Soviet influence on the peace movement
Encyclopedia
During the Cold War
(1947–1991), when the Soviet Union
and the USA were engaged in an arms race
, the Soviet Union promoted its foreign policy through the World Peace Council
and other front organization
s. It has been claimed that it also influenced non-aligned
peace groups in the West
.
, a WPC member. The WPC and its members took the line laid down by the Cominform
that the world was divided between the peace-loving Soviet Union and the warmongering United States. From the 1950s until the late 1980s the Soviet Union used numerous organizations associated with the WPC to spread its of view of peace. They included:
Other international peace organizations have been said to be associated with the WPC. International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War
is said to have had "overlapping membership and similar policies" to the WPC. The Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs
and the Dartmouth Conferences
were said to have been used by Soviet delegates to promote Soviet propaganda. Joseph Rotblat
, one of the leaders of the Pugwash movement, said that there were a few participants in Pugwash conferences from the Soviet Union "who were obviously sent to push the party line, but the majority were genuine scientists and behaved as such".
The WPC organized international peace conferences which condemned western armaments and weapons tests but refrained from criticizing Russian arms. For example, in 1956 it condemned the Suez war
but not the Russian invasion of Hungary. The former KGB
officer Sergei Tretyakov
said that the Soviet Peace Committee funded and organized demonstrations in Europe against US bases.
Because of the energetic activity of the WPC from the late 1940s onwards, with its large conferences and budget, there was little difference in the public mind between a peace activist and a Communist. It was sometimes said that the peace movement in the West was influenced by or even led by the WPC. US President Ronald Reagan
said that the peace demonstrations in Europe in 1981 were sponsored by the WPC and Soviet defector Vladimir Bukovsky
claimed that they were co-ordinated at the WPC's 1980 World Parliament of Peoples for Peace in Sofia
. The FBI reported to the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that the WPC-affiliated U.S. Peace Council
was one of the organizers of a large 1982 peace protest in New York City, but said that the KGB had not manipulated the American movement "significantly."
At first there was limited co-operation between western groups and the WPC. However, western delegates who tried to criticize the Soviet Union at WPC conferences, or the WPC's condemnation of western armaments while defending Russian armaments, were often shouted down. This led them to gradually to dissociate themselves from the WPC.
As the non-aligned movement "was constantly under threat of being tarnished by association with avowedly pro-Soviet groups", many individuals and organizations "studiously avoided contact with Communists and fellow-travellers." As early as 1949 the World Pacifist Meeting warned against active collaboration with Communists. Finally, as a result of confrontation between western and Soviet delegates at the 1962 World Congress for Peace and Disarmament, organised by the WPC in Moscow, forty non-aligned organizations decided to form a new international body, the International Confederation for Disarmament and Peace
, to which Soviet delegates were not invited.
Rainer Santi, in his history of the International Peace Bureau
, writes that the WPC "always had difficulty in securing cooperation from West European and North American peace organisations because of its obvious affiliation with Socialist countries and the foreign policy of the Soviet Union. Especially difficult to digest, was that instead of criticising the Soviet Union's unilaterally resumed atmospheric nuclear testing in 1961, the WPC issued a statement rationalising it. In 1979 the World Peace Council explained the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan as an act of solidarity in the face of Chinese and US aggression against Afghanistan." It was suggested by a former secretary of the WPC that it simply failed to connect with the western peace movement. It was said to have used most of its funds on international travel and lavish conferences, to have poor intelligence on Western peace groups, and, even though its HQ was in Helsinki, to have no contact with Finnish peace organizations.
In 1951 the House Committee on Un-American Activities published The Communist "Peace" Offensive, which detailed the activities of the WPC and of numerous affiliated organisations. It listed dozens of American organisations and hundreds of Americans who had been involved in peace meetings, conferences and petitions. It noted, "that some of the persons who are so described in either the text or the appendix withdrew their support and/or affiliation with these organizations when the Communist character of these organizations was discovered. There may also be persons whose names were used as sponsors or affiliates of these organizations without permission or knowledge of the individuals involved."
