2 - The Culture of Funding Culture: The CIA and the Congress for Cultural Freedom

Summary

The Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF) was the largest and longest of the covert operations run by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Lasting from 1950 until 1967, the purpose of the CCF was to promote an international anti-communist consciousness among intellectual liberals and non-communist Leftists. The CCF established organisations throughout the non-communist world, sponsoring concerts, art exhibits and scholarly lectures to promote anticommunist activism among intellectuals and artists. From 1966 to 1967, The New York Times and Ramparts – a New Left magazine that offered criticism of politics and culture – exposed the ‘secret’ that the CIA had covertly funded the CCF since its establishment in 1950. Within months of breaking this scandal, the CCF could not withstand the blow to its reputation and ceased functioning as an effective organisation.

The circuitous and exciting story of the relations between the CIA and the CCF has been discussed in detail by a relatively small number of historians, which are discussed below. These historians have been limited in their ability to explore the topic fully, because the CIA's documents regarding covert funding of the CCF remain closed. The CIA's history of pathological secrecy is ‘old hat’, but its routine obstructionism continues to rankle historians. Despite changing its mind in May 2012, in September 2011, the CIA decreed:

that declassification reviews would now cost requesters up to $72 per hour, even if no information is found or released. To even submit a request – again, even if no documents are released – the public must now agree to pay a minimum of $15.