The campaign began in the pro-Soviet, Indian paper The Patriot, in 1983 and was picked up throughout the world by many Third World media organisations and in the west by the likes of the Sunday Telegraph and Channel Four. A single article written by a coopted journalist or published in a friendly newspaper, can be picked up and repeated in other papers and media. Thus for a minimal effort, propaganda can reach an enormous audience and have a wide impact. There are several important limitations on the utility of covert propaganda, the first of which is common to all covert operations. The so-called quiet option is very often noisy and propaganda is no exception.
Propaganda campaigns involve coordinating a large number of activities, creating risks of leaks.
The propaganda campaign had to be abandoned because it had ceased to be covert. The CIA is forbidden from interfering with the domestic American media, yet propaganda articles intended for foreign consumption can end up in American newspapers. The difficulties in trying to control propaganda are further illustrated by the case of the KGB's AIDS campaign. The story after four years was beginning to take off by 1987, at the very time that Gorbachev was trying to improve East-West relations. Despite KGB efforts to deliberately disown the story, the allegations persist in some circles.