The Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF) was an anti-communist cultural organization during the Cold War that aimed to promote intellectual freedom and combat Soviet totalitarianism. A group of anti-communist intellectuals founded the congress in 1950 at a conference in West Berlin. At its height, the CCF was active in 35 countries and published more than 20 magazines, hosted art exhibitions, and organized conferences with prominent intellectuals. The congress aimed to enlist intellectuals and opinion makers from the non-communist left in a war of ideas against communism. Through this involvement, the CCF promoted western political ideology while also representing semi-autonomous intellectual movements across Europe.
Historians note the CCF's CIA funding in different contexts. Peter Coleman argues that the CCF was a participant in a struggle for the mind "of Postwar Europe" and the world at large, and was successful at combatting and undermining Soviet totalitarianism. Frances Stonor Saunders argues that the CCF functioned as a covert propaganda network "to ease the passage of American foreign policy interest abroad." The subsequent counter conference of anti-communists was called International Day of Resistance to Dictatorship and War and convened on 30 April 1949. The meeting received little enthusiasm from American supporters, and was described as "too radical and neutralist". The Manifesto of the Congress was drafted by Arthur Koestler, with amendments added on a motion proposed by historian Hugh Trevor-Roper and philosopher A. J. Ayer. The magazine faced criticism in Paris for its promotion of Atlanticist foreign policy and was dubbed by critics as the "American Magazine". From 1950 to 1969, the CCF financed German writers such as Heinrich Böll and Siegfried Lenz. CCF sponsored publications often omitted literary texts that did not align with the values of democracy and "cultural freedom".
CIA involvement revealed, 1966
In April 1966, The New York Times ran a series of five articles on the purposes and methods of the CIA. The third of these 1966 articles began to detail false-front organizations and the secret transfer of CIA funds to the US State Department or to the United States Information Agency (USIA) which "may help finance a scholarly inquiry and publication, or the agency may channel research money through foundations – legitimate ones or dummy fronts". In these articles, The New York Times cited the CIA's funding of the Congress for Cultural Freedom and its Encounter magazine.
In 1967, the US magazines Ramparts and The Saturday Evening Post reported on the CIA's funding of a number of anti-communist cultural organizations aimed at winning the support of Soviet-sympathizing liberals worldwide. These reports were lent credence by a statement made by a former CIA covert operations director admitting to CIA financing and operation of the CCF.
Scholarly debates
Primary scholarly debates on the CCF discuss the Congress's role in promoting freedom of thought and ethical considerations on the secrecy of CIA funding and involvement. Journalist, author, and former CIA agent Peter Coleman argues that the CCF was successful in "public awareness through-out the world in a period of great danger," and that its publications were important in combatting Soviet totalitarianism. The records of the International Association for Cultural Freedom and its predecessor the Congress for Cultural Freedom are today stored at the Library of the University of Chicago in its Special Collections Research Center and at the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University as of 2025.
Publications
The Congress founded, sponsored or encouraged a number of publications to disseminate its ideas. Some of them are the following:
{|class="wikitable sortable"
!Name!!Region!! width="100px" |Date!!Notes
|-valign=top
|<!--name-->Aportes
|Latin America
|<!--date-->closed 1972
|<!--notes-->Produced by the Latin American Institute for International Relations (ILARI), established in 1966, which was closed by IACF in 1972.
|-valign=top
|<!--name-->Black Orpheus
|<!--country-->Nigeria
|<!--date-->1957–1975
|<!--notes-->Founded by German expatriate editor and scholar Ulli Beier, Black Orpheus has been described as a powerful catalyst for artistic awakening throughout West Africa. ICAF subsidy ceased in 1971.
|-valign=top
|<!--name-->China Report
|<!--country-->India
|<!--date-->1964–1970s
|<!--notes-->Established at the New Delhi bureau of the Congress, China Report became a bimonthly journalistic enterprise. After its IACF subsidy ended in 1971 it found other sources of funding. When its IACF subsidy ceased in 1968 it found other sources of funding.
|-valign=top
|<!--name-->Encounter
|<!--country-->United Kingdom
|<!--date-->1953–1991
|<!--notes--> A literary-political magazine founded by Stephen Spender and Irving Kristol. By 1963 its circulation had risen to 34,000 and that year the magazine secured independent funding. Edited from 1958 onwards by Melvin J. Lasky.
|-valign=top
|<!--name-->Examen
|<!--country-->Mexico
|<!--date-->1958–1962
|<!--notes--> A cultural magazine.
|-valign=top
|<!--name-->Forvm
|<!--country-->Austria
|<!--date-->1954–1995
|<!--notes--> A political and cultural magazine founded by Friederich Torberg and others. In 1965 it was taken over by Gunter Nenning and became Neues Forum, a publication devoted to Christian-Communist dialogue.
