In Fakers: A Top-Secret Tale of Phantoms and Forgeries on the Disinformation Front Line, Rory Cormac pulls back the veil on the Information Research Department (IRD), a shadowy branch of the British Foreign Office that operated from 1948 to 1977. For years, the records of this department—particularly its “Special Editorial Unit”—were deemed too sensitive for public eyes. As a former official historian, I find it deeply satisfying to see these once-hidden archives finally brought to light. Cormac expertly navigates this labyrinthine history, revealing a world where high-stakes statecraft often blurred into the realm of the absurd, successfully bridging the gap between historical archival rigor and the gripping narrative style of a John le Carré novel.
The book is a masterclass in the bizarre reality of Cold War espionage. Far from dry bureaucratic maneuvering, the IRD’s tactics ranged from the eccentric to the outright surreal: consider the attempt to entrap hippies in Bulgaria or the invention of a ghostly voice in an Indonesian well specifically designed to undermine President Sukarno. While these operations might strike a modern reader as comical, they represent a serious, calculated effort to use information as a primary weapon of policy. The IRD was tasked with a singular, grim mission: to neutralize Soviet propaganda and disrupt Moscow-aligned entities globally, whether through genuinely sourced reports or entirely fabricated “gray” propaganda.
The origins of this department reflect the desperation of the post-WWII era. Initially, Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin was hesitant to embrace such maneuvers, preferring a policy of demonstrating the “positive results” of British democracy. However, the hardened reality of Soviet dominance in Eastern Europe eventually forced his hand. By 1948, the IRD was established to provide a systematic, government-backed response to communist disinformation. Over the following decades, the department grew more ambitious, moving beyond simple pamphlets to create fake organizations—such as the “Loyal African Brothers”—and launching sophisticated publishing fronts to launder intelligence, effectively turning the state into a ghost-writer for global political unrest.
One of the most persistent criticisms leveled at the IRD is that these schemes were merely the amateurish death throes of a fading empire struggling to find its footing after 1945. Yet, as Cormac argues, this viewpoint discounts the severe geopolitical context in which these officers operated. Soviet disinformation and influence campaigns were not merely nuisance tactics; they were aggressive, well-funded efforts to destabilize the West. When 105 Soviet intelligence officers were expelled from Britain in 1971, it highlighted the reality of the threat: propaganda and “ideological sabotage” were viewed by Moscow as just another facet of warfare, existing on the same spectrum as physical combat.
A central theme of the book—and perhaps its most enduring takeaway—is the perennial difficulty of measuring the impact of propaganda. Throughout the IRD’s existence, officials frequently struggled to prove their efforts were working, often finding “no reactions” to their campaigns. While some leaders were frustrated by this lack of tangible data, others argued that the absence of evidence wasn’t evidence of absence. Influencing public opinion is a subtle, long-term game, not a science with a clear ledger. Today, this challenge remains front and center as we grapple with modern social media manipulation, where we can easily identify the incidence of disinformation campaigns but struggle to quantify their exact impact on election results or societal stability.
Ultimately, Fakers is more than just a historical recount of aging dossiers; it is a vital reflection on the necessity of defending our values in an era of constant misinformation. Whether the battle is fought with printing presses or algorithms, the objective remains the same: protecting the integrity of our political and social systems. We live in a world where disinformation is used to sow distrust in our leaders, our science, and our communities. Cormac’s work serves as a sobering reminder that even when the direct effects of a propaganda war are impossible to measure, the act of fighting back is essential. It is a cautionary, entertaining, and deeply relevant look at the front lines of a war that has never truly ended.