The AIDS Epidemic And Soviet False Flag Attacks
Barbara Alper/Getty ImagesMarchers in a Gay Pride parade carry a banner through Manhattan, New York City. June 1983.
The worldwide HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 1980s created a hotbed of misinformation. In part, this can be blamed on how little was known about the virus. Seth Kalichman, a social psychology professor at the University of Connecticut, said that at the time, “any theory of what was causing young people to die from these rare diseases was fair game.”
For the record: HIV is a virus spread through blood and other body fluids. It attacks the immune system, specifically T cells, and leaves the body vulnerable to infection and disease. Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is the condition that results from the final stage of the virus.
The medical community reached the consensus that HIV caused AIDS. However, this didn’t stop the spread of a KGB disinformation campaign that suggested AIDS was invented by the U.S. Army. and wasn’t caused by HIV. These accusations originated with propaganda and persisted due to Soviet circulation. Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev was the one to finally shut down Operation INFEKTION, but the seeds of this conspiracy theory continued to grow.
National Defense University/Wikimedia CommonsWoman holding AIDS propaganda, as shown on the cover of the study “Deception, Disinformation, and Strategic Communications.” 2012.
The vast majority of AIDS researchers trace the disease to the slaughter of monkeys in Africa. This practice allowed SIV — the monkey equivalent of HIV — to first enter the human bloodstream.
