| Founded | 26 June 1950 |
|---|---|
| Dissolved | 1979 (as International Association for Cultural Freedom) |
| Location |
|
| Origins | Central Intelligence Agency |
Area served | Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, Latin America, Australia |
| Method | conferences, journals, seminars |
Key people | Melvin J. Lasky,Nikolai Nabokov,Michael Josselson,Thomas Braden |
Parent organization | International Organizations Division |
| Endowment | CIA to 1966;Ford Foundation to 1979 |
TheCongress for Cultural Freedom (CCF) was ananti-communist cultural organization during theCold War that aimed to promote intellectual freedom and combat Soviettotalitarianism. A group of anti-communist intellectuals founded the congress in 1950 at a conference inWest Berlin.[1] 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.[2] The congress aimed to enlist intellectuals and opinion makers from the non-communist left in awar of ideas againstcommunism.[1] In 1966 former CIA agents confirmed that theCentral Intelligence Agency was instrumental in the establishment and funding of the CCF.[3] Through this involvement, the CCF promoted western political ideology while also representing semi-autonomous intellectual movements across Europe.[4]
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.[5]Frances Stonor Saunders argues that the CCF functioned as a covert propaganda network "to ease the passage of American foreign policy interest abroad."[2]
The CCF was founded on 26 June 1950 inWest Berlin, which had just endured months ofSoviet blockade. Formation of the CCF came in response to a series of events orchestrated byCominform, as part of a campaign to influence public opinion against US war-mongering and aggression.[1][2] In 1948, theWorld Congress of Intellectuals in Defense of Peace convened inWrocław (Poland) on August 1948. Then in March 1950 theWorld Peace Council issued theStockholm Appeal, demanding active peace amidst the threat of nuclear war. The Cominform campaign reachedNew York City in March 1949 with the Cultural and Scientific Conference for World Peace at theWaldorf-Astoria Hotel.[1] The conference was attended by a plethora of prominent U.S.liberals,leftists andpacifists who called for peace with the Soviet Union. Prominent participants includedDmitri Shostakovich andAaron Copland. In response to the conference, anti-communist opponents took up residence in the upper floor of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in an attempt to discredit the peace conference. Led by ex-communist and philosophy professorSidney Hook, the group enlisted a range of international supporters for their cause, includingBenedetto Croce,T. S. Eliot,Karl Jaspers,André Malraux,Bertrand Russell andIgor Stravinsky.[2] In a three room suite, the opposers, who called themselves Americans for Intellectual Freedom, sabotaged the conference with press releases in a media frenzy to publicize its pro-communist influence.[2]
The Waldorf conference catalyzed a counter offense by the U.S.Office of Policy Coordination, led byFrank Wisner, who began to plan a response to the next pro-communist peace gathering scheduled for April 1949 in Paris.[1][6] 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".[2]
In August 1949, several German ex-communist intellectuals along with American journalistMelvin Lasky met to discuss plans for an international conference in Berlin that would bring together ex-communists and anti-Stalinists from across Europe and America.[1] The plan was promoted and organized byMichael Josselson andLasky, who together proposed the plan to Washington and issued invitations. The founding conference for the Congress for Cultural Freedom was held in Berlin in June 1950 and was attended by leading intellectuals from the U.S. and Western Europe including Soviet refugees, European federalists, members of the anti-fascism movement, and union leaders.[4] Other attendees were writers, philosophers, critics and historians:Franz Borkenau,Karl Jaspers,John Dewey,Ignazio Silone,Jacques Maritain,James Burnham,Hugh Trevor-Roper,Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.,Bertrand Russell,Ernst Reuter,Raymond Aron,A. J. Ayer,Benedetto Croce,Arthur Koestler,Richard Löwenthal,Melvin J. Lasky,Tennessee Williams,Irving Brown andSidney Hook. There were conservatives among the participants, but non-Communist (or former Communist) left-wingers were more numerous.[7] 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.[5]
An Executive Committee was elected in 1950 at the founding conference in Berlin, with seven members and six alternate members:Irving Brown (Haakon Lie), Arthur Koestler (Raymond Aron),Eugen Kogon (Carlo Schmid),David Rousset (Georges Altman),Ignazio Silone (Nicola Chiaromonte),Stephen Spender (Tosco Fyvel) andDenis de Rougemont who became President of the committee.[5]
