The Sisson Documents and their 'distinguished place' in the history of disinformation

Russian interference in American politics appears today in sophisticated forms thanks to technology, but disinformation is not a new phenomenon. The influence of foreign disinformation on domestic policy has antecedents in the First World War, when the American government distributed fabricated docu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inIntelligence and national security Vol. 36; no. 6; pp. 881 - 897
Main Authors Hamilton, John Maxwell, Georgacopoulos, Christina
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Routledge 19.09.2021
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Anti-communism
Bolshevism
Communism
Conspiracy
False information
Management
Technology
World War I
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Summary:Russian interference in American politics appears today in sophisticated forms thanks to technology, but disinformation is not a new phenomenon. The influence of foreign disinformation on domestic policy has antecedents in the First World War, when the American government distributed fabricated documents supplied by anti-Communist revolutionaries to make false claims about a German-Bolshevik conspiracy. The so-called Sisson Documents strengthened a narrative the Wilson administration created that the Bolsheviks were German stooges who, with German support and direction, took Russia out of the war and promoted unrest in the United States. The Wilson administration sold the German-Bolshevik conspiracy through a pro-war, patriotic American press, whose pages were laced with talk of pervasive German conspiracies.
ISSN:0268-4527
1743-9019
DOI:10.1080/02684527.2021.1946953