January 30, 2024 • 8 mins
In the race to become the reigning superpower, nations have resorted to all sorts of bizarre tactics. Some of them were pretty humorous. And that reached new heights during the Cold War.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Fake news, propaganda. You don't know what to believe anymore.
It's practically all that's left in the world of news
these days. But it's nothing new. During the Cold War
of the fifties and sixties, the CIA was trying to
freak out the Russians by demoralizing their troops, sort of
playing with their minds. I'm Patty Steel, cold War condoms
and undercover kiddies. That's next on the backstory. The backstory
(00:28):
is back. Psychological warfare has been going on. I don't
know since human beings first felt that competitive urge, so
basically always. It's been used in sports, in business, and
of course in the military. We're going to take a
peek at the Cold War now, when the CIA felt
free to try anything without repercussions. It was a bit
(00:49):
of a free for all in terms of figuring out
new ways to demoralize the other side. While the US
and Soviet governments were involved in nuclear standoffs and idio
logical type battles publicly, the everyday troops were dealing with
more personal attacks on the humorous side. While this seems
almost ridiculous these days, but the agency came up with
(01:11):
a crazy plan to lower the morale of Soviet men.
They tried to do it with condoms, and not just
any condoms. They used really oversized versions, but they labeled
them as medium and even small. Now. The idea was
in the dead of night, US planes would soar over
Soviet territories, open their cargo doors and dump boat loads
(01:35):
of these enormous prophylactics using tons of tiny parachutes. Imagine
the scene on the ground. Small Soviet villages filled as
macho putin like guys suddenly showered with American condoms that
were bizarrely large. Oh no, who were these Americans? What
were they all about? It would be a shot at
(01:56):
the manhood of Soviet guys and imply American superior already
on every level, knocking down their self esteem. As a
Cold War weapon. Well, did they ever pull it off,
so to speak, Well, it's not clear, but there was
some worry that the Soviets were sophisticated enough to simply
be amused at the attempt rather than intimidated, so it
(02:18):
would have been money not well spent. In a sort
of related plan, the CIA came up with another idea
after they got a little freaked out about the increasingly
close relationship between the Soviets and President Sukarno of Indonesia.
What did they do? They decided to put out a
porn flick starring Sukarno to ruin his reputation. Now, clearly
(02:41):
they didn't have any porn footage involving him, so they
had to create it. And remember this was before computers, CGI,
AI all of that stuff. They actually created a fairly
realistic Sukarno face mask and hired a Hollywood porn actor
to wear it. They put him in an erotic scene
with a beautiful blonde porn actors and had them, you know,
(03:03):
get busy again. They made the film, but then were
apparently told not to release it, maybe because it seemed
a little too unbelievable. And then there's what they called
Operation Acoustic Kitty. To give these guys some credit, This
CIA plan is innovative. What was it. They took some
(03:23):
regular housecats and implanted them with a microphone and a
radio transmitter. The idea was to use it to eavesdrop
on Soviet chatter. The idea was pretty simple, if you
cohabitate with one. You know, cats are kind of stealth.
They can move around pretty much unnoticed. Here's an idea.
Let's get them to wander into Soviet compounds and hang
(03:45):
out near where conversations of interest are going on, thus
relaying the chatter back to CIA operatives. What a great idea,
except it wasn't ever heard the term tougher than herding cats. Yeah,
problem is, unlike dogs, kitties don't exactly beg for your approval.
They really don't care, so training them to do what
(04:07):
needed to be done proved to be almost impossible. Now,
tens of millions of dollars were actually invested in getting
the technology together, not to mention in training the cats.
The surgical procedure to implant the tiny equipment in those
days was really delicate, and then training the kitties to
do what needed to be done was unpredictable at best. Clearly,
(04:30):
none of the point people over this plan ever lived
with a cat anyway. Despite the brilliant idea and financial investment,
Operation Acoustic Kitty didn't work so well with these very
independent pusses. The agency finally realized cooperation is not a
major personality trade among felines. Plus, there are stories that
(04:50):
the very first Acoustic Kitty was released and within minutes
was hit by a car. Others claim the agency dropped
the plan pretty quickly, but took the poorly trained kitties
to a beautiful farm to live out their lives. Is
sure now? On a similar vein, the Soviets claimed the
US was training squirrels to spy on them, sneaking into
(05:11):
top secret facilities with little, tiny cameras strapped to their backs.
