This paper explores the emergence of “Soviet active measures” in US political discourse during the “Second Cold War” of the early 1980s. It follows the efforts of the Active Measures Working Group, a little-known interagency organization led by Reagan administration appointees that constructed an image of Soviet active measures as a threat to national security. I detail, especially, how the Working Group framed the US anti-war movement as both a target of and vehicle for active measures. In so doing, I show how the active measure was constructed in US political discourse through a dramaturgy of secrecy and revelation that placed it within a broader “covert imaginary.” This paper concludes with a theorization of these efforts in relation to Foucault’s concept of “alethurgy,” considering how the construction of the active measure produced a “politics of truth” in which the anti-war protestor appeared as a dangerous, disinformed subject.

中文翻译：

---

苏联的积极措施和第二次冷战：安全、真理和自我政治


本文探讨了 1980 年代初期“第二次冷战”期间美国政治话语中“苏联积极措施”的出现。它遵循积极措施工作组的努力，这是一个由里根政府任命的人领导的鲜为人知的跨部门组织，将苏联的积极措施塑造成对国家安全构成威胁的形象。我特别详细介绍了工作组如何将美国反战运动视为积极措施的目标和工具。通过这样做，我展示了这种积极的措施是如何通过一种秘密和启示的戏剧性手段在美国政治话语中构建的，将其置于更广泛的“隐蔽想象”中。本文最后根据福柯的“alethurgy”概念对这些努力进行了理论化，考虑了主动度量的构建如何产生一种“真理政治”，其中反战抗议者表现为一个危险的、不知情的主体。