In 1982 the Heritage Foundation
published Moscow and the Peace Offensive, which said that non-aligned peace organizations advocated similar policies on defence and disarmament to the Soviet Union. It argued that "pacifists and concerned Christians had been drawn into the Communist campaign largely unaware if its real sponsorship."
It has been suggested that non-aligned peace groups have received funding from the Soviet Union. Russian GRU
defector Stanislav Lunev
said in his autobiography that "the GRU and the KGB
helped to fund just about every antiwar movement and organization in America and abroad," and that during the Vietnam War
the USSR gave $1 billion to American anti-war movements, more than it gave to the VietCong. Lunev described this as a "hugely successful campaign and well worth the cost". According to Time magazine, a US State Department official estimated that the KGB may have spent $600 million on the peace offensive up to 1983, channeling funds through national Communist parties or the World Peace Council "to a host of new antiwar organizations that would, in many cases, reject the financial help if they knew the source." Richard Felix Staar
in his book Foreign Policies of the Soviet Union says that non-communist peace movements without overt ties to the USSR were "virtually controlled" by it. Neither Lunev, Time or Staar name any non-aligned peace groups that have been funded or otherwise influenced by the Soviet Union. Lord Chalfont claimed that the Soviet Union was giving the European peace movement £100 million a year. Bruce Kent
, one-time general secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
(CND), said. "If they were, it was certainly not getting to our grotty little office in Finsbury Park." The Federation of Conservative Students
(FCS) alleged Soviet funding of CND. They were sued for libel by Dan Smith, a CND worker, backed down, issued an apology and paid costs.
In 1967, a CIA report on the US peace movement observed that "the Communist Party of the USA benefits from anti-US activity by Peace groups but does not appear to be inspiring them or directing them." After demonstrations against NATO missiles in West Germany in 1981, an official investigation turned up circumstantial evidence but no absolute proof of KGB involvement. Western intelligence experts concluded that the movement in Europe at that time was probably not Soviet-inspired.
In 1983, MI5
and MI6 reported to British Prime Miniser Margaret Thatcher
on Soviet contacts with the peace movement, based on the testimony of KGB officer Oleg Gordievsky
. According to Christopher Andrew's official history of MI5, Gordievsky's evidence indicated that there was little effective contact between either the KGB or the Soviet embassy and the peace movement. This evidence was consistent with previous intelligence assessments.
According to the Danish Ministry of Justice, the KGB promised to help finance advertisements signed by prominent Danish artists who wanted Scandinavia to be declared a nuclear-free zone. In November 1981, Norway expelled a suspected KGB agent who had offered bribes to Norwegians to get them to write letters to newspapers denouncing the deployment of new NATO missiles.
In 1985 Time magazine noted "the suspicions of some Western scientists that the nuclear winter
scenario was promoted by Moscow to give antinuclear groups in the U.S. and Europe some fresh ammunition against America's arms buildup." Sergei Tretyakov claimed that the data behind the nuclear winter scenario was faked by the KGB and spread in the west as part of a campaign against Pershing missiles. He said that a key paper in the development of the nuclear winter scenario, "Twilight at Noon" by Paul Crutzen and John Birks (1982), was published as a result of this KGB influence. However, Starley L. Thompson of the National Center for Atmospheric Research
, Boulder, Colorado, says that the nuclear winter model was developed in the United States in the early 1970s.
Soviet activity:
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
(1947–1991), when the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and the USA were engaged in an arms race
Arms race
The term arms race, in its original usage, describes a competition between two or more parties for the best armed forces. Each party competes to produce larger numbers of weapons, greater armies, or superior military technology in a technological escalation...
, the Soviet Union promoted its foreign policy through the World Peace Council
World Peace Council
The World Peace Council is an international organization that advocates universal disarmament, sovereignty and independence and peaceful co-existence, and campaigns against imperialism, weapons of mass destruction and all forms of discrimination...
and other front organization
Front organization
A front organization is any entity set up by and controlled by another organization, such as intelligence agencies, organized crime groups, banned organizations, religious or political groups, advocacy groups, or corporations...
s. It has been claimed that it also influenced non-aligned
Non-Aligned Movement
The Non-Aligned Movement is a group of states considering themselves not aligned formally with or against any major power bloc. As of 2011, the movement had 120 members and 17 observer countries...
peace groups in the West
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
.