The management of the CCF was entrusted to its secretariat, headed byMichael Josselson.[2] By the time Josselson joined the Congress of Cultural Freedom in 1950 he was "undoubtedly aCIA officer".[5] A polyglot able to converse fluently in four languages (English, Russian, German and French), Josselson was heavily involved in the CCF's growing range of activities – its periodicals, worldwide conferences and international seminars – until his resignation in 1967, following the exposure of funding by the CIA.[5]
At its height, the CCF had offices in 35 countries, employed dozens of personnel, and published over 20 prestigious magazines. It held art exhibitions, owned a news and features service, organized high-profile international conferences, and rewarded musicians and artists with prizes and public performances.[2]
The CCF published its first magazine,Preuves, in October 1951.[2] The publication was edited and organized byFrançios Bondy, a Swiss writer who had been appointed to the congress secretariat in 1950.Preuves became the forefront of CCF activities and ideology, serving as a blueprint for following publications.[8] The magazine faced criticism in Paris for its promotion ofAtlanticist foreign policy and was dubbed by critics as the "American Magazine".[6] In 1953, the CCF launched theEncounter magazine in London, designed to influence intellectual literacy in the UK towards Anglo-American interests.[2] As well as sponsoring and publishing multiple magazines, the CCF worked with affiliates across Europe and Africa by creating non-profit organizations covertly funded by the CIA.[2]
Between 1950 and 1966 the Congress sponsored numerous conferences. A selective list describes 16 conferences in the 1950s held principally in Western Europe, but also inRangoon,Mexico City,Tokyo,Ibadan (Nigeria) andSouth Vietnam: the Founding Conference in Berlin was followed in 1951 by the First Asian Conference on Cultural Freedom, held inBombay. A further 21 conferences over an even wider geographical area are listed for the first half of the 1960s.[5]
In the early 1960s, the CCF mounted a campaign against theChilean poetPablo Neruda, an ardent communist. The campaign intensified when it appeared that Neruda was a candidate for theNobel Prize in Literature in 1964 but he was also published inMundo Nuevo, a CCF-sponsored periodical.[5] Other prominent intellectuals targeted by the CCF wereJean-Paul Sartre,Simone de Beauvoir andThomas Mann who was becoming increasingly pro-Soviet.[9] From 1950 to 1969, the CCF financed German writers such asHeinrich Böll andSiegfried Lenz.[1]
On April 1, 1952, the congress hosted the Masterpieces of the Twentieth Century, an art festival highlighting 20th century and modernist art movements with a selection of concertos, symphonies, and art galleries.[2] The event was proposed and organized byNicholas Nabokov who was acting as CCF Secretary General of the International Secretariat. The festival orchestra performances featured composer works byArnold Schoenberg,Claude Debussy, andPaul Hindemith.[2] The art and sculpture exhibition featured works byHenri Matisse,Andre Derain,Paul Cézanne,Georges Seurat,Marc Chagall,Wassily Kadinsky, and other masters of the early modernist movement. The festival received mixed reviews, with critics noting the lack of diversity and the pro-American curations.[6]
From 1953 to 1990, the CCF'sEncounter magazine published an array of essays, articles, and stories from prominent intellectual minds in Europe.[2] Authors includedNancy Mitford,Isaiah Berlin,Vladimir Nabokov,Jorge Luis Borges,Richard Ellmann,W. H. Auden,Arnold Toynbee,Bertrand Russell,Herbert Read, andHugh Trevor-Roper. The featured literature focused on ideology and cultural topics rather than political ones, stressing anti-communist themes. Many essays were translated into multiple languages for transnational publications, such as works featured inAfricane andBlack Orpheus.[10] CCF sponsored publications often omitted literary texts that did not align with the values of democracy and "cultural freedom".[10] From 1950 to 1969, the CCF financed German writers such asHeinrich Böll andSiegfried Lenz.[11]
In April 1966,The New York Times ran a series of five articles on the purposes and methods of the CIA.[12][13][14][15][16] The third of these 1966 articles began to detailfalse-front organizations and the secret transfer of CIA funds to theUS State Department or to theUnited 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".[17] In these articles, TheNew York Times cited the CIA's funding of the Congress for Cultural Freedom and itsEncounter magazine.
