“Within the late Nineteen Fifties, CIA agent and Romanian émigré George Minden realized {that a} guide smuggling program might have the potential to destabilize the Soviet regime and gas the resistance in satellite tv for pc states,” Johannes Lichtman wrote this month. “Over the approaching many years, this ‘Marshall Plan for the Thoughts’ would smuggle practically 10 million gadgets, together with printing presses and supplies, into the Japanese Bloc.”
That books program, within the phrases of journalist Tim Weiner, was “among the many most vital CIA operations of the Chilly Conflict”—and it’s additionally one which comparatively few individuals have heard of.
“Within the late Nineteen Fifties, CIA agent and Romanian émigré George Minden realized {that a} guide smuggling program might have the potential to destabilize the Soviet regime and gas the resistance in satellite tv for pc states,” Johannes Lichtman wrote this month. “Over the approaching many years, this ‘Marshall Plan for the Thoughts’ would smuggle practically 10 million gadgets, together with printing presses and supplies, into the Japanese Bloc.”
That books program, within the phrases of journalist Tim Weiner, was “among the many most vital CIA operations of the Chilly Conflict”—and it’s additionally one which comparatively few individuals have heard of.
Lichtman’s overview of a brand new guide on that operation is simply one of many CIA deep dives we’ve revealed that provide perception into the key historical past of the company. Beneath, you’ll discover his piece and a few of our different favorites on this topic, together with an essay by ex-spy Valerie Plame on the plight of ladies within the company and historian Hugh Wilford’s tackle why CIA conspiracy theories simply gained’t go away.
Younger individuals in a restaurant in Poland in 1961. Ernst Haas/Hulton Archive/Getty Photos
The Most Profitable CIA Operation You’ve By no means Heard of
Johannes Lichtman evaluations a brand new guide on how the company’s program to flow into banned books helped take down the Iron Curtain.
Employees stroll throughout the entry corridor on the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, on Feb. 1, 1993. Larry Downing/Sygma/Sygma by way of Getty Photos
What It’s Truly Like Being a Girl within the CIA
Ex-spy Valerie Plame on the “secret historical past” of ladies within the company.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe on the White Home in Washington on Could 1.Andrew Harnik/Getty Photos
When the Risk Is Contained in the White Home
What CIA insiders make of the MAGA moles and toadies now accountable for U.S. nationwide safety, in keeping with Tim Weiner.
Political activist Dick Gregory holds a information convention to current proof involving the CIA in potential criminal activity surrounding the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, and his brother, Robert in 1975.Bettmann Archive/by way of Getty Photos
Why CIA Conspiracy Theories Received’t Go Away
So long as the company carries out needlessly covert operations, the general public will suspect the worst, Hugh Wilford writes.
Protesters display in opposition to U.S. imperialism in entrance of the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi on Dec. 18, 1971. Keystone/Getty Photos
How the Chilly Conflict Solid India’s Intelligence Setup
A brand new guide depicts a interval of spy historical past—and U.S.-India cooperation—that bears some resemblance to our personal, Sushant Singh writes.
