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The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters

Frances Stonor Saunders · 1 HN comments
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Amazon Summary
In addition to being short-listed for the Guardian First Book Award upon publication in 2000, Frances Stonor Saunders's The Cultural Cold War was met with the kind of attention reserved for books that directly hit a cultural nerve. Impassioned reviews and features in major publications such as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have consistently praised Saunders's detailed knowledge of the CIA's covert operations. The Cultural Cold War presents for the first time shocking evidence of cultural manipulation during the Cold War. This "impressively detailed" ( Kirkus Reviews) book draws together newly declassified documents and exclusive interviews to expose the CIA's astonishing campaign wherein some of the most vocal exponents of intellectual freedom became instruments of the American government. Those involved included George Orwell, Bertrand Russell, Jean-Paul Sartre, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., and Gloria Steinem. The result is "a tale of intrigue and betrayal, with scene after scene as thrilling as any in a John Le Carre novel" ( The Chronicle of Higher Education).8 pages of black-and-white photographs.
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Hacker News Stories and Comments

All the comments and stories posted to Hacker News that reference this book.
In fact the CIA uses all the above you mentioned ranging from priests, charities, NGOS, humanitarian outfits, journalists and the media as fronts and covers for their spying. It is documented multiple times over decades. The CIA even has it's own official NGO called the National Endowment for Democracy.

My favorite is the US AID CIA spy who goes into Afghanistan in the 1980s that is profiled in Charlie Wilson's war. Or the fake vaccination program they conducted with "humanitarian" NGOs and charities:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-cia-fake-vacc...

My favorite CIA journalists are the ones who worked for CBS and other publications and were involved in promoting Modern Art around the world with NGOs like MoMA, the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations:

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/artcurious-cia-art-excerpt...

https://daily.jstor.org/was-modern-art-really-a-cia-psy-op/

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20161004-was-modern-art-...

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/modern-art-was-cia-...

https://www.amazon.com/Cultural-Cold-War-World-Letters/dp/15...

https://www.amazon.com/ArtCurious-Unexpected-Slightly-Strang...

There is a humorous scene in Men In Black where they refer to Andy Warhol as a CIA spy.

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