Introduction

Abstract

In the introduction to his 1997 book Parting the Curtain, Walter Hixson wrote that “no systematic study exists on the efforts to use propaganda and culture as a weapon in the Cold War.”1 While this may have been the case in 1997, since then a tremendous increase has occurred in the study of Cold War rhetoric and propaganda, including the use of propaganda as a weapon in the Cold War. Since 2006 major works have appeared on the role of propaganda in the foreign policy of the US Eisenhower Administration (1953–61), the development of Britain’s anti-Communist propaganda policy, and British and American propaganda policy toward the Middle East.2 These studies built on earlier work done in the United States and Britain, most notably the path-breaking work of Walter Hixson, Philip Taylor, and Scott Lucas, all of whom stressed the vital role ideology, propaganda, and culture played in the history of the Cold War.3 KeywordsForeign PolicyCentral Intelligence AgencyBritish Broadcasting CorporationPublic DiplomacySoviet PolicyThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.