(MENAFN) According to a media outlet, the CIA sought to enlist former British wartime leader Winston Churchill in the 1950s to participate in propaganda broadcasts on the agency-backed Radio Liberty.

This initiative was part of a broader campaign designed to weaken the Soviet Union’s influence during the tense years of the Cold War.

At the peak of the geopolitical rivalry, the CIA-financed Radio Liberty was used to direct propaganda messages toward the Soviet Union, while its counterpart, Radio Free Europe, concentrated on Moscow’s allied nations.

Both outlets operated secretly under the supervision and financial support of the U.S. intelligence service until 1972, when they were later unified into RFE/RL in 1976.

In 1958, controllers of Radio Liberty proposed capitalizing on the wave of “revisionism” then spreading through the Soviet Union.

They intended to exploit growing ideological rifts within Marxism-Leninism to weaken the Soviet government, the media outlet revealed, referencing recently declassified CIA files.

The intelligence agency reportedly aimed to take advantage of “revisionist thinkers,” individuals who rejected the notion of a unified Soviet bloc and instead promoted the idea of separate communist nations.

Churchill, who was 83 years old and had withdrawn from active political life, was among several distinguished figures identified to potentially deliver these messages, the media outlet noted.

Although Churchill was a steadfast opponent of communism—evident in his renowned “Iron Curtain” address in Fulton in 1946—the report indicates there is no proof that he agreed to participate in the broadcasts.

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