Historical PSYOPs

Operations that were later documented: who ran them, how they worked, and how long the public waited for the truth. Each case shows the playbook it used and any live PSYOP today that moves the same way.

38 of 38 cases

Atrocity propaganda

Atrocity claims built or amplified to win support for a war, often before anyone could verify them.

  • Portrait of James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce, chairman of the 1914-15 British Committee on Alleged German Outrages.

    1915 · Run by UK

    The Bryce Report

    A British government commission report on German atrocities in Belgium, built on unsworn testimony and used to mobilise opinion at home and in the US.

    Operation documentedExposed after 1942No live echoes
  • President George H. W. Bush seated beside Sheikh Saud Nasir Al-Sabah, Kuwait's ambassador to the United States, in the Oval Office.

    1990 · Run by Kuwait

    Nayirah testimony

    A teenage witness, later revealed as the Kuwaiti ambassador's daughter, told Congress of babies pulled from incubators, a claim coached by a PR firm and never verified.

    Deception documentedExposed after 15 months4 live echoes
  • Black-and-white photograph of President Joe Biden writing at the Resolute desk in the Oval Office.

    2023 · Run by Israel

    Unconfirmed 7 October atrocity claims

    Days after the 7 October 2023 attack, an Israeli prime minister's office spokesperson said babies had been found beheaded, a claim the IDF said it could not confirm and the White House walked back after President Biden repeated it, while the massacre of about 1,200 people, most of them civilians and including children, is documented and not in question.

    Deception documentedExposed after 1 dayNo live echoes

Pretext incidents

Real, staged or distorted incidents used to justify force that was already decided.

  • The wooden Gliwice radio tower under a blue sky.

    1939 · Run by Nazi Germany

    The Gleiwitz incident

    SS men dressed as Polish saboteurs staged an attack on a German radio station to justify the invasion of Poland.

    Deception documentedExposed after 20 Nov 1945No live echoes
  • Studio portrait of Pinhas Lavon in a pinstriped jacket.

    1954 · Run by Israel

    The Lavon Affair

    An Israeli military intelligence cell bombed Western targets in Egypt, meant to be blamed on Egyptians and to sour Western ties with Cairo.

    Operation documentedExposed after 51 yearsNo live echoes
  • Page one of the Joint Chiefs of Staff memorandum "Justification for US Military Intervention in Cuba", signed by Chairman L. L. Lemnitzer.

    1962 · Run by US

    Operation Northwoods

    A 1962 Joint Chiefs of Staff memorandum proposed staging incidents and blaming them on Cuba to justify a US military intervention; the Kennedy administration rejected it, and the documents were declassified in 1997.

    Operation documentedExposed after 18 Nov 1997No live echoes
  • Black-and-white photograph of President Lyndon B. Johnson seated at a desk between a US flag and the presidential flag, signing a document.

    1964 · Run by US

    Gulf of Tonkin

    A reported second attack on US destroyers that did not happen was used to win the resolution that escalated the Vietnam War.

    Deception documentedExposed after 41 years4 live echoes

Intelligence laundering

Weak or fabricated intelligence passed through trusted channels until it looked like fact.

  • A slide titled "Al-Zarqawi's Iraq-Linked Terrorist Network" showing a chart of portrait photos and labelled poison cells in the UK, France, Spain and Italy.

    2001-2004 · Run by US

    The Iraq-al-Qaeda link

    Officials pressed claims of an Iraq-al-Qaeda connection, including a reported Atta meeting in Prague; the 9/11 Commission did not believe that meeting occurred and separately found no collaborative operational relationship, and in 2007 the Pentagon Inspector General found that the Defense policy office's "alternative intelligence assessments" were inappropriate, though not illegal.

    Deception documentedExposed after 2004 / 2007No live echoes
  • A slide titled "Aluminum Tube for Uranium Enrichment" showing a long metal tube beside a tape measure.

    2002-2003 · Run by US

    Iraqi WMDs

    Claims that Iraq held weapons of mass destruction, built on weak and forged evidence, were repeated by officials and press until they justified the 2003 invasion.

    Deception documentedExposed after 18 months8 live echoes
  • A slide titled "Mobile Production Facilities For Biological Agents" showing a computer-drawn diagram of trucks carrying fermentation tanks, spray dryers and a filling machine.

    2003 · Run by US

    Curveball

    A single defector codenamed Curveball invented mobile bioweapons labs, and intelligence services passed his story on despite warnings it was unreliable.

    Deception documentedExposed after 2005 / 2011No live echoes

Front groups and PR campaigns

Campaigns where the real sponsor stays hidden behind a respectable-looking group or expert.

  • Close-up portrait of Edward Bernays in 1917.

    1929 · Run by Corporate

    Torches of Freedom

    A PR stunt in which women were paid to smoke in the New York Easter parade, staged to break the taboo on women smoking and sell cigarettes.

    Operation documentedExposed after Later accountsNo live echoes
  • Full-page newspaper advertisement headed "A Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers", with the list of sponsoring tobacco companies at the foot.

