Russia and the US are at it again, involved in a dance of psychological games and information tricks. Hacking and fake news are the weapons of choice today. These are partly the products of technological change, but ideology and history play a role, too: the so-called post-truth age is shaped by decades of relations between the US and Russia. Today’s engagement, however, does not mark a return to the cold war; rather, it is the result of its ending.
Deception and disinformation were a vital part of the cold war. In 1954, for example, the US propaganda machine pulled off a spectacular disinformation operation to “prove” that Guatemalan president Jacobo Arbenz was subject to undue Communist influence. The Soviet Union, meanwhile, had a department of “active measures” whose agents would churn out fake stories aimed at sowing division in the west. And inside the USSR, ministries would cook the books to “prove” that the economy was doing well.
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