/us-correspondent... 6. "Ex‐Envoy Says Risk of Exposure Negated C.I.A. Propaganda Value" (1977-12-30) https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/30/archives/exenvoy-says-risk-of-exposure-negated-cia-propaganda-value.html https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/30/archives/exenvoy-says-ris... (Both external and NYT search seem to find this as the complete series. Run largely over the Christmas -- New Years news hole....) A DDG search of Crewdson's NYT pieces referencing the CIA (there are many): https://duckduckgo.com/?q=site%3Anytimes.com+%22John+M.+Crewdson%22+%22c.i.a.%22&ia=web https://duckduckgo.com/?q=site%3Anytimes.com+%22John+M.+Crew...
- AndrewBissell 5y ago
  The essential crypto cuttlefish Twitter account put together a very good thread which references this series: https://twitter.com/cuttlefish_btc/status/699689819400708097 https://twitter.com/cuttlefish_btc/status/699689819400708097
  - 5y ago
1cvmask 5y ago
Operation Mockingbird: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird CIA influence on public opinion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_influence_on_public_opinion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_influence_on_public_opinio...
gccs 5y ago
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/i-had-it-all-abc-host-claims-network-squashed-epstein-story-three-years-ago-in-leaked-video https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/i-had-it-all-abc-hos...

44 points by AndrewBissell 5y ago

XiS 5y ago

https://archive.li/wjFaL https://archive.li/wjFaL

arthurcolle 5y ago

Not a single mention of Operation Mockingbird?

TurkishPoptart 5y ago
Article is from '77 so may be from before that operation was known to the general public. And still, the NYT is one of the most useful publications to the Agency, so there's that.
dredmorbius 5y ago
Google's Ngram Viewer shows no instances of that phrase in print prior to the early 1990s, and even the early hits there look questionable. The project likely was not known, perhaps at all, and at least under that name, in 1977. https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Operation+Mockingbird&year_start=1970&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Operation+Mock... The Wikipedia article does not make clear when the term entered the public domain, though the associated reference (Deborah Davis) seems to have been published in 1979.

Hokusai 5y ago

Interesting how bad is the USA image after 2003 invasion of Irak. The West supported USA after 9/11, people felt really sorry for what happened. It felt like a betrayal when all that good will was used to steal oil at the cost of destabilizing the region, killing hundreds of thousands and delaying green energy sources. There is a limit on what propaganda can fix. Russia seems to play the game differently. They just want to cause chaos, maybe because they are playing defense. China is also growing influence and propaganda in the West, and if the USA does not fit it's internal problems it can become the next world power in the minds of most people. Interesting read. It feels part of a past that is not coming back.

lowdose 5y ago
Russia has the economy size of Italy, it’s just chaos for attention.
- KozmoNau7 5y ago
  And is much harder to govern, the biggest reasons being the harsh geography and climate, and how thinly the population is spread outside of western Russia.
redis_mlc 5y ago
The parent comment is nonsense, almost every single word. - As the only superpower, the US doesn't have to care. Other Western countries cooperated with the US because the same Islamic terrorism was already happening in their countries. - Hussein was already destabilizing the region - he wanted to control all of his neighbors, which is why he warred with Iran, Kuwait and KSA. The US was paid by KSA to defend it. - if by "stealing the oil" you mean reparations for having to invade Iraq, sure, that was a stated goal. But the oilfields ended up being leased to non-US companies. - Russia is almost a failed state in terms of finances and population growth, thanks to Communism and now kleptocracy. The one good thing I will say is that Russia only waged proxy wars, not large-scale ones with the West. - the CCP is trying to conquer the world, but corona has revealed the monsters that they are. Their next mis-step will be in seizing the Himalayan headwaters, which guarantees endless wars with India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. - if you want to bring up the US and Afghanistan, I don't have any answers there. Their neighbors should police that country.

motohagiography 5y ago

Not to be nihilistic, but this was the case over 40 years ago, and if something similar were still true today, it would mean 70+ years of officially constructed popular perception. (e.g. your grandparents beliefs were manufactured) This rabbit hole goes very deep, where a lot of famous writers and artists were funded by cold war efforts, where writers and editors for magazines were selected and funded to produce narrative for either soviet or american interests. Whether the story is apocryphal or real, former CIA Director William Casey apparently said, "We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false," - and from a certain perspective, whether it's real or not doesn't actually matter either way. When you look at what you can really verify as true or evident in the world, it all has a pretty high bar. If it's not made of math or physics, it's a representation made of artifacts of language that reinforce belief. Symbols are comforting, and they provide a means to negotiate some physical security for our organisms to thrive without cannibalizing each other, but I'd ask whether constructing and maintaining a false reality is necessary to that end, or if is it just a kind of low, sadistic pleasure. We can't just write the CIA infiltrating all mass media and culture off as "other humans with jobs doing their best." There are ethical and noble ways to provide stability and order that encourage people grow and for life to thrive. This article twigged me, as I just don't see converting 70+ years of managed deception into an addictive panopticon as the right thing to do.

dredmorbius 5y ago

I've dug out the other articles (six total) in this series, running between December 25--30, 1977. This is the sort of coverage which might have produced a book, though I don't find anything authored by John M. Crewdson at Worldcat. The full series (includes the article linked here): 1. "The CIA's 3-Decade Effort to Mold the World's Views (1977)" (1977-12-25) https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/25/archives/the-cias-3decade-effort-to-mold-the-worlds-views-agency-network.html https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/25/archives/the-cias-3decade... 2. "Worldwide Propaganda Network Built by the C.I.A." (1977-12-26) https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/26/archives/worldwide-propaganda-network-built-by-the-cia-a-worldwide-network.html https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/26/archives/worldwide-propag... 3. "C.I.A. Established Many Links To Journalists in U.S. and Abroad" (1977-12-27) https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/27/archives/cia-established-many-links-to-journalists-in-us-and-abroad-cias.html https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/27/archives/cia-established-... 4. "Colby Acknowledges U.S. Press Picked Up Bogus C.I.A. Accounts" (1977-12-28) https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/28/archives/colby-acknowledges-us-press-picked-up-bogus-cia-accounts-tells.html https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/28/archives/colby-acknowledg... 5. "U.S. Correspondents Give Views on C.I.A." (1977-12-29) https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/29/archives/us-correspondents-give-views-on-cia-4-at-a-house-hearing-say-any.html https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/29/archives/us-correspondent... 6. "Ex‐Envoy Says Risk of Exposure Negated C.I.A. Propaganda Value" (1977-12-30) https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/30/archives/exenvoy-says-risk-of-exposure-negated-cia-propaganda-value.html https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/30/archives/exenvoy-says-ris... (Both external and NYT search seem to find this as the complete series. Run largely over the Christmas -- New Years news hole....) A DDG search of Crewdson's NYT pieces referencing the CIA (there are many): https://duckduckgo.com/?q=site%3Anytimes.com+%22John+M.+Crewdson%22+%22c.i.a.%22&ia=web https://duckduckgo.com/?q=site%3Anytimes.com+%22John+M.+Crew...

AndrewBissell 5y ago
The essential crypto cuttlefish Twitter account put together a very good thread which references this series: https://twitter.com/cuttlefish_btc/status/699689819400708097 https://twitter.com/cuttlefish_btc/status/699689819400708097
- 5y ago

1cvmask 5y ago

Operation Mockingbird: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird CIA influence on public opinion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_influence_on_public_opinion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_influence_on_public_opinio...

gccs 5y ago

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/i-had-it-all-abc-host-claims-network-squashed-epstein-story-three-years-ago-in-leaked-video https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/i-had-it-all-abc-hos...