Isn't that kind of nuts? A bit more successful? Both
sides used the airwaves. Americans had Radio Free Europe, blasting
that nasty rock and roll as well as propaganda type
news into the Eastern Bloc. The Soviets blasted back with
(05:32):
Radio Moscow, which had less rock and more talk about
how rock was corrupting kids. Kind of the ultimate Battle
of the bands, but with broadcasters. Now here's the thing.
The Cold War was all about one upsmanship. They had
tons of freedom and no idea was too bizarre. Both
sides tried to out maneuver the other with technology, psychology,
(05:53):
and creativity, and they were willing to go to almost
any length. In fact, one of the scariest ideas came
at the beginning of the space race, at a time
when the Soviets seemed to be ahead in the race
to reach the Moon. So just because they felt they
could do it, there was chatter from inside the US
Air Force that we should shoot a nuclear weapon at
(06:14):
the Moon. Can you even imagine? Project A one nineteen
was called a study of lunar research flights. They felt
it would make the public as well as our enemies,
perceive us to be the most powerful when it came
to weaponry and the space race. In fact, they even
had an exact target on the Moon's surface that would
(06:36):
make the explosion and the ensuing mushroom cloud lit by
the sun visible from Earth. How unbelievable is that? Now?
Why didn't they do it? In the end? Well, they
said they felt the public might not respond favorably to
the US dropping a nuclear bomb on the Moon. You
think funny enough? These stories about all the ideas behind
(06:57):
the race to become the number one world give you
a little taste of what real life scenarios inspired the
early James Bond movies, right, And they show the lengths
to which we would have been willing to go to
become the reigning superpower. If you have any ideas for
(07:22):
stories you'd like me to take a deeper dive into
and share. All you have to do is direct message
me on Instagram at Real Patty Steele or on Facebook
at Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele. The Backstories a production
of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the Elvis Durand Group, and Steel
Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner.
(07:47):
We have new episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free
to reach out to me with comments and even story
suggestions on Instagram at Real Patty Steele and on Facebook
at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening to the Backstory with
Patty Steele, the pieces of history you didn't know you
needed to know.
Fake news, propaganda. You don't know what to believe anymore.
It's practically all that's left in the world of news
these days. But it's nothing new. During the Cold War
of the fifties and sixties, the CIA was trying to
freak out the Russians by demoralizing their troops, sort of
playing with their minds. I'm Patty Steel, cold War condoms
and undercover kiddies. That's next on the backstory. The backstory
(00:28):
is back. Psychological warfare has been going on. I don't
know since human beings first felt that competitive urge, so
basically always. It's been used in sports, in business, and
of course in the military. We're going to take a
peek at the Cold War now, when the CIA felt
free to try anything without repercussions. It was a bit
(00:49):
of a free for all in terms of figuring out
new ways to demoralize the other side. While the US
and Soviet governments were involved in nuclear standoffs and idio
logical type battles publicly, the everyday troops were dealing with
more personal attacks on the humorous side. While this seems
almost ridiculous these days, but the agency came up with
(01:11):
a crazy plan to lower the morale of Soviet men.
They tried to do it with condoms, and not just
any condoms. They used really oversized versions, but they labeled
them as medium and even small. Now. The idea was
in the dead of night, US planes would soar over
Soviet territories, open their cargo doors and dump boat loads
(01:35):
of these enormous prophylactics using tons of tiny parachutes. Imagine
the scene on the ground. Small Soviet villages filled as
macho putin like guys suddenly showered with American condoms that
were bizarrely large. Oh no, who were these Americans? What
were they all about? It would be a shot at
(01:56):
the manhood of Soviet guys and imply American superior already
on every level, knocking down their self esteem. As a
Cold War weapon. Well, did they ever pull it off,
so to speak, Well, it's not clear, but there was
some worry that the Soviets were sophisticated enough to simply
be amused at the attempt rather than intimidated, so it
(02:18):
would have been money not well spent. In a sort
of related plan, the CIA came up with another idea
after they got a little freaked out about the increasingly
close relationship between the Soviets and President Sukarno of Indonesia.
