Talk:CIA influence on public opinion

External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080109144012/http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/96785.pdf to http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/96785.pdf
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080109144012/http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/96785.pdf to http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/96785.pdf

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External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on CIA influence on public opinion. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070613054254/https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/docs/v38i5a10p.htm to https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/docs/v38i5a10p.htm

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Restructure, rewrite
This article was an incomplete unstructured grab bag when added 10 years ago, and it has been virtually untouched since, except to take out repetitive bits or unsourced bits. Unfortunately, an important article, CIA and media, was merged into it some time ago, so many things which should logically go here have tended to go other places.

I've restructured the article, dumping the impossible to understand chronological sequence, the long sections pasted from the FRUS historical documents series, and the items that seemed to have nothing to do with influencing public opinion. I'll try to make the remaining sections coherent in the near to mid-term, then begin moving what I think are the items that really belong here from their now scattered and hard to find locations. Rgr09 (talk) 07:29, 14 June 2017 (UTC)


 * This article appears as though it could be yet another dumping ground for various allegations rather than for facts. With that in mind, I've removed material attributed to Philip Agee. If his claims on this have been discussed in reliable secondary sources outside the walled garden of fringe books, then it's possible they could be mentioned here. -Location (talk) 00:35, 17 September 2017 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 2 external links on CIA influence on public opinion. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20021113135450/http%3A//www.cia%2Don%2Dcampus.org/nsa/nsa2.html to http://www.cia-on-campus.org/nsa/nsa2.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20150227005041/http://spyapps.net/idea-to-reality-a-brief-history-of-the-national-endowment-for-democracy/ to http://spyapps.net/idea-to-reality-a-brief-history-of-the-national-endowment-for-democracy/

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Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 14:52, 28 July 2017 (UTC)

Removed section on National Endowment for Democracy
I have removed the long section on the National Endowment for Democracy. I have found no sources that would support a claim that NED was ever managed, controlled by, affiliated with, or influenced by CIA. A lengthy section in this article on NED seems completely misplaced. Rgr09 (talk) 10:40, 17 September 2017 (UTC)


 * "A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA." -Allen Weinstein 2601:601:8580:7550:8508:BE37:8AE4:916A (talk) 04:20, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

Removed citation from libcom
The article originally used a lengthy quote from a post at a website/blog libcom.org, authored by "Steven". This is not reliable source material, so I have removed both citations to it. There are plenty of reliable sources for CIA covert sponsorship of private/non-profit organizations. Rgr09 (talk) 08:05, 10 May 2018 (UTC)

Mockingbird
I would think operation mockingbird would warrant a mention here, but I don't know much about this topic — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tomatoswoop (talk • contribs) 04:44, 21 March 2020 (UTC)

Authority for Psychological warfare
The article now says
 * Psychological operations was assigned to the pre-CIA Office of Policy Coordination, with oversight by the Department of State.

There is a footnote that cites a State Department document collection: Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950-1955: The Intelligence Community. The footnote shortcut says NSC59-1. NSC59/1 is document 2 of the collection, page 2 (page 31 of the pdf). This document, however, is about who is responsible for preparing a "foreign information program" in times of peace, and a "psychological warfare program" in times of war or national emergency. This is the responsibility of the Secretary of State. The OPC is not mentioned in this document at all.

Perhaps the author of the wikipedia article intended to make a reference to NSC 10/2, which establishes the basis for covert action by CIA and others, but 10/2 is not in this collection, it is in the earlier Foreign Relations of the United States, 1945–1950, Emergence of the Intelligence Establishment.

The article then says
 * the psychological operations staff [was] placed under the Deputy Directorate of Plans, the Directorate of Operations, or the National Clandestine Service.

DP, DO, NCS are the different names, given at different times, to the covert activities division. It is not clear what the "psychological operations staff" refers to. There was a plethora of boards and committess with confusingly similar titles: "Psychological Strategy Board", "National Psychological Strategy Board", "Psychological Strategy Coordinating Committee", etc. This needs clarification and sourcing, but to what point? I suggest just deleting this whole confused section. Eventually the whole article should go. either merged into other articles, or just plain put out of its misery. Rgr09 (talk) 08:00, 11 June 2020 (UTC)

Wikipedia has a short article on OPC, it is one of many articles I glanced at but did not have time to check citations or figure out what the real story was. Rgr09 (talk) 01:58, 11 June 2020 (UTC)

After reading a hundred pages of Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950-1955, I have decided that this section should just be dropped. Fishing something out of these huge collections to put in here is way too close to original research. Rgr09 (talk) 10:43, 12 June 2020 (UTC)


 * I am OK with that. I imagine the ultimate "authority" to use propaganda in foreign affairs is the President per Article II of the Constitution, but I'm not sure what the point of the section would be. Is it to specify which branch of the CIA usually conducts propaganda campaigns? I found this set of documents from 1945/1946 that might be relevant since it references the Propaganda Branch of the War Department (Psychological Warfare Division?) prior to the National Security Act. - Location (talk) 22:34, 12 June 2020 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Introduction to Media Culture
— Assignment last updated by Douglas-Suter (talk) 16:50, 27 September 2022 (UTC)