"The idea is to slowly demonize the Sandinista government (in) order to turn it into a real enemy and threat in the minds of the American people, thereby eroding their resistance to U.S. support for the contras and, perhaps, to a future U.S. military intervention in the region." - Anonymous U.S. government official

Reagan's reflections on Argentina were no aberration. He gave the account of events in Chile: "Allende was a Marxist and took Chile down the road to socialism... Journalists who have made an honest effort to talk with the Chilean man-in-the-street report that there would have been a people's revolt if the military overthrow of the Allende regime had not taken place." General Pinochet "promised to restore democratic rule also and to allow elections. True, they haven't taken place as yet, but there is reason to believe that if and when they do the general might just be the favourite candidate if he chooses to run." Reagan doesn't tell us why the Chilean people gave Allende's party even more support in the 1973 mid-term congressional elections, the last elections before Chilean democracy was crushed by the military in a U.S.-backed coup.

The official spin-controllers know they have the advantage. As George Bush's press secretary, Peter Teeley, told reporters following the 1984 vice-presidential debate: "You can say anything you want in a debate, and 80 million people hear it. If reporters then document that a candidate spoke untruthfully, so what? Maybe 200 people read it, or 2,000 or 20,000."

As a United Fruit Company  public relations specialist said of their success in using the press to create a favorable climate of opinion for the CIA-orchestrated Guatemalan coup of 1954: "It is difficult to make a convincing case for manipulation of the press when the victims proved so eager for the experience."