This definition includes overt methods such as political statements by leaders and publicly acknowledged media such as the BBC World Service or the Voice of America. This essay examines and evaluates first the uses and secondly the limits of covert propaganda during the Cold War, before concluding why such an analysis is problematic. There are several advantages to using propaganda in covert operations, the first of which is that like all covert operations, propaganda can be the quiet option. When effective, propaganda can avert more embarrassing or dangerous situations.
Covert propaganda can allow a state to influence another state's electoral process.
Both the United States and the Soviet Union intervened in the democratic process of foreign states by using propaganda. The covert production of propaganda materials in Italy was intended to rival Soviet support for the Italian Communists. In the Indian elections of 1967 Soviet covert propaganda was widespread. American covert operations in Chile included a propaganda campaign during the 1964 election to support the Christian Democrat Eduardo Frei Montalva against the Socialist Salvador Allende Gossens. Six years later the CIA once again intervened in Chilean elections using propaganda.