One of the CIA's most successful operations in the 20th century involved a process that you might not expect, and it was so outlandish that it was a miracle it actually worked in the end.
The United States Government's Central Intelligence Agency – otherwise known more commonly as the CIA – has proved to be one of the most important and valuable tools at its disposal, and has been vital to countless wars and foreign interference since its creation in 1947.
Very few people know about what is considered by experts to be among the agency's most successful operations though, as its secrecy was paramount to its achievement, proving a key move in the United States' proxy war against the Soviet Union.
What was the CIA operation?
As reported by Foreign Policy, British journalist Charlie English's latest book details the events that unfolded in the CIA's 'book program', which successfully implemented destablization in dissenting Soviet Union states during the Cold War.
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It all began with what was known as the 'Winds of Freedom' operation, which employed 3,000 rubber bags that flew across the Czechoslovakian border, bursting to reveal leaflets that had this message written on them:
"TO THE PEOPLE OF CZECHOSLOVAKIA. A NEW WIND IS BLOWING. A NEW HOPE IS STIRRING. Friends of Freedom in other lands have found a new way to reach you. They know that you also want freedom."
While the execution of the operation was immaculate, as the timing of the leaflet delivery was calculated precisely with wind speeds and pressure points, its effect was non existent as those reading the leaflets didn't care about its message of freedom, despite an appetite of resistence being present in the country.
That caused the CIA to turn to other methods, primarily looking into the smuggling, production, and distribution of banned books and newspapers that gave people what was viewed as an alternative to Soviet rule.
Previously banned works from authors such as Albert Camus, Kurt Vonnegut, and Hannah Arendt, among many others, were smuggled into communist satellite states of the Soviet Union like Poland and Czechoslovakia.
Nearly 10,000,000 items were smuggled in total across the several decades of the operation, and alongside books the CIA also managed to secretly import items like printing presses and materials which allowed people to produce their own works.
One particularly important production that came as a result of this operation was an underground publication known as Mazovia Weekly, which was launched in 1982 by the Women's Operational Group in Poland.
It was produced entirely in secret — to the point where the printing press they used was moved to a different location and used a different team every single time in order to avoid any information getting out.
In total it was circulating around 80,000 copies with every publication, which is a staggering figure considering what they were up against, and it proved to be another key part of the success of the CIA's operation.