In 1967, the US magazinesRamparts andThe 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.[18] These reports were lent credence by a statement made by a former CIAcovert operations director admitting toCIA financing and operation of the CCF.[5] The CIA website states that "the Congress for Cultural Freedom is widely considered one of the CIA's more daring and effective Cold War covert operations."[1]
That same year in May,Thomas Braden, head of the CCF's parent body theInternational Organizations Division, responded to theRamparts report in an article entitled"I'm Glad the CIA is 'Immoral'", in theSaturday Evening Post, defending the activities of his unit within the CIA. For more than ten years, Braden admitted, the CIA had subsidizedEncounter through the CCF, which it also funded; one of the magazine's staff, he added, was a CIA agent.[19]
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.[5] Coleman recognizes the involvement of the CIA, but argues that the funding and support did not influence editorial decisions.[5]
Historian and journalist Frances Stonor Saunders argues that the role of the CCF restricted freedom of thought and promoted "American foreign policy interests."[2] Saunders cites the endorsement of organizations and pro-American intellectuals. Historians such as Giles Scott-Smith, Andrea Scionti, Volker Berghahn, and Hugh Wilford present more nuanced arguments that recognize the global and cultural impacts of the CCF beyond covert operations.[6]
In 1967, the organization was renamed the International Association for Cultural Freedom (IACF) and continued to exist with funding from theFord Foundation. It inherited "the remaining magazines and national committees, the practice of international seminars, the regional programs, and the ideal of a worldwide community of intellectuals." There was also, until 1970, "some continuity of personnel".[5]
UnderShepard Stone andPierre Emmanuel the dominant policy of the new Association shifted from positions held by its predecessor. No "public anti-Soviet protests" were issued, "not even in support of the harassed Solzhenitsyn and Sakharov". The culmination of this approach was a vast seminar at Princeton on "The United States: Its Problems, Impact, and Image in the World" (December 1968) where unsuccessful attempts were made to engage with the New Left. From 1968 onwards national committees and magazines (see CCF/IACF Publications below) shut down one after another. In 1977 the Paris office closed and two years later the Association voted to dissolve itself.[5]
Certain of the publications that began as CCF-supported vehicles secured a readership and ongoing relevance that, with other sources of funding, enabled them to long outlast the parent organisation.Encounter continued publishing until 1991, as didSurvey, while the AustralianQuadrant and theChina Quarterly are active as of 2025. While the revelation of CIA funding led to some resignations, notably that of Stephen Spender fromEncounter, outside Europe the impact was more dramatic. In Uganda, PresidentMilton Obote had editor ofTransition magazine,Rajat Neogy, arrested and imprisoned. After Neogy left Uganda in 1968 the magazine ceased to exist.
The European Intellectual Mutual Aid Fund (Fondation pour une Entraide Intellectuelle Européenne) set up to support intellectuals in Central Europe, began life as an affiliate of the Congress for Cultural Freedom. In 1991 it merged with theOpen Society Foundations, set up and supported by financier and philanthropistGeorge Soros.[20] The records of the International Association for Cultural Freedom and its predecessor the Congress for Cultural Freedom are today stored at the Library of theUniversity of Chicago in its Special Collections Research Center and at theTamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives atNew York University as of 2025.
The Congress founded, sponsored or encouraged a number of publications to disseminate its ideas.[21] Some of them are the following:
| Name | Region | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aportes | Latin America | closed 1972 | Produced by the Latin American Institute for International Relations (ILARI), established in 1966, which was closed by IACF in 1972.[22] |
| Black Orpheus | Nigeria | 1957–1975 | Founded by German expatriate editor and scholarUlli Beier,Black Orpheus has been described as a powerful catalyst for artistic awakening throughout West Africa.[23] |
| Cadernos Brasileiros | Brazil | 1959–1971 | A quarterly (until 1963), later bi-monthly, literary magazine.[24] ICAF subsidy ceased in 1971.[22] |
| Censorship | United Kingdom | 1964–1967 | Edited by Murray Mindlin, the six published issues dealt with censorship around the world. (In 1972Index on Censorship, a publication covering the same themes, was founded by Stephen Spender.)[25] |
| China Report | India | 1964–1970s | Established at the New Delhi bureau of the Congress,China Report became a bimonthly journalistic enterprise.[26] After its IACF subsidy ended in 1971 it found other sources of funding.[22] |
| The China Quarterly | United Kingdom | 1960 to present | Became a leading journal on Communist China (and also Taiwan) by reason of its lack of rivals in the field and the scholarly standard of its articles.[27] When its IACF subsidy ceased in 1968 it found other sources of funding.[22] |
