How authoritarian institutions can preserve bad information

Russian propaganda is criticised here for portraying Britain as both weak and decrepit and the powerful hidden enemy manipulating events. An anecdote about Chatham appearing in nuclear-target rhetoric leads to a second story about Soviet geography material identifying Edinburgh as the British capital. Dr Clarke recalls being told that this error affected the targeting of early missile silos, and reports finding support for the textbook claim. He explicitly has not checked the physical orientation of the silos and cannot verify that extension of the story. Fear of punishment for correcting or embarrassing a superior is offered as one reason an authoritarian institution could preserve a small factual error despite substantial technical capability.