Speaker 1: Fake news, propaganda. You don't know what to believe anymore.
Speaker 1: It's practically all that's left in the world of news
Speaker 1: these days. But it's nothing new. During the Cold War
Speaker 1: of the fifties and sixties, the CIA was trying to
Speaker 1: freak out the Russians by demoralizing their troops, sort of
Speaker 1: playing with their minds. I'm Patty Steel, cold War condoms
Speaker 1: and undercover kiddies. That's next on the backstory. The backstory
Speaker 1: is back. Psychological warfare has been going on. I don't
Speaker 1: know since human beings first felt that competitive urge, so
Speaker 1: basically always. It's been used in sports, in business, and
Speaker 1: of course in the military. We're going to take a
Speaker 1: peek at the Cold War now, when the CIA felt
Speaker 1: free to try anything without repercussions. It was a bit
Speaker 1: of a free for all in terms of figuring out
Speaker 1: new ways to demoralize the other side. While the US
Speaker 1: and Soviet governments were involved in nuclear standoffs and idio
Speaker 1: logical type battles publicly, the everyday troops were dealing with
Speaker 1: more personal attacks on the humorous side. While this seems
Speaker 1: almost ridiculous these days, but the agency came up with
Speaker 1: a crazy plan to lower the morale of Soviet men.
Speaker 1: They tried to do it with condoms, and not just
Speaker 1: any condoms. They used really oversized versions, but they labeled
Speaker 1: them as medium and even small. Now. The idea was
Speaker 1: in the dead of night, US planes would soar over
Speaker 1: Soviet territories, open their cargo doors and dump boat loads
Speaker 1: of these enormous prophylactics using tons of tiny parachutes. Imagine
Speaker 1: the scene on the ground. Small Soviet villages filled as
Speaker 1: macho putin like guys suddenly showered with American condoms that
Speaker 1: were bizarrely large. Oh no, who were these Americans? What
Speaker 1: were they all about? It would be a shot at
Speaker 1: the manhood of Soviet guys and imply American superior already
Speaker 1: on every level, knocking down their self esteem. As a
Speaker 1: Cold War weapon. Well, did they ever pull it off,
Speaker 1: so to speak, Well, it's not clear, but there was
Speaker 1: some worry that the Soviets were sophisticated enough to simply
Speaker 1: be amused at the attempt rather than intimidated, so it
Speaker 1: would have been money not well spent. In a sort
Speaker 1: of related plan, the CIA came up with another idea
Speaker 1: after they got a little freaked out about the increasingly
Speaker 1: close relationship between the Soviets and President Sukarno of Indonesia.
Speaker 1: What did they do? They decided to put out a
Speaker 1: porn flick starring Sukarno to ruin his reputation. Now, clearly
Speaker 1: they didn't have any porn footage involving him, so they
Speaker 1: had to create it. And remember this was before computers, CGI,
Speaker 1: AI all of that stuff. They actually created a fairly
Speaker 1: realistic Sukarno face mask and hired a Hollywood porn actor
Speaker 1: to wear it. They put him in an erotic scene
Speaker 1: with a beautiful blonde porn actors and had them, you know,
Speaker 1: get busy again. They made the film, but then were
Speaker 1: apparently told not to release it, maybe because it seemed
Speaker 1: a little too unbelievable. And then there's what they called
Speaker 1: Operation Acoustic Kitty. To give these guys some credit, This
Speaker 1: CIA plan is innovative. What was it. They took some
Speaker 1: regular housecats and implanted them with a microphone and a
Speaker 1: radio transmitter. The idea was to use it to eavesdrop
Speaker 1: on Soviet chatter. The idea was pretty simple, if you
Speaker 1: cohabitate with one. You know, cats are kind of stealth.
Speaker 1: They can move around pretty much unnoticed. Here's an idea.
Speaker 1: Let's get them to wander into Soviet compounds and hang
Speaker 1: out near where conversations of interest are going on, thus
Speaker 1: relaying the chatter back to CIA operatives. What a great idea,
Speaker 1: except it wasn't ever heard the term tougher than herding cats. Yeah,
Speaker 1: problem is, unlike dogs, kitties don't exactly beg for your approval.
