How the CIA Created a Fake Western Reality for ‘Unconventional Warfare’
In 1950, the CIA helped establish the Congress for Cultural Freedom—an anti-communist advocacy group—to neutralize political opposition to Anglo-American culture.
"The Evil Spirits of the Modern Daily Press," a cartoon from Puck magazine in 1888. (Wikimedia)
1
2
Organized by Burnham and Hook, the American delegation represented a who’s who of America’s postwar intellectuals. Tickets to Berlin were paid for by Wisner’s Office of Policy Coordination through front organizations and the Department of State, which helped arrange travel, expenses and publicity. According to CIA historian Michael Warner, the conference sponsors considered it money well spent, with one Defense Department representative calling it “unconventional warfare at its best.”
Burnham functioned as a critical connection between Wisner’s office and the intelligentsia moving from the extreme left to the extreme right with ease. Burnham found the congress to be a place to inveigh not just against Communism but against the non-communist left as well and left many wondering whether his views weren’t as dangerous to liberal democracy as Communism. According to Frances Stoner Saunders, members of the British delegation found the rhetoric coming out of the congress to be a deeply troubling sign of things to come. “Hugh Trevor-Roper was appalled by the provocative tone. … There was a speech by Franz Borkenau which was very violent and indeed almost hysterical. He spoke in German and I regret to say that as I listened and I heard the baying voices of approval from the huge audiences, I felt, well, these are the same people who seven years ago were probably baying in the same way to similar German denunciations of Communism coming from Dr. Goebbels in the Sports Palast. And I felt, well, what sort of people are we identifying with? That was the greatest shock to me. There was a moment during the Congress when I felt that we were being invited to summon up Beelzebub in order to defeat Stalin.”
The Congress for Cultural Freedom didn’t need Beelzebub. It already had him in the form of Burnham, Hook and Wisner, and by 1952, the party was just getting started. Burnham worked overtime for Wisner legitimizing the congress as a platform for the Machiavellians alongside ex-Communists and even Nazis, including SS Gen. Reinhard Gehlen and his German army intelligence unit, which had been brought into the CIA after the war intact. E. Howard Hunt, Watergate “plumber” and famous CIA dirty trickster, remembered Burnham in his memoirs: “Burnham was a consultant to OPC on virtually every subject of interest to our organization. … He had extensive contacts in Europe and, by virtue of his Trotskyite background, was something of an authority on domestic and foreign Communist parties and front organizations.”
In 1953 Burnham was called upon again by Wisner to reach beyond Communism to help overthrow the democratically elected Mohammed Mossadegh in Tehran, Iran, apparently because Wisner thought the plan needed “a touch of Machiavelli.” But Burnham’s greatest contribution as a Machiavellian was yet to come. His book, “The Machiavellians: Defenders of Freedom,” would become the CIA’s manual for displacing Western culture with an alternative doctrine for endless conflict in a world of oligarchs. In the end, it opened the gates to an Inferno from which there would be no return.
Part 4 of “Universal Empire” will be published Thursday and look beyond Soviet Communism into the creation of the sophisticated doctrinal campaign that led to the final stage of the Machiavellian elites’ takeover of America.
Part 1: American Imperialism Leads the World Into Dante’s Vision of Hell
Part 2: How Neocons Push for War by Cooking the Books
Part 4: The Final Stage of the Machiavellian Elites’ Takeover of America
Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould are the authors of “Invisible History: Afghanistan’s Untold Story,” “Crossing Zero: The AfPak War at the Turning Point of American Empire” and “The Voice.” Visit their websites at invisiblehistory.com and grailwerk.com.
Dig, Root, Grow
SUPPORT TRUTHDIG
This year, we’re all on shaky ground, and the need for independent journalism has never been greater. A new administration is openly attacking free press — and the stakes couldn’t be higher.
Your support is more than a donation. It helps us dig deeper into hidden truths, root out corruption and misinformation, and grow an informed, resilient community.
Independent journalism like Truthdig doesn't just report the news — it helps cultivate a better future.
Your tax-deductible gift powers fearless reporting and uncompromising analysis. Together, we can protect democracy and expose the stories that must be told.
Dig. Root. Grow. Cultivate a better future.
Donate today.
Related Stories
In The Atlantic, David Frum argues that liberals must curtail immigration—or authoritarians will. He’s already chosen his side.
Blinded by their hatred for Trump, mainstream Democrats refuse to acknowledge that our withdrawal from the Middle East is long overdue.
The last decade has been a triumph for Keynesian economics, argues The Week’s Ryan Cooper.
Mainstream voices never mention that regime change pushed by one country against another is illegal.
If what the U.S. government and media are saying about Iran seems vaguely familiar, it's because we've heard it all before.
President Trump and neoconservatives want to exploit demonstrations about the Iranian economy for their own political gains.
In The Atlantic, David Frum argues that liberals must curtail immigration—or authoritarians will. He’s already chosen his side.
Blinded by their hatred for Trump, mainstream Democrats refuse to acknowledge that our withdrawal from the Middle East is long overdue.
The last decade has been a triumph for Keynesian economics, argues The Week’s Ryan Cooper.
Mainstream voices never mention that regime change pushed by one country against another is illegal.
If what the U.S. government and media are saying about Iran seems vaguely familiar, it's because we've heard it all before.
President Trump and neoconservatives want to exploit demonstrations about the Iranian economy for their own political gains.
You need to be a supporter to comment.
There are currently no responses to this article.
Be the first to respond.