Introduction: This article explores the potential use of data-driven methods to visualise and interpret the impact of Western efforts to influence Cold War dynamics using a covert book distribution programme. Based on a documentary corpus connected to the 2013 book by Alfred Reisch, which documented efforts by the CIA to disseminate books in the Soviet Bloc in the period 1956-1971, the authors use the Tableau Public platform to re-assess information science methods for researching historical events. Their analysis suggests that books distributed did not tend to have a more obvious political slant, but were more likely to have a broader universalist outlook. While it skirts around some of the limitations of visualization (highlighted elsewhere by Drucker and others) it offers a solid introduction to the benefits of a data-driven approach to a general audience.