In this second holiday movie marathon episode, host Shelly Lesher is joined again by Nathan Radke and Lee Kuhnle from the Uncover Up Podcast to discuss the movie Dr. Strangelove and how it relates to the Soviet disinformation campaigns.
The episode begins with Nathan and Lee speaking about what disinformation is and define it as a form of political warfare that uses forgery and spies to confuse and distract the enemy. He also brings in two different sources which he references throughout the episode including Thomas Rid’s book Active Measures as well as a combination of CIA papers called Psywar, reports that gathered investigations about Soviet disinformation campaigns. He then takes time to dive deeper into the Soviet’s scheme to feed disinformation to their enemies and how they did so during the Cold War. This disinformation was dangerous in that it had the ability to start a war due to false threats and information being fed to Americans. He then begins to discuss how these aspects are apparent in the movie Dr. Strangelove
Next, he looks into America’s practice of disinformation and use of spies through the creation of a jazz magazine in Germany used as a source of spying on the enemy. However, this was not a secret from the Soviets who made it clear to the CIA that they had uncovered it. While the CIA was very leery to believe anything the Soviets said, it was the general American public who was the most influenced by the Soviet disinformation campaign. They then relate this truth to the movie Dr. Strangelove and how it was seen as Soviet propaganda through playing on the fears that were emerging from the Soviet disinformation. Along with this movie, they share about other things that unknowingly published this disinformation and continued to spread the growing fears.
Lastly, the episode concludes with Nathan and Lee sharing about the original desire to make the movie Dr. Strangelove into a thriller. However, after it started being made it was decided to make it into a comedy. They discuss how the reason for this was that the information in the movie was so fear inducing that it needed to be expressed in a comedic way for the people to comprehend it. They go on to talk about the strategy often used to deal with a bad situation using comedy and how this is seen throughout the movie and others like it. They conclude by finally discussing more details about the processes and security systems of potential bombing during the Cold War.
The third of the series on the movie, The Day After can be found on our Patreon page.
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Production costs for this episode were provided through National Science Foundation Grant PHY-2011267.
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