CIA and the Cultural Cold War

[Anna]

Frances Stonor Saunders: 1999, Who Paid the Piper?: CIA and the Cultural Cold War, Granta Books.
This book provides a detailed account of the ways in which the CIA penetrated and influenced a vast array of cultural organizations, through its front groups and via friendly philanthropic organizations like the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations.

[Menydh]

Some interesting notes there.

While the CIA allowed their assets on the "Democratic Left" to prattle occasionally about social reform, it was the "anti-Stalinist" polemics and literary diatribes against Western Marxists and Soviet writers and artists that they were most interested in, funded most generously, and promoted with the greatest visibility. Braden referred to this as the "convergence" between the CIA and the European "Democratic Left" in the fight against communism. The collaboration between the "Democratic Left" and the CIA included strike-breaking in France, informing on Stalinists (Orwell and Hook), and covert smear campaigns to prevent leftist artists from receiving recognition (including Pablo Neruda's bid for a Nobel Prize in 1964 [351]).

[...]

After the Second World War, with the discrediting in Western Europe of the old right (compromised by its links to the fascists and a weak capitalist system), the CIA realized that, in order to undermine the anti-NATO trade unionists and intellectuals, it needed to find (or invent) a Democratic Left to engage in ideological warfare. A special sector of the CIA was set up to circumvent right-wing Congressional objections. The Democratic Left was essentially used to combat the radical left and to provide an ideological gloss on U.S. hegemony in Europe. At no point were the ideological pugilists of the democratic left in any position to shape the strategic policies and interests of the United States. Their job was not to question or demand, but to serve the empire in the name of "Western democratic values."

I've argued before how that "Democratic Left" that is today the "Multiculturalist Left" was in connivance with America and they looked to the U.S. as a dream, while the then Conservative Right was (and had always been) core anti-American.

At least that was the case for Spain. I don't know elsewhere.

There is a good reading there. I wonder how much of modern multiculturalism in Europe is owed to America.

[Errigal]

Originally Posted by Mynydd

Some interesting notes there.

I've argued before how that "Democratic Left" that is today the "Multiculturalist Left" was in connivance with America and they looked to the U.S. as a dream, while the then Conservative Right was (and had always been) core anti-American.

At least that was the case for Spain. I don't know elsewhere.

...

I am certain that a similar political pattern existed in other European countries as well; even Britain. Having spoken to people who spent many years around NATO in the Cold War days I would say military officers with Conservative Right and anti-American opinions were common in most of the member forces. Contrary to the usual defence that such opinions are based on ignorance, the anti-Americanism of these military officers was thoughtful and based on well-informed opinions formed after years of close contact with the US military.

[Anna]

A Book highly advisable. I'll be pleased if it has been useful for us.

[Ferran]

Originally Posted by Mynydd

I've argued before how that "Democratic Left" that is today the "Multiculturalist Left" was in connivance with America and they looked to the U.S. as a dream

As one picture is worth a thousand words, here's one stamp of the 2nd Republic during the Civil War.

[Menydh]

Originally Posted by Anna

A Book highly advisable. I'll be pleased if it has been useful for us.

I would say that it should be useful.

Clearly, you cannot entertain for too long with the details when working on how to solve a problem. But it is nevertheless important to gain a certain background knowledge that allows you to analyze and to identify the said problem properly, as well as its origins, to allow you to walk into the right direction.

[Crvena zvezda]

Another sign of the cultural cold war is the fact that the U.S. State Department finances locally produced variants of the kids show Sesame Street in regions where they meddle, this includes areas like Bosnia, Kosovo, India and so forth.