At first, I thought I had no thoughts. Then I reconsidered.
The Communist bloc countries had a strange relationship with TRUTH, did they not?
Wherever they found it, they strove mightily to suppress it. Counter it. Consign it to the ash heap.
(1) They did it so well in the free countries. The West. And so we have the late Mr. Bittman--assiduously spreading "disinformation"--and my goodness! New York Times,. The word has not been around all that long. But it captures to a T what Russians have devoted themselves to doing.
DON'T WE SEE THAT NOWADAYS!
With the trolls--the misleading blogs--the fake websites--all those immense resources of cyberspace--
--dedicated to spawning and propagating LIES.
(2) But--in a much deeper sense--they were foes of TRUTH at home. And was it not that--and nothing else--that brought them down?
You remember how Mr. Gorbachev made that fatal error. Introducing GLASNOST--openness I can imagine Stalin writhing in his grave. "Fool!" he would shriek--"FOOL!
"You've let TRUTH get a foot in the door. My sworn foe. My implacable enemy--
"--TRUTH!
"And now she's got one foot in that door--
"--that door I labored so many years to keep shut--
"--you'll never get that door shut again. NEVER!"
To such an enormous extent--
--Communism was founded on lies lies LIES!
Eventually, Mr. Bittman himself realized it. And he quit.
May he rest in peace.
2
Interesting that he helped set up brothels to help the Soviets blackmail German politicians... think on that for a minute.
While listening to the video cited in Mr. Martin-Bittman's obituary, I was reminded of how the career of CBS News anchor Dan Rather had been destroyed by disinformation. This took the form of the so-called Killian documents: (apparent) forgeries relating to the military service of then-President George W. Bush. According to Soviet Active Measures (1984):
"One of the major and most effective forms of disinformation is forgery. Letters, telegrams, memoranda are forged on a regular basis. Dr. [Lawrence Martin-] Bittman explains: 'I would say that the major successes were in developing countries. Where the governments didn't have the expertise to analyze properly these operations. And for example, sometimes very cheap forgeries are accepted. Anti-American forgeries. Forgeries of American documents are accepted in developing countries as genuine proof of American conspiracies'." (10:12)
Cite:
Soviet Active Measures (1984)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALfDhs-_ce4
Unattributed and undated video; reference claim: "National Archives And Records Administration - Arc Identifier 54826 / Local Identifier 306.9798 - Soviet Active Measures - U.S. Information Agency. (1982 - 10/01/1999)"
1
Interesting guy. I wonder if he had any commentary on the Russian disinformation campaign in 2016.
2