The Smith Mundt Act

The Smith–Mundt Act: When Propaganda Became a Legal Weapon against We The people

Most people don’t realize that up until recently, it was technically illegal for the U.S. government to broadcast its propaganda directly to the American people. For decades, the Smith–Mundt Act of 1948 drew a line; government messaging through outlets like Voice of America was meant only for foreign audiences. The idea was simple: the government could sell its wars and policies abroad, but it couldn’t openly propagandize its own citizens.

That changed in 2012, when the “Smith–Mundt Modernization Act” was quietly slipped into the National Defense Authorization Act under Obama and Hillary Clinton’s State Department. With one stroke, the floodgates were opened. From that moment on, the same machinery used to manipulate foreign nations could legally be turned inward against we the people.

Think about what followed: Russiagate, the endless lies about Syria, the COVID psyop, the glorification of proxy wars, the manufactured narratives about domestic extremism. Once the prohibition was lifted, the state didn’t just allow propaganda at home, it industrialized it.

The media stopped being a watchdog and became a mouthpiece. Instead of “informing the people,” it became an arm of government psychological operations.

The Smith–Mundt Modernization Act should be remembered as one of the most treacherous acts ever passed in Congress; it legalized lying to the American people, and we have been living under that spell ever since.