The World Peace Council
The World Peace Council (WPC) was set up by the Soviet Communist Party in 1948-50 to promote Soviet foreign policy and to campaign against nuclear weapons at a time when only the USA had them. The WPC was directed by the International Department of the Soviet Communist Party via the Soviet Peace CommitteeSoviet Peace Committee
Soviet Peace Committee was a state-sponsored organization responsible for coordinating peace movements active in the Soviet Union. Soviet Peace Committee was founded in 1949 and existed until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.-History and activities:The Soviet Peace Committee was founded in...
, a WPC member. The WPC and its members took the line laid down by the Cominform
Cominform
Founded in 1947, Cominform is the common name for what was officially referred to as the Information Bureau of the Communist and Workers' Parties...
that the world was divided between the peace-loving Soviet Union and the warmongering United States. From the 1950s until the late 1980s the Soviet Union used numerous organizations associated with the WPC to spread its of view of peace. They included:
- Christian Peace ConferenceChristian Peace ConferenceThe Christian Peace Conference was a Czech organization founded in 1958 by Josef Hromádka, a pastor who had spent the war years in the USA and moved back to Czechoslovakia when the war ended. Hromádka was a member of the Bureau of the World Peace Council...
- International Federation of Resistance Fighters
- International Institute for Peace
- International Organization of Democratic Lawyers
- International Organization of JournalistsInternational Organization of JournalistsInternational Organization of Journalists was a Soviet bloc front organization.It was initially portrayed as a place where Western and Eastern Bloc journalists can meet...
- International Union of StudentsInternational Union of StudentsThe International Union of Students is a worldwide nonpartisan association of university student organizations.The IUS is the umbrella organization for 155 such student organizations across 112 countries and territories representing approximately 25 million students.-Aim and work areas:The aims of...
- World Federation of Democratic YouthWorld Federation of Democratic YouthThe World Federation of Democratic Youth is a progressive youth organization, recognized by the United Nations as an international youth non-governmental organization. WFDY describes itself as an "anti-imperialist, left-wing" organisation...
- World Federation of Scientific Workers
- World Federation of Trade UnionsWorld Federation of Trade UnionsThe World Federation of Trade Unions was established in 1945 to replace the International Federation of Trade Unions. Its mission was to bring together trade unions across the world in a single international organization, much like the United Nations...
- Women's International Democratic Federation
- World Peace Esperanto MovementMondpaca Esperantista MovadoThe Mondpaca Esperantista Movado was an Esperanto association founded in 1953 in Austria by Rudolf Burda. Its aim was “to use the Esperanto to serve the peace and the reciprocal understanding between the peoples”. Its official magazine was PACO....
.
Other international peace organizations have been said to be associated with the WPC. International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War
is a non-partisan federation of national medical groups in 63 countries, representing tens of thousands of doctors, medical students, other health workers, and concerned citizens who share the common goal of creating a more peaceful and secure world freed from the threat of nuclear annihilation...
is said to have had "overlapping membership and similar policies" to the WPC. The Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs
Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs
The Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs is an international organization that brings together scholars and public figures to work toward reducing the danger of armed conflict and to seek solutions to global security threats...
and the Dartmouth Conferences
Dartmouth Conferences (peace)
Dartmouth Conferences on peace process begun at Dartmouth College in October 1960. It is one of the longest ongoing bilateral unofficial dialogues between American and Soviet representatives.-History and impact:...
were said to have been used by Soviet delegates to promote Soviet propaganda. Joseph Rotblat
Joseph Rotblat
Sir Joseph Rotblat, KCMG, CBE, FRS , was a Polish-born, British-naturalised physicist.His work on nuclear fallout was a major contribution to the agreement of the Partial Test Ban Treaty...
, one of the leaders of the Pugwash movement, said that there were a few participants in Pugwash conferences from the Soviet Union "who were obviously sent to push the party line, but the majority were genuine scientists and behaved as such".
