The liberal conspiracy: the Congress for Cultural Freedom and the struggle for the mind of postwar Europe

In 1950, the Congress for Cultural Freedom was formed. This was a group of over 100 European and American writers and liberal intellectuals, formed to counter the rise of Stalin. This fascinating book reveals the flaws of this Congress, which was secretly funded by the CIA. Illustrated. Contents Preface 1 Out of No Man’s Land 2 The 1950 Offensive 3 Good-bye to Berlin 4 Encounter: “Our Greatest Asset” 5 Magazines Against the Tide 6 Plato’s Banquet 7 The Impossible Dialogue 8 The Crusade for the World 9 The “Obnoxious” Americans 10 Changing Direction: “The New Enlightenment” 11 Magazines of the Sixties 12 Liberal Hopes and Musions in the “Underdeveloped” World 13 Reaching Behind the Iron Curtain 14 A Black Operation? 15 The Aflermath: “No Consensus Emerged” 16 The Congress in Retrospect Appendix A: Manifesto of Congress for Cultural Freedom (.Berlin, 1950) Appendix B: Selective List of Conferences Sponsored by the Congress for Cultural Freedom Appendix C: Some of the Institutions That Co-Sponsored Congress Seminars Appendix D: Books Published by the Congress for Cultural Freedom or Its Affiliated Groups Appendix E: Congress for Cultural Freedom, Summary of 1966 Expenditures Notes Bibliography Acknowledgments Index The Congress for Cultural Freedom was America's principal attempt during the Cold War to win over the world's intellectuals to the liberal democratic cause. Established in Berlin by 100 refugees from Hitler and Stalin, it spread throughout the world, establishing magazines, publishing books, holding conferences and festivals, organising protests, setting up a network of national committees, and fostering personal contacts. It dissolved in 1967 amid disclosures of its funding by the CIA. Peter Coleman tells an astonishing story of the idealistic, courageous and far-sighted men and women who fought the war of ideas, with its own suffering and atrocities, against Stalinism and its successors.-- Provided by Publisher Profiles the Congress for Cultural Freedom, an organization of liberal writers and thinkers formed in 1950 to combat Stalin's influence and was funded by the CIA