Tragedy were debating what they soviet strategy in defeating the United States without firing a shot. Officially ever activity is involved in intelligence gathering information for extra measures i have to admit i am a author of a number of forgeries. The chezachoslaviakian Government Produced information that the generic and government that the American Government was planning an assassination of the egyptian president. Forgery, bribery, agents of influence, disinformation and overall dirty tricks are part of a broad range of soviet activities called active measures. This program is about these soviet active measures. Well hear from the journalists like newsweek former correspondent and french authors and former kgb officer and former czech intelligence officer. We will also talk to the man whose job it is to respond to these active measures. [drums beat] in the mid1960s, he was Deputy Director of the czechoslovakiaian department of disinformation. He defected to the United States. In 1968. Disinformation is leaked into the Communication System of the opponent with the expectation it would be accepted as genuine information and influence either the decisionmaking process or to influence Public Opinion. Announcer he was director of frances leading newsmagazine for a number of years. Today he is the author of a long list of books on politics and philosophy. [speaking french] disinformation is not just lies or falsification, it is the art of your enemy saying what you want them to say. This consists of conditioning western journalists in such a way that even sometimes financial reasons, these journalists would write with the what the soviet union would want them to write, after which they take their text and say even the western press is saying that. Active measures consist of making up completely false a document which is they try to have distributed as authentic western documents. We have many famous examples. From the report of 1952 to the socalled fake letter of Ronald Reagan to the king of spain where he said you must adjoin or join nato or else you will see what will happen to you. Both techniques have enormous this was a fake. This was a fake. Both techniques have enormous importance in the strategy of mental destabilization of the west by the soviet union. He is an expert in the field of soviet active measures. In the middle 1970s, he was a major in the kgb. He formerly worked with a major soviet department. He was in the department which plans and overseas soviet active measures for the soviet union. He was chief of accident measures of active measures at the kgb office in tokyo. In 1979, he defected the ninth date. To the United States. At any given moment the , soviets are involved in active measures in any country in the world. The number of operations they are running can be comparable to the thousands. Can be counted only in thousands. We are talking about many thousands of people, at least a few thousand people who in the soviet union and outside of the soviet union are involved in this kind of action on a daily basis. At the very top of the pyramid they prove the mess to germanic and largescale global and regional active measures. But daily the business is being run by the International Department. The International Department is responsible for planning coordination and implementation of the soviet active measures abroad. The main difference is when soviets are running an active measure operation, for instance in the planting a major story in the newspaper in france, west germany, japan, elsewhere that kind of article would normally be written by a local, prominent journalist who expresses his or her own opinion. These kinds of rings. Things would not be traceable back to the soviet union. About 40 40 soviet Union Citizens stationed abroad are kgb officers. Or military intelligence officers. Another 60 are cooperating with kgb. So practically every soviet union who is a official is involved in active measures activity. One way or the other. From 1964 until 1966, the czechoslovakiaan service was involved in measures against the United States, undermining american policy in western europe and developing countries. At the same time they were thinking about making a documentary about that actually brought the czechoslovakia Disinformation Department an idea to use it. He actually prepared a series of documents for that purpose. They dropped four chests at the bottom of the black lake. And they would discover it. Originally, we dropped four of them at the bottom of the black lake. Documents. Have these we were searching for him for them. Then came the czechoslovakian team. I was one of the divers. They did not know i was a intelligence officer. They thought i was an official. From czechoslovakia. I led the diving team to the area where these chests were placed on the bottom and were discovered. And the minister of the interior and out at a special press announced at a special press conference that historically Important Documents were discovered in the late and that was the beginning of a campaign that lasted two years. The purpose was to revive the threat of nazism and say west and two point finger at west germany is still a danger to you. Announcer one of the major themes is forgery. Letters, telegrams, memoranda are forged on a regular basis. Explains. N developing countries where the governments and did not have the expertise to analyze properly these corporations. These operations. Sometimes very cheap forgery , excepted antiamerican forgeries accepted antiamerican forgeries are accepted. One of the most damaging measures of disinformation occurred in ghana where the number two man in the government held a press conference and waved a document around and said i have the proof. This document a report in the west German Embassy of a conversation with the American Ambassador where he explained how and why the americans were going to overthrow that a government. This led to a sharp deterioration between our governments. It took some time to work that out. Eventually they accepted the west german expedition of why this was a west german explanation of why this was a fake document. Announcer they were not the only forgeries. During this time , the czechoslovak and east German Intelligence Service started a Worldwide Campaign to undermine, to paralyze operations of cia and they came up with the incentive to publish a book called who is who in the cia. The information came from czechoslovakian and east german archives. The book contains a number of names supposedly cia operatives. About 50 of the names in that book are truly cia agents, cia operatives and