The cultural cold war : the CIA and the world of arts and letters

457 Pages·2013·3.25 MB·English

by  Saunders

6.125 × 9.25 SPINE: 1.0625 FLAPS: 0
History/Art $21.95 U.s.
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During the Cold War, freedom of expression was vaunted as liberal democracy’s
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most cherished possession—but such freedom was put in service of a hidden
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agenda. in The Cultural Cold War, Frances stonor saunders reveals the extraordi-
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nary efforts of a secret campaign in which some of the most vocal exponents
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of intellectual freedom in the West were working for or subsidized by the CiA—whether t
they knew it or not. U
Called “the most comprehensive account yet of the [CiA’s] activities between 1947 and r
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1967” by the New York Times, the book presents shocking evidence of the CiA’s undercover
program of cultural interventions in Western Europe and at home, drawing together de- L

classified documents and exclusive interviews to expose the CiA’s astonishing campaign C
to deploy the likes of Hannah Arendt, isaiah Berlin, Leonard Bernstein, robert Lowell, o
George orwell, and Jackson Pollock as weapons in the Cold War. translated into ten lan- L
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guages, this classic work—now with a new preface by the author—is “a real contribution

to popular understanding of the postwar period” (The Wall Street Journal), and its story of W
covert cultural efforts to win hearts and minds continues to be relevant today. A
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“A tale of intrigue and betrayal, with scene after scene as
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thrilling as any in a John le Carré novel.” r
—ChroNiCle of higher eduCaTioN A
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“A major work of investigative history [and] an extremely valuable C
contribution to the all-important post–World War ii record.” E
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—EDWArD sAiD, loNdoN revieW of BookS

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“Avoids polemic and fits the fragments of elusive fact into a o
coherent and persuasive narrative.”
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—LEWis LAPHAm, loS aNgeleS TimeS Book revieW
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“makes clear the sinuous interlocking nature of American governmental,

corporate and cultural life...consistently fascinating.” s
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—miCHAEL DirDA, The WaShiNgToN PoST Book World
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FrAnCEs stonor sAUnDErs is the author of The devil’s Broker and The Woman
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Who Shot mussolini. she has worked as the arts editor of the New Statesman; writes and r
presents for BBC radio; and has written for areté, The guardian, lapham’s Quarterly, and s
the los angeles Times. she lives in London.
THE NEW PRESS
THE NEW PRESS
www.thenewpress.com CovEr DEsiGn By DAviD sHoEmAkEr
cultural cold war_cover.indd 1 8/21/13 2:57 PM
Additional Praise for The Cultural Cold War
“ An absorbing, distressing and, at times, uproariously funny
history of this war of delusionary images, a battle for hearts
and minds which was conducted by mobilising culture.”
—The Observer
“ Saunders negotiates an ocean of factual material deftly and
. . . is very good on the ethical and political ironies of the
CIA’s cultural projects.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“ A crucial story about the dangerous, compromising energies
and manipulation of an entire and very recent age.”
—The Times (London)
“ In a deftly written narrative, Frances Stonor Saunders pre-
sents the stunning history of the CIA’s involvement in the
Cold War’s intellectual landscape.” —The Progressive
“ Stories of high-level espionage . . . d isturbing disclosures and
a literary style of enviable sharpness and wit are some of the
ingredients to be relished in this marvellously readable ac-
count.” —Literary Review
“Fascinating.” —Salon
“ Saunders has written a hammer-blow of a book, definitively
establishing the facts of the CIA’s activities. . . . Her research
is formidable, her tone tenacious, her eye for a titbit vivid, her
sense of humour lively.” —The Spectator
also by frances stonor saunders
The Devil’s Broker: Seeking Gold, God,
and Glory in Fourteenth-Century Italy
The Woman Who Shot Mussolini
THe CuLTurAL
CoLd WAr
THe CIA And THe WorLd
oF ArTS And LeTTerS
Frances Stonor Saunders
© 1999, 2013 by Frances Stonor Saunders
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form,
without written permission from the publisher.
Requests for permission to reproduce selections from
this book should be mailed to: Permissions Department,
The New Press, 38 Greene Street, New York, NY 10013.
Published in the United Kingdom as
Who Paid the Piper? by Granta Books, London, 1999
First published in the United States by The New Press, New York, 2000
This paperback edition published by The New Press, 2013
Distributed by Perseus Distribution
ISBN 978-1-59558-914-9 (paperback)
ISBN 978-1-59558-942-2 (e-book)
The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:
Saunders, Frances Stonor.
[Who paid the piper?]
The cultural cold war : the CIA and the world of arts and letters /
Frances Stonor Saunders.
p. cm.
Originally published: Who paid the piper? London : Granta Books, 1999.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-56584-596-X (hc.)
1. United States—Cultural policy. 2. United States—Central Intelligence Agency—
Influence. 3. Politics and culture—United States. 4. Arts—Political aspects—United
States. 5. Arts, Modern—20th century—United States. 6. Cold War—Social aspects—
United States. 7. Freedom and art—Political aspects—United States. I. Title
E169.12 .S285 2000
327.1'4'097309045—dc 21 99-086681
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Printed in the United States of America
2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1
“What fate or fortune led
Thee down into this place, ere thy last day?
Who is it that they steps hath piloted?”
“Above there in the clear world on my way,”
I answered him, “lost in a vale of gloom,
Before my age was full, I went astray.”
dante’s Inferno, Canto XV
I know that’s a secret, for it’s whispered every where.
William Congreve, Love for Love

