Congress For Cultural Freedom Research Articles

‘Another world than this’: Muriel Spark's Postwar Investigations

‘While there have been many historical studies of specific aspects of Britain’s involvement in the Cold War,’ wrote Harriet Jones in 2000, ‘there is as yet no overarching narrative understanding of its impact.’1 Jones’s comment, still largely true in 2011, might explain why, apart from a couple of recent exceptions, scholarship on the Cold War’s impact on British narrative fiction has also been thin on the ground.2 This does not mean that the fiction of the 1950s in Britain, the period under discussion in the present essay, does not bear the imprint of this international conflict. Rather, as Rod Mengham has suggested, the Cold War itself is a challenge to narrative, so its expression in and by narrative may take indirect or aporetic forms.3 In the event of a nuclear blast there is no consecutive sequence of events that could be reliably followed, and thus there is no obvious narrative means by which a person’s relation to this outcome can be mapped. Yet, precisely because of this difficulty, British governmental war planners and American RAND (Research and Development) war-gamers of the period used fictional means to generate possible real-world scenarios on the basis of which policy decisions could be made. The CIA’s Congress for Cultural Freedom, which had offices in thirty-five countries, was perhaps the strangest case of mid-century political fictionalizing, having as a central mandate the advancement of the ‘claim that it did not exist’.4 If 1950s political engagement proceeds in terms of fiction, in a still more acute way than is usual, then British fiction of the period that conveys

‘Money Does Not Make Any Difference to the Opinions That We Hold’: India, the CIA, and the Congress for Cultural Freedom, 1951–58

During the 1950s, the United States conducted both overt and covert propaganda activities in India. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru opposed these activities as encroachments upon Indian sovereignty. However, domestic opposition composed primarily of members of the Praja Socialist Party worked closely with US-backed groups, in particular the Indian Committee for Cultural Freedom, to generate a political alternative to the ruling Congress party. Although receiving covert money from the Americans, these Indians did not believe that foreign money determined or shaped their opinions. On the other hand, their close association with the Americans undermined their claims to represent a legitimate domestic opposition.

The editor and the CIA: Herbert Tingsten and the Congress for Cultural Freedom: a symbiotic relationship

This article deals with the relations between perhaps Sweden's most influential publicist during the Cold War, the professor of political science and editor-in-chief of Sweden's largest daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter 1946–1959, Herbert Tingsten, and the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF), a CIA-sponsored organisation gathering the elite of the world's non-communist leftist intellectuals, Congress for Cultural Freedom and its Swedish sub-branch called ‘Svenska kommittén för kulturens frihet’ (SKfKF). Tingsten was a professor of political science at University of Stockholm from 1935 to 1946 and then editor-in-chief of Sweden's largest daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter from 1946 to 1959. It argues that parts of Tingsten's work both as an opinion maker and as a scholar was part of a symbiotic relationship with the CCF and the SKfKF. Tingsten was the foremost propagator for the ‘end of ideology’ thesis in Sweden and the article argues that this campaign was inspired by the CCF's advancement of this idea in the 1950s and 1960s. Tingsten was personally acquainted with several CCF intellectuals and he visited several of the CCF's conferences. The article also makes the case that Tingsten helped the CCF and the SKfKF's causes and furthered their agendas in a number of ways during his time as editor-in-chief of DN. For example, Tingsten allowed the SKfKF to use DN as a platform for presenting its ideas and programmes to a broader public. The article thus shows how the CCF network of intellectuals influenced opinion making in non-aligned Sweden.

The Congress for Cultural Freedom: Constructing an Intellectual Atlantic Community

The Congress for Cultural Freedom: Constructing an Intellectual Atlantic Community

If He Had Lived, or A Counterfactual Life of George Orwell

This essay represents an example of what might be termed “counterfactual biography,” or in Niall Ferguson's phrase, “virtual history.” George Orwell died in January 1950 at the age of 46. Assuming he had lived to a healthy old age, the authors engage in a counterfactual thought experiment, speculating how he might have responded to numerous public controversies of the last half of the twentieth century and even beyond. Among the topics and issues explored are McCarthyism and the Cold War, the Congress for Cultural Freedom, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), the wars in Korea and Vietnam, imperialism and post-colonialism, the women's and environmental movements, the nuclear freeze debates of the 1980s, the war on terrorism and invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and more.

The Société Européenne de Culture's Dialogue Est-Ouest 1956: Confronting the ‘European Problem’

This essay, which is part of an ongoing monographic study of the Société Européenne de Culture, looks at the SEC's relationship with Europe's communist intelligentsia during the first phase of the Cold War. European intellectual life during this period is generally associated with the Congress for Cultural Freedom. Yet the SEC, the membership of which included some of Europe's most eminent figures, ranging from Camus and Jaspers, to Adorno and Merleau-Ponty, to Lukács and Sartre, can be seen as having provided a reference point particularly for the European left, not least because of its unique openness to communist participation. Giving special attention to the Dialogue Est-Ouest (Venice, March 1956), one of the earliest encounters between Europe's eastern and western intellectuals since before the war, this essay considers how the SEC's engagement with contemporary Marxist theory there not only embedded the dialectic as the SEC's operational method. It also provided an early indication of that institution's imminent shift from a preoccupation with universal values to an awareness of cultural difference and diversity, as a result of the critique of current western liberal ideology and its cultures, undertaken by the SEC in light of the Thaw.

