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A review by awkseance
Active Measures: The Secret History of Disinformation and Political Warfare by Thomas Rid
5.0
One of the few pop history books that actually has a thoughtful and good conclusion rather than just throwing up its hands and saying "welp guess we will never know" or just coming to a one note conclusion without any critical awareness.
I agree with criticisms that it omits focus on US active measures, however part of me wonders how much of this is due to the US intelligence service generally being more incompetent and less effective at a well executed active measure. A few cases that I notice were omitted also happened to be identified extremely quickly due to sloppy work. But would be interested to research this more. Also I think that there is simply less information available as the breakup of the USSR means more former participants being able to come forward and vaults being unlocked. Indeed the examination of possible recent or ongoing campaigns still end up having to rest on assumption because...well.... It's recent or ongoing.
I agree with criticisms that it omits focus on US active measures, however part of me wonders how much of this is due to the US intelligence service generally being more incompetent and less effective at a well executed active measure. A few cases that I notice were omitted also happened to be identified extremely quickly due to sloppy work. But would be interested to research this more. Also I think that there is simply less information available as the breakup of the USSR means more former participants being able to come forward and vaults being unlocked. Indeed the examination of possible recent or ongoing campaigns still end up having to rest on assumption because...well.... It's recent or ongoing.