This week on Gladio Free Europe, we tackled the oracular 1997 film Wag The Dog. The incumbent president gets exposed for sexually assaulting a teenage girl two weeks before Election Day, prompting the White House to assemble a crack team of publicists and spin doctors to redirect the public’s attention. They settle on manufacturing a fake war with Albania for this purpose, and hijinks naturally ensue.
When first released, the movie did not garner much attention and seemed as if it would fade into obscurity. However, news of the Monica Lewinsky scandal would break mere weeks after the release of the film, making it a genuine tour de force. What’s more, once Clinton’s escapades were exposed, the conduct of the administration began to uncannily resemble the events of the film, leading critics to draw parallels between the two. The film was even widely screened in Serbia and Iraq, two countries increasingly targeted in the aftermath of the Lewinsky revelations.
In this episode we explore the reality-bending power of Wag the Dog, the real events that eerily resemble the course of action taken in the film, and the truly iconic bops of the soundtrack. We also analyze its ideological framework (the CIA as a neutral arbiter, the stupidity rather than complicity of the press, etc.), and go into later instances of “the tail wagging the dog.”
Visit our website to see some truly excellent contemporary posts and articles which analyze the parallels between the events of the film and the Clinton administration’s foreign policy conduct in the aftermath of the scandal. Big props to Abram for tirelessly going through old Usenet archives to uncover this treasure trove of information!
We’re still a very young podcast, and as always we would love to hear any and all feedback so we can continue to improve our content. If you feel particularly strongly about Gladio Free Europe, we would also greatly appreciate it if you would leave ratings and/or reviews on Apple Podcasts and other hosts so that more people can discover the show. Thank you all so much, and stay tuned for next week’s episode where we venture outside of the 20th century and dive into some ancient history :)
