Frequencies of Deceit: How Global Propaganda Wars Shaped the Middle East

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Univ of California Press, Feb 25, 2025 - History - 326 pages
On June 8, 1967, Egypt's most famous radio broadcaster, Ahmed Said, reported that Egyptian, Syrian, and Jordanian forces had defeated the Israeli army in the Sinai, had hobbled their British and US allies, and were liberating Palestine. It was a lie.
 
For the rest of his life, populations in the Middle East vilified Said for his duplicity. However, the truth was that, by 1967, all the world's major broadcasters to the Middle East were dissimulating on the air. For two decades, British, Soviet, American, and Egyptian radio voices created an audio world characterized by deceit and betrayal. In this important and timely book, Margaret Peacock traces the history of deception and propaganda in Middle Eastern international radio. Peacock makes the compelling argument that this betrayal contributed to the loss of faith in Western and secular state-led political solutions for many in the Arab world, laying the groundwork for the rise of political Islam.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
Voice of the Arabs
57
Radio Moscow and the Shaping
78
The Americans Enter the Fight
98
The Audiosphere Prepares for War
131
The Crisis of Suez
146
Language and the Crisis of Truth
165
Conclusion
216
Bibliography
273
Index
289
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About the author (2025)

Margaret Peacock is Professor of History at the University of Alabama. She is author of Innocent Weapons: The Soviet and American Politics of Childhood in the Cold War and coauthor of A Deeper Sickness: Journal of America in the Pandemic Year.

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