What did they do? They decided to put out a
porn flick starring Sukarno to ruin his reputation. Now, clearly
(02:41):
they didn't have any porn footage involving him, so they
had to create it. And remember this was before computers, CGI,
AI all of that stuff. They actually created a fairly
realistic Sukarno face mask and hired a Hollywood porn actor
to wear it. They put him in an erotic scene
with a beautiful blonde porn actors and had them, you know,
(03:03):
get busy again. They made the film, but then were
apparently told not to release it, maybe because it seemed
a little too unbelievable. And then there's what they called
Operation Acoustic Kitty. To give these guys some credit, This
CIA plan is innovative. What was it. They took some
(03:23):
regular housecats and implanted them with a microphone and a
radio transmitter. The idea was to use it to eavesdrop
on Soviet chatter. The idea was pretty simple, if you
cohabitate with one. You know, cats are kind of stealth.
They can move around pretty much unnoticed. Here's an idea.
Let's get them to wander into Soviet compounds and hang
(03:45):
out near where conversations of interest are going on, thus
relaying the chatter back to CIA operatives. What a great idea,
except it wasn't ever heard the term tougher than herding cats. Yeah,
problem is, unlike dogs, kitties don't exactly beg for your approval.
They really don't care, so training them to do what
(04:07):
needed to be done proved to be almost impossible. Now,
tens of millions of dollars were actually invested in getting
the technology together, not to mention in training the cats.
The surgical procedure to implant the tiny equipment in those
days was really delicate, and then training the kitties to
do what needed to be done was unpredictable at best. Clearly,
(04:30):
none of the point people over this plan ever lived
with a cat anyway. Despite the brilliant idea and financial investment,
Operation Acoustic Kitty didn't work so well with these very
independent pusses. The agency finally realized cooperation is not a
major personality trade among felines. Plus, there are stories that
(04:50):
the very first Acoustic Kitty was released and within minutes
was hit by a car. Others claim the agency dropped
the plan pretty quickly, but took the poorly trained kitties
to a beautiful farm to live out their lives. Is
sure now? On a similar vein, the Soviets claimed the
US was training squirrels to spy on them, sneaking into
(05:11):
top secret facilities with little, tiny cameras strapped to their backs.
Isn't that kind of nuts? A bit more successful? Both
sides used the airwaves. Americans had Radio Free Europe, blasting
that nasty rock and roll as well as propaganda type
news into the Eastern Bloc. The Soviets blasted back with
(05:32):
Radio Moscow, which had less rock and more talk about
how rock was corrupting kids. Kind of the ultimate Battle
of the bands, but with broadcasters. Now here's the thing.
The Cold War was all about one upsmanship. They had
tons of freedom and no idea was too bizarre. Both
sides tried to out maneuver the other with technology, psychology,
(05:53):
and creativity, and they were willing to go to almost
any length. In fact, one of the scariest ideas came
at the beginning of the space race, at a time
when the Soviets seemed to be ahead in the race
to reach the Moon. So just because they felt they
could do it, there was chatter from inside the US
Air Force that we should shoot a nuclear weapon at
(06:14):
the Moon. Can you even imagine? Project A one nineteen
was called a study of lunar research flights. They felt
it would make the public as well as our enemies,
perceive us to be the most powerful when it came
to weaponry and the space race. In fact, they even
had an exact target on the Moon's surface that would
(06:36):
make the explosion and the ensuing mushroom cloud lit by
the sun visible from Earth. How unbelievable is that? Now?
Why didn't they do it? In the end? Well, they
said they felt the public might not respond favorably to
the US dropping a nuclear bomb on the Moon. You
think funny enough? These stories about all the ideas behind
(06:57):
the race to become the number one world give you
a little taste of what real life scenarios inspired the
early James Bond movies, right, And they show the lengths
to which we would have been willing to go to
become the reigning superpower. If you have any ideas for
(07:22):
stories you'd like me to take a deeper dive into
and share. All you have to do is direct message
me on Instagram at Real Patty Steele or on Facebook
at Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele. The Backstories a production
of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the Elvis Durand Group, and Steel
Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner.
(07:47):
We have new episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free
to reach out to me with comments and even story
suggestions on Instagram at Real Patty Steele and on Facebook
at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening to the Backstory with
Patty Steele, the pieces of history you didn't know you
needed to know.
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