Tip of the Iceberg: The CIA and The Paris Review

A very important article appeared in Salon recently – so important that both the L.A. Times and New York Times saw fit to take swipes at it.

Noting The Paris Review’s long-standing relationship with the CIA front organization Congress for Cultural Freedom, the article takes stock of the profound influence of the Agency and other intelligence services on the American intelligentsia. (An excellent account of the CCF is to be found in Frances Stonor Saun­ders’ The Cultural Cold War.)

An epicenter of respected literary culture for decades in this and other countries, The Paris Review served as a cover for the intelligence career of its founder Peter Matthiessen and is part of a constellation of periodicals that have served as bellwethers of cultural and intellectual merit around the world.

We would note that dynamics of this kind fundamentally shape what passes for “progressive” politics and the culture embodied in them.

Apart from the pivotal influence of CIA in the cultures that shaped the second half of the 20th century, the number of luminaries in the liberal-to-left segment of society with agency affiliations could not be exaggerated.  (more...)

Tip of the Iceberg: The CIA and The Paris Review

...above the neck