Wipe this

I'm taking a political science course right now.

We watch a lot of films in this class. The current topic is the history of power in the middle east, and the unwitting struggles that major world powers get into over ridiculous local squabbles. Lebanon in 1983 is a fantastic example.

Anyway. Earlier, we were watching a film called The Secret Government by Bill Moyers (who rules). Oddly, I can't find an IMDB link.

Part of the film involved interviewing CIA agents who were working during the early 1950s—essentially the hottest espionage time during the entire cold war. The Truman and Eisenhower administrations were starting to get desperate to keep the commies out and the CIA had really only gotten started a few years prior, so this had some hilarious outcomes.

In specific, one CIA agent told a story about some cases he found in a CIA office in Austria during the late 1950s or early 1960s.

In the early 1950s we were trying to win Hungary over and de-Communize it. I didn't catch the name during the film, but some research I just did suggests that Imre Nagy was the guy we were trying to topple.

The CIA agent happened across a case of, oddly, toilet paper in this abandoned section of the CIA office. On each sheet of paper was printed a picture of Imre Nagy. And the idea was that the CIA would stop the Orient Express trains that went through Austria, unload all the regular toilet paper, and load up the ringer replacements. Then, the sullied paper would get unloaded in Hungary where it would be used to clean up some easily swayed Hungarian's business.

Secret agents? Car chases? High-tech espionage?

No, just bog paper. I love it.