“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 almost 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 essential CIA operations of the Chilly Battle”—and it’s additionally one which comparatively few folks 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 almost 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 essential CIA operations of the Chilly Battle”—and it’s additionally one which comparatively few folks 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. Under, 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 folks 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 Really Like Being a Lady 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 Might 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 answerable for U.S. nationwide safety, in line with Tim Weiner.
Political activist Dick Gregory holds a information convention to current proof involving the CIA in potential criminality 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 Gained’t Go Away
So long as the company carries out needlessly covert operations, the general public will suspect the worst, Hugh Wilford writes.
Protesters show towards U.S. imperialism in entrance of the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi on Dec. 18, 1971. Keystone/Getty Photos
How the Chilly Battle 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.