ConTenTS
Preface to the 2013 edition ix
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction 1
1. exquisite Corpse 7
2. destiny’s elect 27
3. Marxists at the Waldorf 38
4. democracy’s deminform 48
5. Crusading’s the Idea 62
6. “operation Congress” 72
7. Candy 88
8. Cette Fête Américaine 95
9. The Consortium 108
10. The Truth Campaign 122
11. The new Consensus 131
12. Magazine “X” 138
13. The Holy Willies 159
14. Music and Truth, ma non troppo 179
15. ransom’s Boys 197
16. Yanqui doodles 212
17. The Guardian Furies 235
18. When Shrimps Learn to Whistle 254
viii ConTenTS
19. Achilles’ Heel 264
20. Cultural nATo 275
21. Caesar of Argentina 289
22. Pen Friends 302
23. Literary Bay of Pigs 310
24. View from the ramparts 320
25. That Sinking Feeling 329
26. A Bad Bargain 343
epilogue 351
notes 361
Select Bibliography 401
Index 405
PreFACe To THe 2013 edITIon
It took five years to complete this book, a period I remember with mixed
emotions. For some inexplicable reason, I did most of the archive research
in the spring and summer months, and so condemned myself to a nether-
world of neon lighting and air-conditioning set permanently to morgue
temperature. In Abilene, Kansas, I would drive back to my motel from
the dwight d. eisenhower Library just as the sun was dipping over the
horizon, accompanied by a stack of photocopied documents that wobbled
on the passenger seat beside me—my catch of the day, landed with the
net of curiosity (obsession?) and the single hooked line of luck. In Aus-
tin, Texas, I became the sole twilight pedestrian on the dusty fringe of
the busy road leading from the Harry ransom Humanities research
Center to the overpass that shouldered my gloomy downtown lodgings.
In this motel all the bath plugs had been removed to prevent people kill-
ing themselves by introducing a toaster or other electrical appliance to
their bathwater. I never felt suicidal, but the lack of any contact with the
natural world did feel, at times, like some kind of cosmic rebuke for my
enterprise.
There was exhilaration, too, moments of table-thumping joy at some
unexpected treasure thrown up by a piece of paper to which I was paying
only cursory attention. These accidental finds are a compelling argument
for the importance of primary over online research. If I can advertise one
serious advantage to being welded to a desk in an archive, while all the
world seems to be sunbathing outside, it is this: the thrill of connections
made, of strings pulled in the tangle that result not in loose ends or Gord-
ian knots but in “evidence” and strong lines of inquiry.
Anxiety often followed. As I bundled up blocks of documents to send
home (there were simply too many to carry about with me), I fretted
they would go astray. They went by freight, as airmail was too expensive,
and I always arrived home months before they did. But every package
was delivered in due course. The archive grew and grew and was stored
in boxes under my bed for many years until Professor Scott Lucas of the
ix