The Science of Conspiracy Theories

Operation Mockingbird

Operation Mockingbird

This is another true conspiracy. It involved the CIA trying to control the media starting in the 1950's when Allen W. Dallas became head of the 'evil' spy organization. The CIA was on a campaign to make the world adhere to its ideals and agendas and they did it by influencing notable journalists, media moguls and even foreign media interests.

How did they do this? They spied on journalists and other media people; they bribed people with money; they had notable people write books and magazine articles friendly to their cause; they issued propaganda; they hired people who had direct control over the media and wire services; they conducted other covert operations to effectively influence and control the media; they siphoned off money that was supposed to be going to the Marshall Plan and used it to bribe people.

The Mockingbird operation was supposedly behind the overthrow of President Jacobo Arbenz Gruzman in Guatemala during the cold war to keep that country from falling under Soviet influence.

Davis Wise and Thomas Ross' 1964 book 'The Invisible Government' revealed a lot of these operations, especially the coups in Guatemala, Iran and Indonesia, which failed. The CIA supposedly tried to buy up all the editions, but that wouldn't work because a second edition would have been released.

More details of the CIA operations were revealed by the Church Committee hearings. The Church Committee full name was United States Select Committee to Study Government Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities. This committee in 1975 studied operations of the CIA, FBI and NSA.

It makes a lot of sense that the CIA was involved in these covert operations. The U.S. was in the peak of the Cold War with the Soviet Union and Communism was being spread both in Europe, Africa and the Far East but also in the Americas. The United States was afraid of the Red Scare and this was one of the ways they were trying to fight back without resorting to a hot war.

The Church Committee revealed that the government was spying on the civilian population in the U.S. as well as in foreign countries. It also revealed assassination attempts and covert activities against foreign officials. And, you thought that James Bond was fiction!

Thanks for reading.