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CIA book smugglers of the Cold War
Episode 2300

CIA book smugglers of the Cold War

Charlie English explores how the CIA used literature as a secret weapon during the Cold War, by smuggling books into the Eastern Bloc

HistoryExtra podcast · Immediate

June 12, 202534m 27s

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Show Notes

During the Cold War, the CIA book programme was a covert campaign to smuggle books into the Eastern Bloc using everything from balloon drops to baked bean tins. But why was literature such a significant weapon in the culture wars between east and west? Lauren Good speaks to author Charlie English about his book The CIA Book Club: The Gripping New History of the Best-Kept Secret of the Cold War.


(Ad) Charlie English is the author of The CIA Book Club: The Gripping New History of the Best-Kept Secret of the Cold War ( William Collins, 2025). Buy it now from Waterstones: https://go.skimresources.com?id=71026X1535947&xcust=historyextra-social-histboty&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.waterstones.com%2Fbook%2Fthe-cia-book-club%2Fcharlie-english%2F9780008495121.


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