Idea Ripper // ArchiveCards: 1555 [Live] | Updated: 2026-10-14
Card #c1008IR // #c1008Synthesis

The CIA’s 1967 guidance for handling Warren Report critics: give friendly journalists “material for countering and discrediting the claims of the conspiracy theorists,” including portraying them as Soviet dupes. The agency’s own document adds: “Communists and other extremists always attempt to prove a political conspiracy behind violence.” The smear template, in the agency’s own words.

— In our words · Source: The Devil's Chessboard (David Talbot)

[Use when]

Critics are gaining traction. Don’t answer them; diagnose them.

[Why it matters]

Discredit the critic and the criticism dies unexamined. The template outlives any single case.

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