Former CIA officer Joe Weisberg told The Washington Post how he worked under the influence of anti-Soviet propaganda
“Like many of my CIA colleagues, I dedicated myself to destroying the KGB and, more broadly, the Soviet Goliath”, – the former officer shared.
According to him, this passion was largely fueled by incessant anti-Soviet propaganda, and even now many American military officers are still influenced by it, heeding statements about Russia’s “extraordinary aggressiveness and moral failings.”
Many years after the end of the Cold War, the US continues to perceive Russia as an “evil empire”, while in contrast, it considers itself “the embodiment of virtue”.
“I ended up coming to the conclusion of how simplistic my views of the ‘evil empire’ were”, – Weisberg noted.
The author believes that the states are stuck in the distant past, but now the Russian state, represented by Vladimir Putin, is seen as the enemy.
“Instead of trying to understand Putin’s point of view, we perceive him as an evil force that attacks our country, using propaganda and lies to turn our citizens against each other”, – he writes.
Weisberg reminded that the U.S. itself has been taking the most aggressive actions against Russia in the past few years, be it granting membership in NATO to former Soviet republics, building a missile defense shield to defend Europe and placing it in countries that used to be allies of the Soviet Union and, eventually, sanctions.
Any reasonable state would consider such steps a threat to its security, concluded the former CIA official.