A Study Of The U.S. Covert Propaganda Warfare Strategy To The Soviet Union And The Eastern European Countries In The Early Cold War Era

In this thesis,the formulation and implementation of the U.S.covert propaganda warfare strategy to the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries in the early Cold War era are studied by analyzing the latest declassified archives of the U.S.government and drawing the essence from the published research results of academia at home and abroad.The thesis focuses on the macroscopic investigation of the formulation,development,inheritance as well as the implementation of the U.S.covert propaganda warfare strategy under the guidance of the theory of the historical materialism and dialectical materialism.It takes the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries as the research targets,and offers a detailed summary of the features and effects of the implementation of the U.S.covert propaganda warfare strategy in the early Cold War era.During the early Cold War era,despite the fact that the United States and the Soviet Union were irreconcilably hostile to each other,both sides made all efforts to avoid using military means.They all actively resorted to propaganda to find justifications for the implementation of their foreign policy led by the Cold War thought,and accordingly,to win the initiative and the final victory of the Cold War.However,overt propaganda alone cannot achieve the desired effects.In the context of the Containment Strategy,the U.S.government thus formulated a series of documents on covert propaganda warfare strategy and implemented some covert propaganda programs to both the Soviet Union and the Eastern European countries via media and cultural means.To the Soviet Union,the United States took on the cloak of Radio Liberty as a private institution to launch an anti-Communist and pro-American propaganda offensive.The United States also strongly exported Western values and lifestyles through cultural exchanges.To Eastern European countries,the United States made full use of Radio Free Europe and some special programs such as the Balloon Campaign and the Escapee Program to strive for the minds and thoughts of the people in these Soviet Satellite countries.The U.S.covert propaganda warfare strategy played an irreplaceable role in the strife between the United States and the Soviet Union in the early Cold War era which had an important impact on the development of the Cold War,particularly on winning the initiative in the Cold War propaganda warfare for the United States in the early Cold War era.