The WPC organized international peace conferences which condemned western armaments and weapons tests but refrained from criticizing Russian arms. For example, in 1956 it condemned the Suez war
Suez Crisis
The Suez Crisis, also referred to as the Tripartite Aggression, Suez War was an offensive war fought by France, the United Kingdom, and Israel against Egypt beginning on 29 October 1956. Less than a day after Israel invaded Egypt, Britain and France issued a joint ultimatum to Egypt and Israel,...
but not the Russian invasion of Hungary. The former KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
officer Sergei Tretyakov
Sergei Tretyakov (intelligence officer)
Colonel Sergei Tretyakov was a Russian SVR officer who defected to the United States in October 2000.-Biography:...
said that the Soviet Peace Committee funded and organized demonstrations in Europe against US bases.
Because of the energetic activity of the WPC from the late 1940s onwards, with its large conferences and budget, there was little difference in the public mind between a peace activist and a Communist. It was sometimes said that the peace movement in the West was influenced by or even led by the WPC. US President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
said that the peace demonstrations in Europe in 1981 were sponsored by the WPC and Soviet defector Vladimir Bukovsky
Vladimir Bukovsky
Vladimir Konstantinovich Bukovsky is a leading member of the dissident movement of the 1960s and 1970s, writer, neurophysiologist, and political activist....
claimed that they were co-ordinated at the WPC's 1980 World Parliament of Peoples for Peace in Sofia
Sofia
Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...
. The FBI reported to the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that the WPC-affiliated U.S. Peace Council
U.S. Peace Council
The U.S. Peace Council was an activist organization founded in the late 1970's.NATO's decision to deploy a new generation of strategic nuclear warheads in Europe and U.S...
was one of the organizers of a large 1982 peace protest in New York City, but said that the KGB had not manipulated the American movement "significantly."
At first there was limited co-operation between western groups and the WPC. However, western delegates who tried to criticize the Soviet Union at WPC conferences, or the WPC's condemnation of western armaments while defending Russian armaments, were often shouted down. This led them to gradually to dissociate themselves from the WPC.
As the non-aligned movement "was constantly under threat of being tarnished by association with avowedly pro-Soviet groups", many individuals and organizations "studiously avoided contact with Communists and fellow-travellers." As early as 1949 the World Pacifist Meeting warned against active collaboration with Communists. Finally, as a result of confrontation between western and Soviet delegates at the 1962 World Congress for Peace and Disarmament, organised by the WPC in Moscow, forty non-aligned organizations decided to form a new international body, the International Confederation for Disarmament and Peace
International Confederation for Disarmament and Peace
The International Confederation for Disarmament and Peace was an organisation formed by peace groups from western and non-aligned nations in 1963....
, to which Soviet delegates were not invited.
Rainer Santi, in his history of the International Peace Bureau
International Peace Bureau
International Peace Bureau is the world's oldest international peace federation. It was founded in 1891, and awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1910....
, writes that the WPC "always had difficulty in securing cooperation from West European and North American peace organisations because of its obvious affiliation with Socialist countries and the foreign policy of the Soviet Union. Especially difficult to digest, was that instead of criticising the Soviet Union's unilaterally resumed atmospheric nuclear testing in 1961, the WPC issued a statement rationalising it. In 1979 the World Peace Council explained the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan as an act of solidarity in the face of Chinese and US aggression against Afghanistan." It was suggested by a former secretary of the WPC that it simply failed to connect with the western peace movement. It was said to have used most of its funds on international travel and lavish conferences, to have poor intelligence on Western peace groups, and, even though its HQ was in Helsinki, to have no contact with Finnish peace organizations.
Wider Soviet influence
Conservative organizations have stated that the non-aligned peace movement is controlled by the Soviet Union.In 1951 the House Committee on Un-American Activities published The Communist "Peace" Offensive, which detailed the activities of the WPC and of numerous affiliated organisations. It listed dozens of American organisations and hundreds of Americans who had been involved in peace meetings, conferences and petitions. It noted, "that some of the persons who are so described in either the text or the appendix withdrew their support and/or affiliation with these organizations when the Communist character of these organizations was discovered. There may also be persons whose names were used as sponsors or affiliates of these organizations without permission or knowledge of the individuals involved."
