Secret British ‘black propaganda’ campaign targeted cold war enemies

An Israeli convoy passes Egyptian prisoners in the Sinai during the six-day war, June 1967. The Information Research Department put out fake Soviet comment on Egypt’s war effort. Photograph: Getty Images

The British government ran a secret “black propaganda” campaign for decades, targeting Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia with leaflets and reports from fake sources aimed at destabilising cold war enemies by encouraging racial tensions, sowing chaos, inciting violence and reinforcing anti-communist ideas, newly declassified documents have revealed.

The effort, run from the mid-1950s through to the late 70s by a unit in London that was part of the Foreign Office, was focused on cold war enemies such as the Soviet Union and China, leftwing liberation groups and leaders that the UK saw as threats to its interests