A Romanian INTERKIT? Soviet Active Measures and the Warsaw Pact “Maverick” 1965-1989
In CWIHP Working Paper #65, "A Romanian INTERKIT?: Soviet Active Measures and the Warsaw Pact 'Maverick,' 1965-1989," Larry L. Watts argues that Soviet propaganda campaigns against Romania presaged similar operations against China, and had a direct influence on the development of later anti-Chinese structures and tactics.
In December 1967, Soviet authorities launched a coordinated “active measures” campaign known as the “China International” or INTERKIT, a joint ideological, propagandistic, and disinformation assault against the Chinese that ran from the late 1960s until 1986. During the same period in which the INTERKIT skeleton was being fleshed out, Moscow was developing a similar structure for addressing the Romanian heresy, while also targeting Romania within INTERKIT itself.
The timing of INTERKIT suggests that the development of the “China International” to counter the subversive activities of Beijing and the development of concurrent anti-Romanian operations involving several republics within the USSR were at least parallel preoccupations for Moscow. These Soviet documents suggest that prior experience in structuring anti-Romanian operations during 1964-1968 may even have influenced the structural evolution of INTERKIT during 1965-1969.
Larry L. Watts is a professor in the Master’s Program in Security Studies and Intelligence Analysis run jointly by the University of Bucharest and the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI). He served as security sector reform advisor to Romania’s Presidential Counselor for National Security and to the Romanian Defense Ministry during 1991-2004. He is the author of With Friends Like These: The Soviet Bloc’s Clandestine War Against Romania (2010), which was published in Romanian translation in 2011. Most recently, he has an upcoming book Extorting Peace: Romanian-Warsaw Pact Relations During 1978-1989 and the End of the Cold War, which will be published in Romanian in 2013, and followed by publication in English.
About the Author
Larry Watts
Former Adviser, Romanian Defense Ministry; Visiting Professor, Security Studies and Intelligence Analysis, University of Bucharest
Cold War International History Project
The Cold War International History Project supports the full and prompt release of historical materials by governments on all sides of the Cold War. Through an award winning Digital Archive, the Project allows scholars, journalists, students, and the interested public to reassess the Cold War and its many contemporary legacies. It is part of the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program. Read more
Nuclear Proliferation International History Project
The Nuclear Proliferation International History Project is a global network of individuals and institutions engaged in the study of international nuclear history through archival documents, oral history interviews, and other empirical sources. At the Wilson Center, it is part of the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program. Read more