Newsrooms in conflict: journalism and the democratization of Mexico

Hughes, Sallie. Newsrooms in Conflict: Journalism and the Democratization of Mexico. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2006. 286 pp. $24.95. Do you know who Carlos Slim is? Most people do not. A Mexico City-based telecommunications tycoon, he has been recognized recently as the world's richest man. Besides that, Sallie Hughes, an assistant professor at the University of Miami, suggests that this multi-billionaire has the potential to reverse the growing democratization of Mexican journalism. But this dire possibility is not the focus of her meticulously researched book, Newsrooms in Conflict: Journalism and the Democratization of Mexico, which chronicles how Mexico's traditionally authoritarian media system became democratized. From 1980 until the 2006 presidential election, the country's newsrooms evolved into what Hughes calls a hybrid system consisting of three models of journalism. She calls the model that she is most interested in civic-oriented journalism. It should not be confused with what is referred to as civic journalism in the United States. Some civic-oriented newspapers, such as Siglo 21 (Century 21), are new, but others, such as Mexico City's oldest newspaper, El Universal, have been on the scene for a long time. Hughes says Mexico's civic newsrooms were assertive, covered a diversity of political opinions, and were autonomous from the government by the mid-1990s. They took on the functions of watchdog and advocate for their readers and gave voice to opponents of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (Institutional Revolutionary Party or PRI), the political party that controlled Mexico for more than seventy years. Civic-oriented newspapers ultimately became part of the reason PRI finally crumbled and lost control. The press system's other new model, represented by the networks and many major newspapers, is what Hughes calls the market-driven model. It also played a part in PRI's downfall, not for ultraistic reasons but because of its profit-driven attempts to respond to what the market demanded. The final model that she identified is the inertial and adaptive authoritarian model, which is either imposed from above or by journalists who support the regime. It lacks newsroom autonomy and has a passive approach to newsgathering. Hughes has an intimate knowledge of Mexican media, having worked as a journalist there for twelve years, but she brings more to her research than observation, networking, and familiarity. Her impressive, well-researched analysis of Mexico's press system includes an interesting combination of sociology, ethnography, content analysis, interviews with editors, and surveys of journalists. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the following topics: journalism in Mexico and other Latin America countries; the connection between politics and the media; the role of the press as a watchdog and/or advocate; and the fragile situation of media in countries that experience swings between democracy and authoritarianism. …

Online news meets established journalism: how China’s journalists evaluate the credibility of news websites

The internet presents challenges to traditional journalism by being a platform for alternative practices of news production and dissemination. In response, traditional journalists are expected to engage in ‘news repair’ in order to reconfirm the authority of existing news institutions and the legitimacy of traditional models of journalism. This interaction between new media and journalistic practices must be contextualized within a media system. Built upon these premises, this study analyzes data from probability sample surveys of journalists in two Chinese cities. It finds that journalists regard mainstream media organizations’ websites as more credible than those run by commercial portals. The perceived credibility of these two types of news websites varies with journalists’ beliefs about journalism. While party journalism remains a dominant lens through which Chinese journalists evaluate the two types of websites, the sites of commercial portals are viewed by some to be embodying an alternative model of journalism.

A Network of Influential Friendships: The Fondation Pour Une Entraide Intellectuelle Européenne and East–West Cultural Dialogue, 1957–1991

For 34 years, the Fondation pour une entraide intellectuelle europeenne was involved in promoting cultural dialogue across the Iron Curtain. This article looks at its relations with the Congress for Cultural Freedom, its agenda, and its impact on intellectual debates. It also analyses the ideological evolution of this organization after the 1960s and its transformation as it merged into the Open Society Foundation created by philanthropist George Soros.

Paris Calling Vienna: The Congress for Cultural Freedom and Friedrich Torberg's Editorship of "Forum"

Paris Calling Vienna: The Congress for Cultural Freedom and Friedrich Torberg's Editorship of "Forum"

Shifting Journalistic Paradigms

This study examines shifting journalisticparadigms in a transitional society. Analyzing data from surveys of journalists and journalism students in the People’s Republicof China, the authors find that professional journalism has emerged as a direct competitor to the party-journalism paradigm. Although the former is manifested in journalists’ positive appraisal of professional news media, the latter is embodied in praising the official party organs. The professional perspective is associated with emphasis on the disseminator role of the media and the desire for more liberal arts training in journalism, whereas the party-journalism paradigm is related to the emphasis on the interpretive and popular advocacy roles and the desire for more training in communist propaganda. The two journalistic paradigms are also reflected in differences in evaluating various innovative media outlets in the reforms. The implications of the findings for studies on the articulation of professionalism and other journalism paradigms are discussed.