In 1982 the Heritage Foundation
Heritage Foundation
The Heritage Foundation is a conservative American think tank based in Washington, D.C. Heritage's stated mission is to "formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong...
published Moscow and the Peace Offensive, which said that non-aligned peace organizations advocated similar policies on defence and disarmament to the Soviet Union. It argued that "pacifists and concerned Christians had been drawn into the Communist campaign largely unaware if its real sponsorship."
It has been suggested that non-aligned peace groups have received funding from the Soviet Union. Russian GRU
GRU
GRU or Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye is the foreign military intelligence directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation...
defector Stanislav Lunev
Stanislav Lunev
Stanislav Lunev is a former Soviet military officer, the highest-ranking GRU officer to defect from Russia to the United States.He was born in the family of a Soviet Army officer...
said in his autobiography that "the GRU and the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
helped to fund just about every antiwar movement and organization in America and abroad," and that during the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
the USSR gave $1 billion to American anti-war movements, more than it gave to the VietCong. Lunev described this as a "hugely successful campaign and well worth the cost". According to Time magazine, a US State Department official estimated that the KGB may have spent $600 million on the peace offensive up to 1983, channeling funds through national Communist parties or the World Peace Council "to a host of new antiwar organizations that would, in many cases, reject the financial help if they knew the source." Richard Felix Staar
Richard Felix Staar
Richard Felix Staar is an American political scientist and historian. He holds a position of senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. His areas of specialization include Russia and East-Central Europe , military strategy, national security, arms control, and public diplomacy...
in his book Foreign Policies of the Soviet Union says that non-communist peace movements without overt ties to the USSR were "virtually controlled" by it. Neither Lunev, Time or Staar name any non-aligned peace groups that have been funded or otherwise influenced by the Soviet Union. Lord Chalfont claimed that the Soviet Union was giving the European peace movement £100 million a year. Bruce Kent
Bruce Kent
Bruce Kent is a British political activist and a former Roman Catholic priest. Active in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament , he was the organisation's general secretary from 1980 to 1985 and its chair from 1987 to 1990...
, one-time general secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament is an anti-nuclear organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty...
(CND), said. "If they were, it was certainly not getting to our grotty little office in Finsbury Park." The Federation of Conservative Students
Federation of Conservative Students
The Federation of Conservative Students was the student organisation of the British Conservative Party from the late 1940s to 1986. It was created to act as a bridge between the student movement and the Conservative Party....
(FCS) alleged Soviet funding of CND. They were sued for libel by Dan Smith, a CND worker, backed down, issued an apology and paid costs.
In 1967, a CIA report on the US peace movement observed that "the Communist Party of the USA benefits from anti-US activity by Peace groups but does not appear to be inspiring them or directing them." After demonstrations against NATO missiles in West Germany in 1981, an official investigation turned up circumstantial evidence but no absolute proof of KGB involvement. Western intelligence experts concluded that the movement in Europe at that time was probably not Soviet-inspired.
In 1983, MI5
MI5
The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its core intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service focused on foreign threats, Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence...
and MI6 reported to British Prime Miniser Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
on Soviet contacts with the peace movement, based on the testimony of KGB officer Oleg Gordievsky
Oleg Gordievsky
Oleg Antonovich Gordievsky , CMG , is a former Colonel of the KGB and KGB Resident-designate and bureau chief in London, who was a secret agent of the British Secret Intelligence Service from 1974 to 1985.-Early career:Oleg Gordievsky attended the Moscow State Institute of International...
. According to Christopher Andrew's official history of MI5, Gordievsky's evidence indicated that there was little effective contact between either the KGB or the Soviet embassy and the peace movement. This evidence was consistent with previous intelligence assessments.
According to the Danish Ministry of Justice, the KGB promised to help finance advertisements signed by prominent Danish artists who wanted Scandinavia to be declared a nuclear-free zone. In November 1981, Norway expelled a suspected KGB agent who had offered bribes to Norwegians to get them to write letters to newspapers denouncing the deployment of new NATO missiles.
