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During the [[Cold War]], the [[Soviet Union]] and [[USA]] competed for world hegemony through the [[arms race]]. Numerous [[anti-war]] movements were formed in [[democracy|democratic]] countries in [[Western world|the West]] and it has been claimed that the Soviet Union influenced these [[peace movements]] and created [[astroturfing]] campaigns against Western armaments.<ref>Ronald E. Ringer, ''Excel HSC modern history'', Pascal Press, ISBN 1741252466, [http://books.google.com/books?id=u75GldeYqUIC&pg=PA337&dq=%22Soviet+Peace+Committee%22&lr=&as_brr=3&ei=gJpXSuKHFJqwyAT30LiqBw Google Print, p.337]</ref>
During the [[Cold War]], the [[Soviet Union]] tried to spread [[communism]] throughout the world<ref name=NPS>[http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/29ike/29setting.htm Setting the Stage] U.S. National Park Service</ref><ref>[http://www.tibet.ca/en/newsroom/wtn/archive/old?y=1995&m=8&p=4_2] Canada Tibet Committee</ref><ref>Dr Wafula Okumu, [http://www.iss.co.za/dynamic/administration/file_manager/file_links/AFRICOMWOKUMU.PDF?link_id=31&slink_id=4821&link_type=12&slink_type=13&tmpl_id=3 Africa Command: Opportunity for Enhanced Engagement or the Militarization of U.S.-Africa Relations?]</ref><ref name=globalsecurity>[http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/cold_war.htm Cold War] Globalsecurity.org</ref> and the [[USA]] and other western democracies, fearing the [[Domino theory|spread of communism]], tried to stop it.<ref name=NPS/><ref name=globalsecurity/> Thus they got involved in the [[arms race]]. Numerous [[anti-war]] movements were formed in [[democracy|democratic]] countries in [[Western world|the West]] and it has been claimed that the Soviet Union influenced these [[peace movements]] and created [[astroturfing]] campaigns against Western armaments.<ref>Ronald E. Ringer, ''Excel HSC modern history'', Pascal Press, ISBN 1741252466, [http://books.google.com/books?id=u75GldeYqUIC&pg=PA337&dq=%22Soviet+Peace+Committee%22&lr=&as_brr=3&ei=gJpXSuKHFJqwyAT30LiqBw Google Print, p.337]</ref>


==Soviet funding==
==Soviet funding==

Revision as of 10:12, 5 August 2009

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union tried to spread communism throughout the world[1][2][3][4] and the USA and other western democracies, fearing the spread of communism, tried to stop it.[1][4] Thus they got involved in the arms race. Numerous anti-war movements were formed in democratic countries in the West and it has been claimed that the Soviet Union influenced these peace movements and created astroturfing campaigns against Western armaments.[5]

Soviet funding

Russian GRU defector Stanislav Lunev said in his autobiography that "the GRU and the KGB helped to fund just about every antiwar movement and organization in America and abroad." and that during the Vietnam War the USSR gave $1 billion to American anti-war movements, more than it gave to the VietCong.[6] Lunev described this as a "hugely successful campaign and well worth the cost".[6] A US State Department official estimated that $600 million may have been spent on the peace offensive up to 1983.[7]

Oleg Kalugin, a former KGB general, said that the KGB ran "run all sorts of congresses, peace congresses, youth congresses, festivals, women's movements, trade union movements, campaigns against U.S. missiles in Europe, campaigns against neutron weapons" and that "all sorts of forgeries and faked material - [were] targeted at politicians, the academic community, at [the] public at large."[8]

Soviet foreign peace propaganda was led by the World Peace Council (WPC), an organization said to have received $63 million in Soviet funding.[9] Following the large peace demonstrations in Europe in October and November 1981, US President Ronald Reagan said that "those are all sponsored by a thing called the World Peace Council, which is bought and paid for by the Soviet Union".[10] The Soviet Peace Committee, a Soviet government organization, is said to have funded and organized demonstrations in Europe against US bases.[11] After mass demonstrations in West Germany in 1981, an official investigation turned up circumstantial evidence but no absolute proof of KGB involvement.[7]

According to the Danish Ministry of Justice, the KGB promised to help finance advertisements signed by prominent Danish artists who wanted Scandinavia to be declared a nuclear-free zone. In November 1981, Norway expelled a suspected KGB agent who had offered bribes to Norwegians to get them to write letters to newspapers denouncing the deployment of new NATO missiles.[7]

