Britain, America and Anti-Communist Propaganda 1945-53: The Information Research Department

In the Cold War battle for hearts and minds Britain was the first country to formulate a coordinated global response to communist propaganda. In January 1948, the British government launched a new propaganda policy designed to ‘oppose the inroads of communism’ by taking the offensive against it.‘ A small section in the Foreign Office, the innocuously titled Information Research Department (IRD), was established to collate information on communist policy, tactics and propaganda, and coordinate the discreet dissemination of counter-propaganda to opinion formers at home and abroad. This book demonstrates that propoganda was a primary concern of the postwar governments of Clement Atlee and Winston Churchill and traces the implementation of Britain’s new propoganda policy at all levels from the Prime Minister to British diplomats in the field. It reveals the formidable array of opinion formers mobilised to support the IRD’s anti-communist campaign including intellectuals, politicians, churchmen and the BBC and encompasses British anti-communist activities within NATO and in various Cold War confrontations in South-East Asia, the Middle East and behind the Iron Curtain. It also reveals for the first time the extent of Britain’s involvement with US anti-communist propoganda activities such as Radio Free Europe.