    1953 · Run by Corporate

    Tobacco Industry Research Committee

    Cigarette makers formed a research front to manufacture public doubt about the link between smoking and cancer, a strategy later copied by other industries.

    Deception documentedExposed after 17 Aug 20061 live echo

Media capture

Efforts to shape what the press reports by controlling its sources, staff or access.

  • Portrait of George Creel, chairman of the US Committee on Public Information.

    1917-1919 · Run by US

    The Creel Committee

    The US Committee on Public Information, which ran a government propaganda machine of press releases, speakers and films to sell the First World War.

    Operation documentedExposed after 2 yearsNo live echoes
  • Kermit Roosevelt Jr., the CIA officer who ran the field end of the 1953 Iran operation, in Tehran in 1953.

    1953 · Run by US

    Operation Ajax

    A CIA and MI6 operation that bought press coverage and staged unrest to help topple Iran's elected prime minister.

    Operation documentedExposed after 2000 / 20133 live echoes
  • Allen Dulles, Director of Central Intelligence, holding a pipe.

    1954 · Run by US

    Operation PBSuccess

    A CIA campaign of radio broadcasts and planted stories that made a small exile force look like an unstoppable revolution in Guatemala.

    Operation documentedExposed after 1994-97No live echoes

  • 1954 · Run by US

    The CIA's Animal Farm

    The CIA secretly financed the film adaptation of Orwell's Animal Farm and altered its ending to serve an anti-communist message.

    Operation documentedExposed after 1974; documented 1990s-2007No live echoes
  • Seven members of the Warren Commission seated around a conference table, looking toward the camera.

    1967 · Run by US

    CIA Dispatch 1035-960

    A 1967 CIA dispatch told stations to use their media contacts to counter critics of the Warren Report.

    Operation documentedExposed after 1976; fuller release 1998No live echoes
  • Official Senate portrait of Frank Church, smiling, in a dark suit and patterned tie.

    1975 · Run by US

    Operation Mockingbird and the Church Committee

    Senate investigators documented secret CIA ties to about 50 American journalists and to more than a dozen news and publishing organisations, though how far they shaped coverage is disputed.

    Operation documentedExposed after 1976 / 1977No live echoes

  • 2002-2008 · Run by US

    Pentagon military analyst program

    The Pentagon briefed and flattered retired officers who appeared as independent TV analysts, many with ties to defence contractors, to repeat its messages on the Iraq War.

    Operation documentedExposed after 20 Apr 2008No live echoes

Forgery and planted disinformation

False stories, documents or cover-ups planted and spread by a state.

  • First page of a typed Soviet memo with Stalin's and other officials' signatures in blue pencil.

    1943-1990 · Run by USSR/Russia

    Soviet Katyn cover-up

    The Soviet Union blamed Germany for the 1940 massacre of Polish officers it had carried out itself, and kept up the denial for almost fifty years.

    Deception documentedExposed after 13 Apr 1990No live echoes
  • Black-and-white photograph of the Dimona reactor construction site in the Negev desert, with buildings and a crane on the horizon.

    1960-1969 · Run by Israel

    Dimona's "research reactor"

    The Israeli government told the US that the Dimona reactor was for peaceful research and stage-managed American inspection visits, as declassified US records and Avner Cohen's Israel and the Bomb document.

    Deception documentedExposed after Dec 1960No live echoes
  • Identification photograph of CIA officer George Joannides, with his signature above.

    1963-1978 · Run by US

    The DRE's Oswald-Castro story

    A CIA-funded Cuban exile group publicised Lee Harvey Oswald's pro-Castro ties the day after the assassination, and its former CIA case officer George Joannides later served as the agency's liaison to the House Select Committee on Assassinations without disclosing that role.

    Deception documentedExposed after 1978-2003No live echoes
  • Members of the Warren Commission standing around President Lyndon Johnson as Chief Justice Earl Warren hands him the bound report.

    1964 · Run by US

    CIA withholding from the Warren Commission

    The CIA did not tell the Warren Commission about its plots against Fidel Castro, an omission its own chief historian later described as a "benign cover-up".

    Deception documentedExposed after 1975-76 / 2014No live echoes

  • 1983-1987 · Run by USSR/Russia

    Operation INFEKTION

    A KGB campaign that planted the claim that the US created AIDS as a bioweapon, seeded in an Indian paper and recycled worldwide.

    Deception documentedExposed after 1987-92No live echoes
  • Official portrait of Christine Todd Whitman, EPA Administrator.

    2001 · Run by US

    EPA's "the air is safe" assurances

    The EPA Inspector General found in 2003 that the White House Council on Environmental Quality had cautionary language removed from EPA statements about air quality near Ground Zero.

    Deception documentedExposed after 21 Aug 2003No live echoes
  • Official Senate portrait of Senator Bob Graham of Florida.

