![]() ![]() Speaking of CIA-funded cultural movements, it turns out the 1960s drug culture was helped along by everyone's favourite spy agency. Especially when it's discovered that other counter-cultural movements of the period were funded by the Agency, it would seem that the program was aimed more at demoralizing America itself than in scoring cultural points in the Cold War. Given that it probably just made the Russkies cock an eyebrow or laugh at American silliness, one has to wonder what the real purpose of the program was. So why would the CIA be interested in promoting an artist who hung paint cans upside down and let them drizzle on to the canvas randomly? The official explanation is that it was all part of a cunning plan to convince the Soviets of the vibrant creativity of American culture.Or something like that. As we now know (thanks to the 1995 admission of former case officer Donald Jameson) they also funded abstract expressionist painters, from Jackson Pollack to Mark Rothko to Willem de Kooning. In 1950, Tom Braden set up the CIA's International Organizations Division specifically to pay for such diverse artistic endeavors as the touring program of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the animation of George Orwell's Animal Farm (complete with an altered ending that made it more palatable for American propaganda purposes). Because we all know the CIA would never lie about something like that, right?ĭo you ever get the feeling that modern art can only exist because it's being funded by the CIA in a vast conspiracy to confuse and disorient the public? Because if you do, you'd be exactly right.Īt least, such was the case throughout much of the 50s and 60s. news service, newspaper, radio station, television network or journalist. Bush created a new agency policy promising that the CIA would never again contract with any accredited U.S. The program formally came to an end in February 1976 when then-Director George. The CIA's drive to infiltrate the news media was codenamed "Operation Mockingbird" and included everything from Sulzberger's New York Times and Paley's CBS down to AP, Newsweek, Reuters and even the Louisville Courier-Journal. ![]() There were ten CIA operatives working at the New York Times in the 50s and 60s alone. The connection was first uncovered by Ramparts Magazine in 1966, investigated by Congress in the mid-70s and documented in detail by Carl Bernstein in his landmark 1977 Rolling Stone article, " The CIA and the Media." In the report, Bernstein identifies Sulzberger (along with Henry Luce of Time Inc., William Paley of CBS and numerous other mass media organizations) as working directly and knowingly with the CIA to help the agency achieve its propaganda objectives. was one of the most influential men in the news media from the early 1960s to the late 1990s. She ran the OSS Registry in China during the final crucial months of the war in the Pacific.Īs publisher of The New York Times, Arthur Sulzberger Sr. ![]() She spent time in Ceylon helping to coordinate the invasion of the Malay Peninsula. She helped develop a shark repellent to coat marine explosives for the U-boat warfare effort. ![]() Wanting to join the war effort, she applied to the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of today's CIA, and started work as a research assistant directly under OSS Director William "Wild Bill" Donovan.įrom there her career took several surprising turns. Julia McWilliams was an advertising copy writer for a New York City furniture store when Pearl Harbor changed her life. When you think Julia Child, you probably think "soufflé" before you think "spy." But you'd be wrong. So I bet you never knew these people were secretly working for the CIA. Spies are meant to blend in, not stick out, and the best spies are the ones you're least likely to expect. When you think of a CIA agent, you probably think of the Hollywood stereotypes: a tall, athletic man in a black suit with dark sunglasses, walking around with one hand on his gun and the other on his ear piece.īut that's stupid. Watch this video on BitChute / DTube / YouTube Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed ![]()
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