This is actually what happened with Walter Duranty from The New York Times. Being that he was an agent of the Soviets, he invited other journalists to his Moscow penthouse during the De-Kulakization famines. They weren't in Ukraine, they saw tons of food, Walter had been reporting and working out of the Soviet Union for years, and it confirmed their bias.
When someone tried to point out what the USSR had been doing, they were labeled as delusional or propagandists.
Now consider the inverse when Kruschev came to America, ordered his convoy be stopped in some random town, went into the grocery store, and found the shelves absolutely filled with food. He couldn't fucking believe that the Americans had accomplished what the Stalin had to lie about by using Duranty.
The sight of the quantity of food in the West was a very popular "trigger" for those who decided to seek asylum while allowed to tour the West (as with athletes or the ballet, for instance.)
All creatures will follow their stomachs in the end. It's not "hearts and minds" you want to win. Win their stomachs, and you'll have both of those in no time.
This is actually what happened with Walter Duranty from The New York Times. Being that he was an agent of the Soviets, he invited other journalists to his Moscow penthouse during the De-Kulakization famines. They weren't in Ukraine, they saw tons of food, Walter had been reporting and working out of the Soviet Union for years, and it confirmed their bias.
When someone tried to point out what the USSR had been doing, they were labeled as delusional or propagandists.
Now consider the inverse when Kruschev came to America, ordered his convoy be stopped in some random town, went into the grocery store, and found the shelves absolutely filled with food. He couldn't fucking believe that the Americans had accomplished what the Stalin had to lie about by using Duranty.
The sight of the quantity of food in the West was a very popular "trigger" for those who decided to seek asylum while allowed to tour the West (as with athletes or the ballet, for instance.)
All creatures will follow their stomachs in the end. It's not "hearts and minds" you want to win. Win their stomachs, and you'll have both of those in no time.
That was Yeltsin, I believe, but same effect.
They actually both did it. Yeltsin did it in public, and IIRC, Kruschev did it in private.