search events
Disinformation

America’s Countering Soviet Disinformation in the 1980s

In the 1980s President Reagan's America faced a deluge of Soviet disinformation including the libellous claim that AIDS was a US bioweapon gone wrong. Seeing a threat to its reputational security, it responded through careful tracking and counter-messaging, but its best response proved to be diplomatic. US diplomats persuaded the Soviet Union that its interests would be best served by ensuring the integrity of information and a mutually beneficial relationship with the USA, and the crisis passed.

Deepfake

A Lesson from the Cold War