The Secret Offensive

This alarming book argues that institutions and individuals at all levels in the West have been seduced into serving Soviet interests through a propaganda and disinformation offensive the Kremlin calls ""active measures.'' According to Pincher the exploitation of ``the willies''dupes, in intelligence parlanceis more widespread and menacing than is generally known. He chronicles episodes of what he claims are Moscow's successes in the manipulation of Western media, peace movements, education and the church. He devotes considerable space to a Der Spiegel controversy, maintaining that active measures eliminated the staunchly anti-Communist Franz Josef Strauss from the West German political scene. Another major section describes active measures influence on the British Labor Party, which, ``whatever its motives, is committed to doing exactly what the Politburo wants in the field of defense.'' Pincher, a British journalist who wrote Too Secret, Too Late, praises American vigilance against the Soviet active measures campaign. Illustrations. (May 19)