then there is a number of names of various american diplomats, public officials, judges, journalists who never worked for the cia. U. S. Army field manual, 3031 b which goes back to the middle 70s and it is supposed to be a manual on how to destabilize countries. It has appeared in about 20 different countries. I remember on many occasions i actually had to keep white gloves in the drawers of my desk, secret packages would come in the mail and i would know each time there would be some forgery there. Like in spy movies. To believe in the traces. Sometimes for hours, they had to read a forgery. The soviets and the bulgarians have had terrible levity in the possible assassination bulgarian connection, and it appeared in this magazine a story based on two telegrams supposedly written by the American Embassy in rome proposing how the u. S. Could take it vantage of the assassination to orchestrate the press in europe in such a way that the soviets and bulgarians would be criticized. Fortunately they were on their toes and not to this down as two fake telegrams. In the case of the wrong telegrams, there were a number of mistakes made. Number one they forgot to put a cable number on it. All American Embassy kilograms of a number on it. That was in the first of eight. Second mistake was in the addressee line in washington. This was supposedly a suggestion from infancy rome to usia in washington. No telegram would go out if it was a uscis telegram. Many mistakes Civil Service and bureaucrats make but they get the name of their organization right. Forgery is only one kind of active measure. Another is the soviet front. Soviets also have more than 60 years of experience running socalled soviet fronts. By fronts they are organizations that plan to be public that claim to be public but they are run by International Department of the Central Committee of the communist party of the soviet union. The council that has headquarters in helsinki, and whatever the World Peace Council does, the leadership of the World Peace Council is disapproved by him. Here in the United States, you remember in june of 1982, we had the largest demonstration since the vietnam war about the nuclear issue. In the Steering Committee that organized that demonstration there were 28 members of that of that 28, 5 were members of communist party or members of the u. S. Affiliate of the World Peace Council. The five were able to convince the other 23. The real problem was the nato missile and the focus was on nato missiles and not on the eastern missiles. It was a further reinforcement of the line they were trying to push hard. Announcer another type of active measure is the agent of influence. He has firsthand knowledge of this activity. They use practically any type of actions to try to get to get peoples cooperation. , first of all they are trying to recruit agents of influence. Without agents of influence, the soviets would never be able to implement any measures. The most recent example came in west germany where he turned out to be an east german spy. He is supposed to be able to influence Public Opinion or business circles our government circles or government circles. In japan, the most important soviet agent of influence was basically recruited because of his ego problems. By the time soviets approached once awas at least member of the japanese government. He started to exchange the delegations between the Japanese Parliament and the parliamentarians of the soviets. The soviets are using him to spread disinformation. Announcer one technique of active measures is the use of rumors. For example, at the time of the tragedy at the mosque in mecca, in 1979 when it was attacked, there were rumors spreading that the cia was behind it. Indeed, at the time, there was a test match, a cricket match between india and pakistan taking place and one of the broadcasters on that cricket match which was listened to all over india and pakistan, he mentioned on the radio this report that he had heard a report that the United States was behind the attack of the mosque in mecca. The next day the United States in the sea in the form of embassy in islamabad was attacked and burned. Announcer some questions remain unanswered. What is the effect of all these active measures and why did the soviets engage in these activities . Of course, we cannot be so naive to think that one success will disinformation operation can totally change the balance of power but they believe that these operations have cumulative effect. One way of looking at the impact of these activities, they have gone on for many years, since the 1950s. You are speaking of 30 or so years. Think of a drop of water falling on a stone. Five minutes, 10 minutes, one day, nothing happens. Five years, 10 years, 15 years, you have worn a hole in the stone. It is hard for journalists to admit to this is going on. They have to admit they have been ripping off their readers. It is very hard to do. It is important to educate people about these techniques and i would say particularly people involved in International Relations and international communications. To make them aware of the basic elementary techniques of disinformation and active measures so they develop particular devices so it makes it more difficult for the soviets to misuse these people because in many cases the messengers of do not know that they are being used. [speaking french] if the democracies do not regain their selfconfidence, i am very pessimistic because of the soviet union is extremely skilled in its propaganda techniques. I think the reality of our future lies in what i would call the reconquest of the truth. [drums] announcer interested in American History tv . Visit our website, cspan. Org history. You can view our tv schedule, preview upcoming programs, and watch college lectures, museum tours, archival films, and more. American history tv at cspan. Org history. Announcer cspan, where history unfolds daily. In 1979, cspan was created as a Public Service by americas Cable Television companies. Its brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. Announcer we continue our look at the history of reading, california, where we will hear about this citys native son, barron, who served for 30 years as a Political Editor for the San Francisco chronicle. Starting with growing up in a small, middle sized town like reading, its a good learning ground for someone who is going to be eventually a journalist. As he got older, he received many accolades, many awards. He received recognition. Wasably the most important he received the president ial medal of freedom in 1970 by thenpresident richard nixon. Anun