Speaker 1: They really don't care, so training them to do what
Speaker 1: needed to be done proved to be almost impossible. Now,
Speaker 1: tens of millions of dollars were actually invested in getting
Speaker 1: the technology together, not to mention in training the cats.
Speaker 1: The surgical procedure to implant the tiny equipment in those
Speaker 1: days was really delicate, and then training the kitties to
Speaker 1: do what needed to be done was unpredictable at best. Clearly,
Speaker 1: none of the point people over this plan ever lived
Speaker 1: with a cat anyway. Despite the brilliant idea and financial investment,
Speaker 1: Operation Acoustic Kitty didn't work so well with these very
Speaker 1: independent pusses. The agency finally realized cooperation is not a
Speaker 1: major personality trade among felines. Plus, there are stories that
Speaker 1: the very first Acoustic Kitty was released and within minutes
Speaker 1: was hit by a car. Others claim the agency dropped
Speaker 1: the plan pretty quickly, but took the poorly trained kitties
Speaker 1: to a beautiful farm to live out their lives. Is
Speaker 1: sure now? On a similar vein, the Soviets claimed the
Speaker 1: US was training squirrels to spy on them, sneaking into
Speaker 1: top secret facilities with little, tiny cameras strapped to their backs.
Speaker 1: Isn't that kind of nuts? A bit more successful? Both
Speaker 1: sides used the airwaves. Americans had Radio Free Europe, blasting
Speaker 1: that nasty rock and roll as well as propaganda type
Speaker 1: news into the Eastern Bloc. The Soviets blasted back with
Speaker 1: Radio Moscow, which had less rock and more talk about
Speaker 1: how rock was corrupting kids. Kind of the ultimate Battle
Speaker 1: of the bands, but with broadcasters. Now here's the thing.
Speaker 1: The Cold War was all about one upsmanship. They had
Speaker 1: tons of freedom and no idea was too bizarre. Both
Speaker 1: sides tried to out maneuver the other with technology, psychology,
Speaker 1: and creativity, and they were willing to go to almost
Speaker 1: any length. In fact, one of the scariest ideas came
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the space race, at a time
Speaker 1: when the Soviets seemed to be ahead in the race
Speaker 1: to reach the Moon. So just because they felt they
Speaker 1: could do it, there was chatter from inside the US
Speaker 1: Air Force that we should shoot a nuclear weapon at
Speaker 1: the Moon. Can you even imagine? Project A one nineteen
Speaker 1: was called a study of lunar research flights. They felt
Speaker 1: it would make the public as well as our enemies,
Speaker 1: perceive us to be the most powerful when it came
Speaker 1: to weaponry and the space race. In fact, they even
Speaker 1: had an exact target on the Moon's surface that would
Speaker 1: make the explosion and the ensuing mushroom cloud lit by
Speaker 1: the sun visible from Earth. How unbelievable is that? Now?
Speaker 1: Why didn't they do it? In the end? Well, they
Speaker 1: said they felt the public might not respond favorably to
Speaker 1: the US dropping a nuclear bomb on the Moon. You
Speaker 1: think funny enough? These stories about all the ideas behind
Speaker 1: the race to become the number one world give you
Speaker 1: a little taste of what real life scenarios inspired the
Speaker 1: early James Bond movies, right, And they show the lengths
Speaker 1: to which we would have been willing to go to
Speaker 1: become the reigning superpower. If you have any ideas for
Speaker 1: stories you'd like me to take a deeper dive into
Speaker 1: and share. All you have to do is direct message
Speaker 1: me on Instagram at Real Patty Steele or on Facebook
Speaker 1: at Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele. The Backstories a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the Elvis Durand Group, and Steel
Speaker 1: Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner.
Speaker 1: We have new episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free
Speaker 1: to reach out to me with comments and even story
Speaker 1: suggestions on Instagram at Real Patty Steele and on Facebook
Speaker 1: at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening to the Backstory with
Speaker 1: Patty Steele, the pieces of history you didn't know you
Speaker 1: needed to know.