    2003-2016 · Run by US

    The "28 pages"

    The section of the Joint Inquiry report on possible foreign support for the hijackers was withheld when the report was released in 2003 and published only in 2016; the 9/11 Commission found no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior officials individually funded al-Qaeda, while not excluding diversion by Saudi-sponsored charities.

    Deception documentedExposed after 15 Jul 2016No live echoes
  • The white passenger ship Mavi Marmara at a quay with a red tug alongside and people on its decks.

    2010 · Run by Israel

    The Mavi Marmara "al-Qaeda" claim

    After the 2010 flotilla raid, in which nine passengers were killed, the IDF said about 40 passengers were al-Qaeda mercenaries, then changed the headline of that release without offering evidence, and it conceded that an audio clip of the radio exchange it had released was edited.

    Deception documentedExposed after 5 daysNo live echoes
  • Official portrait of Naftali Bennett in a dark suit and blue tie, with an Israeli flag behind him.

    2022 · Run by Israel

    The killing of Shireen Abu Akleh

    Prime Minister Naftali Bennett first said Palestinian gunmen had likely killed the Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, a US citizen, and in September 2022 the IDF said there was a "high possibility" an Israeli soldier had shot her, in line with findings by AP, CNN, the UN and the US security coordinator.

    Deception documentedExposed after 117 daysNo live echoes

Astroturf and sockpuppets

Paid or fake accounts posing as ordinary voices to fake grassroots opinion.

  • 2004-2017 · Run by China

    China's 50 Cent Party

    State-paid commenters post millions of fabricated social media comments a year to cheer on the government and steer talk away from criticism, as measured by King, Pan and Roberts.

    Operation documentedExposed after Dec 2014No live echoes
  • The four-storey office building at 55 Savushkina Street in St Petersburg at dusk, with a for-rent banner on its facade.

    2014-2018 · Run by USSR/Russia

    Internet Research Agency

    A St Petersburg troll farm ran fake American personas and pages to inflame divisions, as documented in US indictments and Senate reports.

    Operation documentedExposed after 16 Feb 2018No live echoes
  • Portrait of Gilad Erdan in a dark suit and red tie.

    2017-2022 · Run by Israel

    Act.IL

    Act.IL, an app launched in 2017 alongside the Ministry of Strategic Affairs' 4IL campaign, gave users ready-made posting "missions" with the coordination hidden from readers, according to BuzzFeed News and others, while the ministry and the app denied any government funding.

    Operation documentedExposed after 2017-2018No live echoes
  • Official portrait of Maj. Gen. Jonathan P. Braga in Army uniform in front of a US flag.

    2020-2021 · Run by US

    Pentagon anti-Sinovac campaign

    A US military campaign used fake social media accounts to sow doubt about a Chinese vaccine in the Philippines during the pandemic.

    Operation documentedExposed after 14 Jun 2024No live echoes
  • Amichai Chikli seated on a stage at CPAC.

    2023-2024 · Run by Israel

    The STOIC campaign aimed at US lawmakers

    Israel's Ministry of Diaspora Affairs allocated about $2 million to a campaign run by the Tel Aviv firm STOIC, a network of fake accounts aimed at US lawmakers, according to a New York Times investigation that the ministry denied, and Meta and OpenAI took down the accounts and attributed them to STOIC.

    Deception documentedExposed after ~8 monthsNo live echoes

Hero narratives

Staged or embellished stories of heroism and victory shaped for the cameras.

  • 2003 · Run by US

    Firdos Square statue toppling

    The toppling of Saddam's statue was framed on camera as a mass uprising, while wide shots showed a small crowd and US troops helping.

    Operation documentedExposed after 3 Jul 2004No live echoes

  • 2003 · Run by US

    Jessica Lynch rescue story

    An early US account of a wounded soldier fighting to the last and being rescued under fire was shown to be largely false, with the hospital staff helping.

    Deception documentedExposed after 2003 / 2007No live echoes

  • 2004 · Run by US

    Pat Tillman's death

    The Army publicly described Pat Tillman's friendly-fire death as death by enemy fire and awarded a Silver Star on that account, as the Defense Department Inspector General and congressional hearings later documented.

    Deception documentedExposed after 2007No live echoes

UFO cover stories

Official stories about UFOs used to hide classified programmes or steer public interest.

  • A black Lockheed A-12 reconnaissance aircraft in flight above clouds.

    1955-1969 · Run by US

    Spy planes behind UFO reports

    A 1997 CIA history, citing CIA officials, reported that U-2 and OXCART flights explained many UFO sightings in the 1950s and 1960s, and that the Air Force gave the public misleading explanations to protect those programmes.

    Deception documentedExposed after August 1997No live echoes

  • 1979-1988 · Run by US

    The Paul Bennewitz affair

    Air Force counterintelligence agent Richard Doty fed a civilian researcher fabricated alien-threat material to steer him away from activity at Kirtland Air Force Base, according to his own later account and that of a writer who worked with him.

    Operation documentedExposed after 1 July 1989No live echoes