This e-book questions the normal knowledge approximately essentially the most arguable episodes within the chilly warfare, and tells the tale of the CIA's backing of the Congress for Cultural Freedom.

For approximately twenty years throughout the early chilly struggle, the CIA secretly subsidized many of the world’s so much feted writers, philosophers, and scientists as a part of a crusade to avoid Communism from regaining a foothold in Western Europe and from spreading to Asia. by way of backing the Congress for Cultural Freedom, the CIA sponsored dozens of trendy magazines, international congresses, annual seminars, and inventive fairs. while this operation (QKOPERA) turned public in 1967, it ignited some of the most destructive scandals in CIA background. Ever for the reason that then, many money owed have argued that the CIA manipulated a new release of intellectuals into lending their names to pro-American, anti-Communist rules. Others have instructed a extra nuanced photo of the connection among the Congress and the CIA, with intellectuals occasionally resisting the CIA's bidding. only a few money owed, even if, have tested the fellow who held the Congress jointly: Michael Josselson, the Congress’s vital manager—and, secretly, decades CIA agent. This e-book fills that hole. utilizing a wealth of archival learn and interviews with some of the figures linked to the Congress, this ebook sheds new gentle on how the Congress got here into life and functioned, either as a magnet for famous intellectuals and as a CIA operation.

This ebook could be of a lot curiosity to scholars of the CIA, chilly battle background, intelligence experiences, US overseas coverage and diplomacy in general.