Cold War Spy Files - Britain's Secret Fakers: The Cold War's Hidden Propaganda War with Rory Cormac
About this episode
The episode explores Britain's covert propaganda efforts during the Cold War with historian Rory Cormac.
What happens when Britain fights the Cold War with typewriters, fake pamphlets, covert publishers, and even pretend hippies? On this episode of Spybrary's Cold War Spy Files , Shane Whaley talks with historian Rory Cormac about his book Fakers: A Top Secret Tale of Phantoms and Forgeries on the Disinformation Line .and the extraordinary true story of the Information Research Department — Britain's secret propaganda and forgery machine. A fascinating dive into Cold War deception, disinformation, and 'state-sanctioned skullduggery.' The conversation opens the file on Britain's Cold War covert propaganda machine, especially the little-known Information Research Department — the IRD — a blandly named Foreign Office unit involved in unattributable propaganda, forgeries, fake groups, and intelligence laundering. Professor Cormac explains how the IRD moved far beyond ordinary government messaging, creating forged pamphlets, fake political organisations, covert publishing operations, and disinformation campaigns designed to expose or disrupt Soviet influence worldwide. The episode is packed with strange-but-true stories, from British officials posing as hippies to disrupt a Soviet-backed…
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