|-valign=top
|<!--name-->Hiwar
|<!--country-->Lebanon
|<!--date-->1962–1967
|<!--notes-->A bi-monthly literary and cultural magazine published in Beirut, and focusing on the Arab world.
|-valign=top
|<!--name-->Informes de China
|<!--country--> Argentina
|<!--date-->1960s
|<!--notes-->Set up to provide Latin America with information about China.
|-valign=top
|<!--name-->Jiyu (Freedom)
|<!--country-->Japan
|<!--date-->1960 to present
|<!--notes-->One of the most heavily subsidized of all the CFF magazines. Edited by Hoki Ishihara. The chief editor Isihara found other sources of funding when subsidies from Paris and the national committee ceased to exist.
|-valign=top
|<!--name-->Kulturkontakt
|<!--country-->Sweden
|<!--date-->1954–1960
|<!--notes-->Bimonthly political and cultural magazine, published by Svenska kommittén för kulturens frihet (Swedish Committee for Cultural Freedom). Publishers were Ture Nerman (1954–57) and Ingemar Hedenius (1957–60). Edited by Birgitta Stenberg, Kurt Salomonson and Bengt Alexanderson.
|-valign=top
|<!--name-->Minerva
|<!--country-->United Kingdom
|<!--date-->1962 to present
|<!--notes-->A quarterly started by sociologist Edward Shils to address issues relating to the "worldwide intellectual community", and particularly the growth in universities.
|-valign=top
|<!--name-->Der Monat
|<!--country-->Germany
|<!--date-->1948–1987
|<!--notes--> A German-language journal airlifted into Berlin during the 1948 Soviet blockade and edited by Melvin J. Lasky until 1978, when it was purchased by Die Zeit. ICAF subsidy ceased in 1968. ceasing to exist when IACF funding ended in 1971.
|<!--notes-->Described itself as "a magazine for politics, science and culture". Published by Hans Reitzel, edited by Henning Fonsmark and H.C. Branner. Entered a partnership with Selskabet for Frihet og Kultur (Association for Freedom and Culture), the CCF's Danish counterpart, in 1956. Directly funded by the CCF from at least 1960, when the organization established an office in Copenhagen.
|-valign=top
|<!--name-->Preuves
|<!--country-->France
|<!--date-->1951–1975
|<!--notes-->A cultural, intellectual and literary monthly magazine. CCF's first magazine. Preuves means "proof" or "evidence" in French. Edited by François Bondy, a Swiss writer. ICAF subsidy of the Association and of Quadrant ceased in 1972.
|-valign=top
|<!--name-->Sasanggye
|<!--country--> South Korea
|<!--date--> 1953–1970
|<!--notes-->Founded by Chang Chun-ha.
|<!--date-->
|<!--notes-->ICAF subsidy ceased in 1971; the Review found other sources of funding. After its IACF subsidy ended in 1971 it found other sources of funding. Sales reached 12,000 in early 1960s (a quarter of them in the US) but the arrest, detention and subsequent emigration of editor Neogy in 1968 marked the end of this controversial literary-political magazine.
|}
Although The Paris Review was co-founded by novelist and CIA operative Peter Matthiessen, who was affiliated with the CCF, the magazine was reportedly a cover for Matthiessen, and not part of the CCF's operations. However, The Paris Review often sold interviews it conducted to CCF-established magazines.
Literature
- Berghahn, Volker R.: America and the Intellectual Cold Wars in Europe. Shepard Stone between Philanthropy, Academy, and Diplomacy. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2001. Addresses links between Ford Foundation and CCF.
- Coleman, Peter, The Liberal Conspiracy: The Congress for Cultural Freedom and the Struggle for the Mind of Postwar Europe, New York: Free Press, Collier Macmillan, 1989.
- Michael Hochgeschwender, Freiheit in der Offensive? Der Kongreß für kulturelle Freiheit und die Deutschen, München, 1998 (comprising academic study on the origins, in German).
- Frances Stonor Saunders, The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters, 2000, The New Press, (). Originally published in the UK as Who Paid the Piper?: CIA and the Cultural Cold War, 1999, Granta, .
- Wellens, Ian (2002). Music on the Frontline: Nicolas Nabokov's Struggle against Communism and Middlebrow Culture. Aldershot: Ashgate.
See also
- CIA and the Cultural Cold War
- Who Paid the Piper?
- New African — initially part-funded by the CCF
- American Committee for Cultural Freedom
- Partisan Review - Received funding from the CCF in the early 1960's
References
External links
- The Cultural Cold War
- The Ghostwriter et la CIA