In testimony before the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the FBI claimed that a Communist-front group, the U.S. Peace Council, was among the organizers of a large 1982 peace protest in New York City, but said that the KGB had not manipulated the American movement "significantly."[7]

The most detailed analysis of Soviet attempts to influence Western peace movements was presented by Richard Felix Staar in his book Foreign Policies of the Soviet Union, in which he said that that the goal of such organizations was to "spread Soviet propaganda themes and create false impression of public support for the foreign policies of Soviet Union." Non-communist peace movements without overt ties to the USSR were "virtually controlled" by it and most of their supporters - so-called "useful idiots" - were unwitting instruments of Soviet propaganda.[9]

Citing testimony to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence,[12] Staar says that numerous organizations were "closely connected" with the World Peace Council, including six peace groups:[9]

Nuclear Winter theory

Main article: Nuclear winter

In 1985 Time magazine reported "the suspicions of some Western scientists that the nuclear winter scenario was promoted by Moscow to give antinuclear groups in the U.S. and Europe some fresh ammunition against America's arms buildup."[13] More recently, Russian former intelligence officer and SVR defector Sergei Tretyakov went further and claimed that the KGB invented the concept of nuclear winter to foment opposition to Pershing II cruise missiles in Western Europe, alleging false reports released through the Soviet Academy of Sciences.[11] According to Tretyakov, this propaganda was distributed to environmental and peace groups in the West,[11] including the magazine Ambio, which published a key article on the topic.[14] It then entered the mainstream with the help of popular scientist Carl Sagan. However, photochemical effects from nuclear war had been proposed in the American science magazine Nature as early as 1974[15] and in a 1975 report by the National Academies of Science. Since then, numerous studies have been published in peer-reviewed journals in the West.

East German spying

In 1990 it was discovered in the archive of the Stasi (the state security service of the former German Democratic Republic) that Vic Allen, a member of the governing council of the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament had passed information to the Stasi about CND. This discovery was made public in a BBC TV programme in 1999, leading to claims that CND had Soviet links. Allen stood for election to the chairmanship of CND in 1985, but came fifth in the ballot. Responding to revelations about Allen, the successful candidate, Joan Ruddock, said, "He certainly had no influence on national CND, and as a pro-Soviet could never have succeeded to the chair. CND was as opposed to Soviet nuclear weapons as Western ones."[16][17]


See also

External references

References

  1. ^ a b Setting the Stage U.S. National Park Service
  2. ^ [1] Canada Tibet Committee
  3. ^ Dr Wafula Okumu, Africa Command: Opportunity for Enhanced Engagement or the Militarization of U.S.-Africa Relations?
  4. ^ a b Cold War Globalsecurity.org
  5. ^ Ronald E. Ringer, Excel HSC modern history, Pascal Press, ISBN 1741252466, Google Print, p.337
  6. ^ a b Stanislav Lunev. Through the Eyes of the Enemy: The Autobiography of Stanislav Lunev, Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1998. ISBN 0-89526-390-4
  7. ^ a b c d "Eyes of the Kremlin". Time. 14 February, 1983. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ An interview with retired KGB Maj. Gen. Oleg Kalugin, CNN
  9. ^ a b c Richard Felix Staar, Foreign policies of the Soviet Union, Hoover Press, 1991, ISBN 0817991026, pp.79-88
  10. ^ E.P.Thompson, "Resurgence in Europe and the rôle of END", in J.Minnion and P.Bolsover (eds.), The CND Story, Alison and Busby, London, 1983
  11. ^ a b c Pete Earley, "Comrade J: The Untold Secrets of Russia's Master Spy in America After the End of the Cold War", Penguin Books, 2007, ISBN 978-0-399-15439-3, pages 169-177
  12. ^ U.S. Congress. House. Select Committee on Intelligence. Soviet Covert Action: The Forgery Offensive, 6 and 19 Feb. 1980, 96th Cong., 2d sess., 1963. Washington, DC: GPO, 1980
  13. ^ Jacob V. Lamar Jr., David Aikman and Erik Amfitheatrof, "Another Return from the Cold", Time, Monday, Oct. 7, 1985
  14. ^ Paul Crutzen and John Birks, "The atmosphere after a nuclear war: Twilight at noon", Ambio, 11, 114-125
  15. ^ Hampson, J., "Photochemical war on the atmosphere", Nature, 250, 189 (1974)
  16. ^ Commons Hansard
  17. ^ BBC News
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