I think it is quite remarkable how both the author of the article as well as the secret services at that time failed to recognise that stamps were an important way of getting foreign revenues. The stamps were produced to appeal to foreign stampcollectors and the largest amount of them were in the USA. They also happened to have the most money to spend on stamps so that was convenient. Despite the communist ideology it was pure capitalism at work :-)
What a dream job!
Every day you go to the office, sort through all the stamps issued that day from around the world, do some research, and write a report on what it all (supposedly) means...
Does anyone know who (or what group) generated the ideas for American propoganda stamps? They seemed to be plentiful during the WWII era as far as I know, but I don't have a clue about the Cold War era.
Dave
P.S. Now I'm thinking this would be a cool collecting area. Like I need more! Thanks for nothing!!!
Hi everyone,
A think tank in DC recently published this blog post about how the CIA and State Department used stamps to gather foreign intelligence during the Cold War:
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/postal-intelligence
re: Cold War intelligence
I think it is quite remarkable how both the author of the article as well as the secret services at that time failed to recognise that stamps were an important way of getting foreign revenues. The stamps were produced to appeal to foreign stampcollectors and the largest amount of them were in the USA. They also happened to have the most money to spend on stamps so that was convenient. Despite the communist ideology it was pure capitalism at work :-)
re: Cold War intelligence
What a dream job!
Every day you go to the office, sort through all the stamps issued that day from around the world, do some research, and write a report on what it all (supposedly) means...
Does anyone know who (or what group) generated the ideas for American propoganda stamps? They seemed to be plentiful during the WWII era as far as I know, but I don't have a clue about the Cold War era.
Dave
P.S. Now I'm thinking this would be a cool collecting area. Like I need more! Thanks for nothing!!!