In 1985 Time magazine noted "the suspicions of some Western scientists that the nuclear winter
Nuclear winter
Nuclear winter is a predicted climatic effect of nuclear war. It has been theorized that severely cold weather and reduced sunlight for a period of months or even years could be caused by detonating large numbers of nuclear weapons, especially over flammable targets such as cities, where large...
scenario was promoted by Moscow to give antinuclear groups in the U.S. and Europe some fresh ammunition against America's arms buildup." Sergei Tretyakov claimed that the data behind the nuclear winter scenario was faked by the KGB and spread in the west as part of a campaign against Pershing missiles. He said that a key paper in the development of the nuclear winter scenario, "Twilight at Noon" by Paul Crutzen and John Birks (1982), was published as a result of this KGB influence. However, Starley L. Thompson of the National Center for Atmospheric Research
National Center for Atmospheric Research
The National Center for Atmospheric Research has multiple facilities, including the I. M. Pei-designed Mesa Laboratory headquarters in Boulder, Colorado. NCAR is managed by the nonprofit University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and sponsored by the National Science Foundation...
, Boulder, Colorado, says that the nuclear winter model was developed in the United States in the early 1970s.
See also
- All-Soviet Peace ConferenceAll-Soviet Peace ConferenceThe All-Soviet Peace Conference was a conference held in Moscow in 1949. Attendees included W. E. B. Du Bois....
- AstroturfingAstroturfingAstroturfing is a form of advocacy in support of a political, organizational, or corporate agenda, designed to give the appearance of a "grassroots" movement. The goal of such campaigns is to disguise the efforts of a political and/or commercial entity as an independent public reaction to some...
- Communist propagandaCommunist propagandaCommunist propaganda is propaganda aimed to advance the ideology of communism, communist worldview and interests of the communist movement.A Bolshevik theoretician, Nikolai Bukharin, in his The ABC of Communism wrote:...
- Culture during the Cold WarCulture during the Cold WarThe Cold War was reflected in culture through music, movies, books, and other media. One element of the Cold War often seen relates directly or indirectly to the threat of a nuclear war. Another is the conflict between the superpowers in terms of espionage. Many works use the Cold War as a...
- Nuclear disarmamentNuclear disarmamentNuclear disarmament refers to both the act of reducing or eliminating nuclear weapons and to the end state of a nuclear-free world, in which nuclear weapons are completely eliminated....
- Opposition to the Vietnam WarOpposition to the Vietnam WarThe movement against US involvment in the in Vietnam War began in the United States with demonstrations in 1964 and grew in strength in later years. The US became polarized between those who advocated continued involvement in Vietnam, and those who wanted peace. Peace movements consisted largely of...
- Peace movementPeace movementA peace movement is a social movement that seeks to achieve ideals such as the ending of a particular war , minimize inter-human violence in a particular place or type of situation, often linked to the goal of achieving world peace...
- Useful idiotUseful idiotIn political jargon, the term useful idiot was used to describe Soviet sympathizers in Western countries. The implication is that though the people in question naïvely thought themselves an ally of the Soviet Union, they were actually held in contempt and were being cynically used...
- World Peace CouncilWorld Peace CouncilThe World Peace Council is an international organization that advocates universal disarmament, sovereignty and independence and peaceful co-existence, and campaigns against imperialism, weapons of mass destruction and all forms of discrimination...
Soviet activity:
- Active measuresActive measuresActive Measures were a form of political warfare conducted by the Soviet security services to influence the course of world events, "in addition to collecting intelligence and producing politically correct assessment of it". Active measures ranged "from media manipulations to special actions...
- History of Soviet and Russian espionage in the United States
- List of Soviet agents in the United States
- Mitrokhin ArchiveMitrokhin ArchiveThe Mitrokhin Archive is a collection of notes made secretly by KGB Major Vasili Mitrokhin during his thirty years as a KGB archivist in the foreign intelligence service and the First Chief Directorate...
External links
- Christian Peace Conference
- International Institute for Peace
- International Physicians for the Prevention on Nuclear War
- Review of Esperanto kaj socialismo? by Detlev Blanke
- Pugwash Conferences
- Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Oversight of the Permanent Select Committee On Intelligence, House of Representatives, 96th Congress, 2nd Session, February 6 & 19, 1980