When the Underground Wasn’t Imagining Cultural Manipulation
D uring the Cold War, the struggle between the United States and Soviet Union was fought with weapons, espionage, broadcasts—and literary magazines. The Congress for Cultural Freedom emerged from an international conference held at Berlin’s Titania Palace on June 26, 1950 , one day after North Korean forces invaded South Korea. Writers, scholars, artists, and political thinkers gathered to challenge Soviet influence over intellectual life. Behind the organization, however, stood a patron most participants and readers could not see: the Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA’s own historical account calls the Congress one of its more daring and effective covert Cold War operations. From its Paris headquarters, the organization sponsored conferences, assisted intellectuals behind the Iron Curtain, and supported respected political and literary journals. Britain’s Encounter became its most famous publication, alongside Preuves in France, Der Monat in Germany, and Quadrant in Australia. ...