Why Britain’s Secret Propaganda Unit Was a Farce
'Fakers' by Rory Cormac Review
A review of Rory Cormac’s 'Fakers', a history of Britain’s Information Research Department (IRD), a secret Cold War propaganda unit. The IRD planted stories and invented fictitious groups, but its operations often descended into farce, as when it exposed its own fictional brotherhood or mistook a real CIA agent for a Soviet plant. The review highlights the unit’s shabby absurdity and questions its effectiveness, noting that it mainly targeted Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, and that its legacy is one of intricate deception rather than strategic impact.
Sometimes one feels that the dissemination of false information became a kind of work of art and that its practitioners came to value it – as people used to value making model buildings out of matchsticks – for its intricacy rather than because it served any purpose.