Information Research Department
Covert propaganda arm of the British Foreign Office 1948-77
Title page of one of IRD’s non-attributable publications from February 1974 (National Archives FCO168/7075).
The Information Research Department (IRD) was founded in 1948 as the vehicle for a British propaganda offensive against Soviet communism.1 To obtain cabinet backing, Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin and Junior Minister Christopher Mayhew presented the organisation as taking a 'third force' position, independent of the USA and the USSR.2
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