1950 June 26

Anti-Communist Congress for Cultural Freedom Formed

 

The Congress for Cultural Freedom, an international liberal anti-Communist group that was secretly funded by the CIA, was founded on this day.

The Congress was designed to offset the impact of international conferences and events sponsored by the Soviet Union. While a few leaders of the Congress were “witting” (the term then used for those knowledgeable about the secret CIA connection), people who participated in its events were not, and were embarrassed when the secret role of the CIA was exposed in the 1960s.

The exposure of secret CIA funding of non-profit organizations, scholars, journalists and others began with the March 1967 issue of Ramparts Magazine (February 15, 1967). President Lyndon Johnson responded to the scandal with an executive order on March 29, 1967 prohibiting secret CIA funding of private organizations.

Learn more from the CIA itself:
https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/95unclass/Warner.html

Learn more: Peter Coleman, The Liberal Conspiracy: The Congress for Cultural Freedom and the Struggle for the Mind of Postwar Europe (1989)

Learn more about the Congress for Cultural Freedom: http://modernhistoryproject.org/mhp?Article=Kulturkampf

Read: Hugh Wilford, The Mighty Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played America (2008)

Find a Day

Go
Abortion Rights ACLU african-americans Alice Paul anti-communism Anti-Communist Hysteria Birth Control Brown v. Board of Education Censorship CIA Civil Rights Civil Rights Act of 1964 Cold War Espionage Act FBI First Amendment Fourteenth Amendment freedom of speech Free Speech Gay Rights Hate Speech homosexuality Hoover, J. Edgar HUAC Japanese American Internment King, Dr. Martin Luther Ku Klux Klan Labor Unions Lesbian and Gay Rights Loyalty Oaths McCarthy, Sen. Joe New York Times Obscenity Police Misconduct Same-Sex Marriage Separation of Church and State Sex Discrimination Smith Act Spying Spying on Americans Vietnam War Voting Rights Voting Rights Act of 1965 War on Terror Watergate White House Women's Rights Women's Suffrage World War I World War II Relocation Camps

Topics

Tell Us What You Think

We want to hear your comments, criticisms and suggestions!