The KGB playbook

Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa, the highest-ranking intelligence official ever to have defected from the Soviet bloc, describes the Soviet Cold War propaganda strategy in today's Opinion Journal.

During the Vietnam War we spread vitriolic stories around the world, pretending that America's presidents sent Genghis Khan-style barbarian soldiers to Vietnam who raped at random, taped electrical wires to human genitals, cut off limbs, blew up bodies and razed entire villages. Those weren't facts. They were our tales, but some seven million Americans ended up being convinced their own president, not communism, was the enemy. As Yuri Andropov, who conceived this dezinformatsiya war against the U.S., used to tell me, people are more willing to believe smut than holiness.

The final goal of our anti-American offensive was to discourage the U.S. from protecting the world against communist terrorism and expansion. Sadly, we succeeded. After U.S. forces precipitously pulled out of Vietnam, the victorious communists massacred some two million people in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Another million tried to escape, but many died in the attempt. This tragedy also created a credibility gap between America and the rest of the world, damaged the cohesion of American foreign policy, and poisoned domestic debate in the U.S.

Unfortunately, partisans today have taken a page from the old Soviet playbook.

By "partisans" he means the Democrats.

Comments

[Sissy WIllis]

Hi, Tom --

I wrote about this article today, too. A meaty topic, the unwitting assist our fellow citizens of the Useful Idiot community gave and continue to give the enemies of freedom. To this day they still don't seem to understand they're being used.

[Tom Bowler]

Hi Sissy,

I just read your article. Very nicely done. However, I think you are too kind to the Useful Idiot community. With the Democratic leadership in particular, I think they know what's going on but they view it in terms of shared goals with our potential allies. So what if they happen to be our enemies at the moment. Our Useful Idiot Democratic leaders see themselves as the ones in the driver's seat.

The mainstream press has done a spectacular job of turning treason into just another point of view.

[SteveJ]

I will say this much for you Tom. Your web site does point out the problems of the left. The democrat liberal position seems to center on demonizing our institutions and, in the case of Vietnam, claiming our young 20-somethings were barbarians.

How does a democrat get the presidential nomination for his party when he lied his butt off in front of the United States senate and slandered our young men and women?

In fact, NEITHER of the Senators from Massachusetts sets a good example for our youth. Yet they are considered “leaders” of their party in the Senate.

[SteveJ]

Incidentally, in the above post, I was referring to Kerry's testimony (under oath) when he was a 20-something before a United States Senate committee.

He has lied in front of the Senate on many other occasions as well, so I felt the need to be more specific.