DISINFORMATION: TWISTED FACTS DISTORT REALITY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201460018-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 20, 2012
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: April 8, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

r Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201460018-3
c n+ 1-A
WASHINGTON TIMES
8 April 1985
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR -,
Disinformation:
steel facts; distort reality
the groundwork for yet another U.S. strategic defeat.
There are many groups in the United States whose
media connections are an open secret. Their mission
is to shade, embroider and distort the truth for their
own disinformation agenda, while excoriating anyone
else who is less than truthful: ? _ ;. .
These groups have helped nurture an entire new
generation of journalists who have made it their duty
President Reagan told The Washington Post last
week that "we've been subjected, in this country, to a
very sophisticated lobbying campaign by a totalitarian
government - the Sandinistas. There has been a disin-
formation program that is virtually worldwide, and we
know that the Soviets and Cubans have such a disinfor- -
mation network that is beyond anything we can match:'
The Post in particular, and the liberal media in gen-:;
i eral dismiss the very notion of
Soviet and Soviet-proxy disinfor-
station of mind-
ti
if
ma
on as a man
e
less anti-communism. In a column `NETWORK
headlined "Sandinista Disinfor-
mation?"- the question mark was ^ l
designed to discredit the TARGET^
president's irrefutable statement
of fact - The Post's deputy edi-
torial page editor, Stephen S.
Reagan's Central
Rosenfeld, wrote, in effect, "Yes,
but so what?"' American Polic i- 1t
So a lot, Mr. Rosenfeld. Y'.
Vietnamese officials (e.g., Gen-
have confirmed that disinformation operations in the "." dents and defectors, yet it is still eagerl}_'regurgitated`
U.S. media and on Capitol Hill played a major role in 'r by the liberal establishment on both sid theAtlan
changing perceptions about that war tic.
The former justice minister of so-called National, How-is it possible that so any intelligent people
Liberation Front of South Vietnam - created and con accept these dangerous misconceptions as the' geo-
trolled by the Hanoi government - escaped among the political gospel? Disinformation isjhe key'Tbe Wash='
boat people. He has testified that clever disinformation ` ington Times, beginning today and ending:Friday, will
operations led us to believe that the 1968 Tet offensive unravel "The Network"!that ha.I een poisoning _ the
was an unmitigated disaster for the United States .,77r lifeblood of democracy,.; ;
So pervasive was this perception- this mispercep-. How does it do this? Quite simply, by distorting the
lion - that President Johnson felt compelled to abdi- data and corruptirIg .the*process,n"t'lt'tderstanding in'
cate a few months later. The reality, according to. such a, way that'it" leads public opinion .to react' difzti
unmitigated disaster for Hanoi. V _ It would behoove,the Congress' to :take. notg iefotP
There is every indication that the liberal media and our elected representatives vote yet another. resolution;
the Congress do not support?thp Reagan administra- that wilt once again make it possible for the Marxist
lion's policy in Central America notwithstanding the to steal a revolution from the people, only ? impose a
endorsement of the bipartisan Kissinger Commission ? totalitarian dictatorship mo Y )the
report in January 1984 But there is also every. ind- is s?t, _nterian regime that as 1'#
'
lion that tusinformationi nd Soviet-Cuban-IN icara
? r Arnaud a l~brchg ve
active.measures" have play a cial role in III g: Editor-ia,-Chief ~, rw
to transform America's sworn
enemies into misunderstood inno-
cents, while at the same time por-
traying our own leaders as the foes
of democracy and freedom.' =
Apologists for: 'communism iii
Cuba, , Vietnam, Angola, Mozam-
bique, Ethiopia;-Nicaragua,
Afghanistan and elsewhere have
argued that they were driven down
the Marxist path?',~of hostility
because of abuse `by TJ$ pv-
ernment..That . th,1s is; s be' ,'
unadulterated. ,disin,(ormation; is
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201460018-3