The congress for cultural freedom in Denmark

The Danish section of the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF) was established in 1953 by Arne Sejr, a former wartime resistance leader. The Society for Freedom and Culture was formed as a part of Sejr's private anti-communist intelligence network, called the Firm. But Sejr did not understand the methods or goals of the CCF's work, since he was more concerned with political propaganda and information rather than cultural issues. During its early years the special circumstances of the Danish branch were ignored by the Congress HQ, but in 1957 Jorgen Schleimann, a Danish employee at the Congress office in Paris, set out to reform the Danish Society's work. Denmark's experience with the CCF provides a good example of the tension that could exist between the universal agenda of the Congress and particular national conditions. It also demonstrates the limitations of the CCF's purpose and therefore also the ‘boundaries’ to Cold War cultural manipulation in the West.

The absent Dutch: Dutch intellectuals and the congress for cultural freedom

During the 1950s and 1960s the Congress for Cultural Freedom was one of the main stages for anti-communist American and European writers and intellectuals to discuss the communist threat to the freedom of intellectual and cultural life. Most Western European countries were represented at CCF conferences and had their own national CCF branches, but the Netherlands was an exception. Dutch intellectuals participated very rarely in the conferences, and all efforts to establish a Dutch branch of the CCF failed. Possible explanations (the socially isolated position of some intellectuals, no strong tradition of political engagement among Dutch writers or artists, no lively climate of public debate, and an ambivalent perception of American culture and society) for this absence of Dutch intellectuals show clearly how national traditions can play a decisive role in determining the development of international networks.

The Politics of Apolitical Culture: The Congress for Cultural Freedom, the cia, and Post-War American Hegemony

The Politics of Apolitical Culture: The Congress for Cultural Freedom, the cia, and Post-War American Hegemony

Saving the West - Giles Scott-Smith: The Politics of Apolitical Culture: The Congress for Cultural Freedom, the CIA and Post-War American Hegemony. (London and New York: Routledge/PSA Political Studies Series, 2002. Pp. xi, 233, $90.00.)

Saving the West - Giles Scott-Smith: The Politics of Apolitical Culture: The Congress for Cultural Freedom, the CIA and Post-War American Hegemony. (London and New York: Routledge/PSA Political Studies Series, 2002. Pp. xi, 233, $90.00.) - Volume 65 Issue 1

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

Peace Wars: The 1959 ANZ Peace Congress

The 1959 Australian and New Zealand International Congress for Peace and Disarmament, held in Melbourne, was the first major public event for the left in Australia after the splits in the ALP and the CPA that had occurred between 1955 and 1958. It was notable not so much for its success in attracting large numbers of delegates and for the declarations that came from it as for the brawling that took place during it, particularly over the issue of freedom of speech and the gaoling or execution of dissidents in the Soviet Union and Hungary. The Congress for Cultural Freedom and its allies had prior to the Congress organised groups to support the dissidents, but the members of these groups were seen by the Congress organisers as right-wing disrupters trying to destroy the unity of the Congress and to divert it from its primary objective. Although the organisers secured the numbers on the floor of the Congress and at its constituent special interest meetings, the conflict revealed new divisions on the left, between former Communists and younger members of a new left on the one hand, and the continuing leadership of the CPA and of the Victorian ALP on the other. This paper challenges the view that the Congress achieved a unity on the left in support of its aims. It shows how new alliances cut across old divisions between a left aligned with the Communist party and a right aligned with Catholic Action. The new divisions helped to paralyse Labor as a political force for another decade.

The role of the social sciences in East–West relations

This paper explores the foundations of the current system of East–West scholarly exchanges in the social sciences, beginning with the Congress for Cultural Freedom in 1950. It traces the development of the social sciences in post-war Europe to philosophical differences between Polanyi and Bernal concerning long-term planning in science. This article argues that the development of the social sciences played a part in changing attitudes and tactics of war and in establishing channels of communication between East and West.

The Piper Played to Us All: Orchestrating the Cultural Cold War in the USA, Europe, and Latin America

Review of a recent book on the Congress for Cultural Freedom by British author and documentary filmmaker Frances Stono Saunders, Who Paid the Piper? The CIA and the Cultural Cold War (London: Granta, 1999), leads into an examination of the cold war ideological contest in the United States, Europe, and Latin America. Particular attention is given to the Americas and U.S. efforts to manipulate the social sciences as instruments of hemispheric control. Saunder's book is compared and contrasted to other works on the cultural cold war, while extensive references are provided for further reading and research.

‘A Radical Democratic Political Offensive’: Melvin J. Lasky, Der Monat, and the Congress for Cultural Freedom

The Congress for Cultural Freedom, formed in 1950 and lasting until 1979, was a major international institution based in Paris and dedicated to freedom of the intellect in the arts and sciences. However, since the late 1960s, revelations about its close links with the CIA have clouded its position within post-war cultural history. Yet, without an appreciation of its cultural origins its relevance becomes reduced to being merely a major example of intellectual fraud. This article attempts to reassess parts of the cultural dimension to its creation and raison d'être, largely through the figure of one of its principal founders, Melvin J. Lasky.