| Cuadernos del Congreso por la Libertad de la Cultura | Paris, intended for distribution in Latin America | 1953–1965 | Edited byJulián Gorkin, assisted byIgnacio Iglesias andLuis Mercier Verga – a cultural quarterly magazine that reached 100 issues.[28] |
| Encounter | United Kingdom | 1953–1991 | A literary-political magazine founded byStephen Spender andIrving Kristol. By 1963 its circulation had risen to 34,000[29] and that year the magazine secured independent funding.[30] Edited from 1958 onwards byMelvin J. Lasky. |
| Examen | Mexico | 1958–1962 | A cultural magazine.[31] |
| Forvm | Austria | 1954–1995 | A political and cultural magazine founded byFriederich Torberg and others. In 1965 it was taken over by Gunter Nenning and becameNeues Forum, a publication devoted to Christian-Communist dialogue.[32] |
| Hiwar | Lebanon | 1962–1967 | A bi-monthly literary and cultural magazine published in Beirut, and focusing on the Arab world.[33] |
| Informes de China | Argentina | 1960s | Set up to provide Latin America with information about China.[34] |
| Jiyu (Freedom) | Japan | 1960 to present | One of the most heavily subsidized of all the CFF magazines.[35] Edited by Hoki Ishihara.[36] The chief editor Isihara found other sources of funding when subsidies from Paris and the national committee ceased to exist.[37] |
| Kulturkontakt | Sweden | 1954–1960 | Bimonthly political and cultural magazine, published bySvenska kommittén för kulturens frihet (Swedish Committee for Cultural Freedom).[38] Publishers wereTure Nerman (1954–57) andIngemar Hedenius (1957–60). Edited byBirgitta Stenberg,Kurt Salomonson andBengt Alexanderson.[39] |
| Minerva | United Kingdom | 1962 to present | A quarterly started by sociologistEdward Shils to address issues relating to the "worldwide intellectual community", and particularly the growth in universities.[40] |
| Der Monat | Germany | 1948–1987 | A German-language journal airlifted into Berlin during the1948 Soviet blockade and edited byMelvin J. Lasky until 1978, when it was purchased byDie Zeit. ICAF subsidy ceased in 1968.[22] It continued as a quarterly until 1987. |
| Mundo Nuevo | Latin America | 1966–1971 | Successor toCuadernos (see above). It published established and political writers, holding a variety of views such asPablo Neruda andJorge Luis Borges,[41] ceasing to exist when IACF funding ended in 1971.[22] |
| Perspektiv | Denmark | 1953–69[42] | Described itself as"a magazine for politics, science and culture". Published byHans Reitzel, edited byHenning Fonsmark[43] andH.C. Branner. Entered a partnership withSelskabet 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 inCopenhagen.[44] |
| Preuves | France | 1951–1975 | A cultural, intellectual and literary monthly magazine. CCF's first magazine. Preuves means "proof" or "evidence" in French. Edited byFrançois Bondy, a Swiss writer.[35] |
| Quadrant | Australia | 1956 to present | A literary journal published by the Australian Association for Cultural Freedom, edited by Catholic poetJames McAuley, had an "anticommunist thrust".[35][45][46] ICAF subsidy of the Association and ofQuadrant ceased in 1972.[22] |
| Quest | India | 1955–1958 | English only.[35] In 1971 IACF stopped supporting New Delhi and Calcutta offices.[22] Originally edited byNissim Ezekiel.[47] |
| Sasanggye | South Korea | 1953–1970 | Founded byChang Chun-ha.[48][23] |
| Science and Freedom | 1954–1961 | Edited byMichael Polanyi. Biannual bulletin with "a tiny readership"[35] of 3,000. In 1961 the Congress Executive replaced it withMinerva (see above). | |
| Social Science Review | Thailand[49] | ICAF subsidy ceased in 1971; theReview found other sources of funding.[22] | |
| Solidarity | Philippines | 1960s & 1970s | A cultural, intellectual and literary monthly magazine.[23] After its IACF subsidy ended in 1971 it found other sources of funding.[22] |
| Soviet Survey (becameSurvey) | 1955–1989 | At first a monthly newsletter edited byWalter Laqueur, the CCF's official representative inIsrael. After 1964 became a quarterly journal, edited byLeopold Labedz, focused on Soviet bloc. IACF subsidy ceased in early 1970s; the magazine found other sources of funding.[22] | |
| Tempo Presente | Italy | 1956–1967[22] | Edited byIgnazio Silone andNicola Chiaromonte.[35] |
| Transition Magazine[23] | Uganda | 1961–1968[50] | EditorRajat Neogy.[50] 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.[51] |
AlthoughThe Paris Review was co-founded by novelist and CIA operativePeter Matthiessen, who was affiliated with the CCF, the magazine was reportedly a cover for Matthiessen, and not part of the CCF's operations.[52] However,The Paris Review often sold interviews it conducted to CCF-established magazines.[53]
This is the American way of doing things, to expect to solve all the world's problems in four days", complained Sulak Sivaraksa, editor of Bangkok's Social Science Review. Crumped U.S. Economist Carl Kaysen: "Everyone wants to talk and no one wants to listen." The occasion for their disgruntlement was a four-day meeting last week in Princeton of some 90 international intellectuals assembled for a look at "The U.S.—Its Problems, Impact and Image in the World.
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