Atlantic Consensus Research Articles

The Congress for Cultural Freedom, the End of Ideology and the 1955 Milan Conference: `Defining the Parameters of Discourse'1

The Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF), an institution that fostered an international anti-communist consensus amongst intellectuals during the Cold War, represents a fascinating meeting-point between politics and culture, or, more broadly, between power and ideals.3 In particular, its links with the CIA have led some observers to disparage it as little more than a tool of US foreign policy, its intellectual-cultural interests being regarded as a smokescreen for an underlying 'politics of control'. Yet, with the facts of the CIA connection in mind, it is perhaps all the more valid to assess its intellectual contribution in order to appreciate the relevance of this institution in its Cold War context. The focus here is on the connection between the CCF and the discourse of the 'end of ideology' in the mid-1950s, particularly surrounding 'The Future of Freedom' conference held in Milan in September 1955 and the promotion of an 'Atlantic consensus' amongst European and American intellectuals. The connection is an important one, since, as one commentator has put it, 'whoever receives honours for coining the phrase end of ideology, all indications point to a group of intellectuals associated with the CCF as the source of its popularization'.4