Snyder, Alvin A. Warriors of Disinformation: American Propaganda, Soviet Lies, and the Winning of the Cold War. New York: Arcade Publishing, 1995. 321 pages.

Alvin Snyder, a former executive with CBS and NBC, worked for the U.S. Information Agency under Charles Wick. Snyder was in charge of Worldnet, the USIA's new effort in satellite-based TV broadcasting. Up until the Reagan years, government broadcasting used only shortwave radio, which was often jammed by the Soviets. But satellite transmission was a new technology, and a new opportunity for official propaganda. (If you can't nuke 'em, then you can always destroy their brains with countless "Bay Watch" episodes.)

Charles Wick, a former bandleader and Hollywood agent, waged Reagan's cold war in his lead-lined overcoat and phalanx of bodyguards. Snyder is less brash. He knows that both U.S. and "Evil Empire" propaganda relied on outright disinformation, and the U.S. won because it spent more money. Star Wars, Snyder says, was an outright bluff. The Reagan rhetoric on the KAL 007 shoot-down was a lie; the portion of the cockpit transcript that proved the Soviet pilot was following reasonable procedures was deliberately deleted by Reagan's people. By now it's easy to see why the Soviets felt that Reagan was trying to start World War III. The only comic relief in this book concerns the gross incompetence at the Voice of America, and in Miami's anti-Castro community, as they forced the TV Marti silliness on Congress.
ISBN 1-55970-321-0

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