The UK government used fake organisations and forged documents to disrupt its enemies and protect its interests amid the Cold War, declassified files show.

The information comes in a series of highly sensitive files which were released to the National Archives in London.

The files belonged to the Information Research Department (IRD), a clandestine anti-communist propaganda unit which operated in the Foreign Office between 1948 and 1977.

Within the IRD there was a highly secretive subdivision named the Special Editorial Unit (SEU), which specialised in the “dark arts” of covert statecraft with assistance from MI6.

That involved planning and executing “black” propaganda operations such as the creation of fictitious organisations and the dissemination of forged documents.

These “black” operations were designed “to encourage a reaction, incite violence, or foment racial tensions”, according to historian Rory Cormac, whose new book looks into the key figures behind the SEU.

The SEU also secretly controlled a series of global news agencies which posed as legitimate media groups and functioned as conduits for British propaganda content.

In addition to this, it supplied “independent” journalists with special briefings and pre-written articles which were then published under their own names.

The focus of much of this material was on the Soviet Union and its external activities, but other campaigns targeted left-wing and national liberation movements across the developing world.

Anti-colonial leaders such as Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser, Indonesia’s Sukarno, and Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah were a frequent focus of British propaganda operations.