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UFPPC (www.ufppc.org) Digging Deeper LVIII: September 29, 2008, 7:00 p.m.
Hugh Wilford,
The Might Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played America
(Cambridgeand London: Harvard University Press, January 2008).List of Illustrations.
 
Abbreviations.
 
Introduction.
The U.S. National StudentAssociation was the first CIA frontorganization to be exposed, in February1967, quickly followed by many others(1-5). The CIA’s covert network began inthe late 1940s, based on the Cold War,domestic anti-communism, and Americanlove of associations (5-7). The book’stitle comes from a remark by FrankWisner, “the Agency’s first chief of political warfare” (7). Three phases: 1)organizations providing cover forémigrés; 2) operations to shore of Western European civil society; 3)programs aimed at Third World nations(7-8). Earlier interpretations haveexaggerated the CIA’s ability to call thetune (8-10). Aims of book: to becomprehensive though not exhaustive,and to present as rounded a picture aspossible (10). “U.S. citizens at firstfollowed the Agency’s score, then beganimprovising their own tunes, eventuallyturning harmony into cacophony” (10).
Ch. 1: Innocents’ Clubs: The Originsof the CIA Front.
Communist frontorganizations were pioneered by WilliMünzenberg in the 1920s and 1930s (11-15). “Will Bill” Donovan, appointedCoordinator of Information (COI) by FDRin 1941, founded the Office of StrategicServices (OSS) (15-18). OSS-CIAconnections have been exaggerated, ashave the left-liberal leanings of theseorganizations (18-19). Frank Wisner,from Mississippi, built a network of anticommunist spies in the Balkans inWWII (19-20). In 1945, Truman declinedto found an intelligence agency (20-21).But in 1946, as the Cold War began andKennan’s containment doctrine wasadopted, he changed his mind (22-23).In early 1948, Kennan planned thecreation of a “covert political warfareoperations directorate within theGovernment” (25; 24-27). The OSS “ParkAvenue cowboys” were brought back,and the Mighty Wurlitzer was born (27-28).
Ch. 2: Secret Army: Emigrés.
TheNational Committee for a Free Europe(NCFE) was founded in 1949 as a frontorganization to support émigrés (29-34).Radio Free Europe was founded in 1950(34-36). Factions were rife (36-37).Émigrés were hard to control (37-40). The American Committee for theLiberation for the Peoples of the USSR(AMCOMLIB) founded in 1951 for émigrésfrom the Soviet Union (40-44). FrankWisner exaggerated his capacity tocontrol projects (44-47). Ironically, faithin “rollback” was lost just as Eisenhower,identified with “liberation,” took power(47-48). Wisner ultimately becameunbalanced, was relieved of duties, and,in 1965, committed suicide (49-50).From the late 1950s on, émigrés becameless important (50).
Ch. 3: AFL-CIA: Labor.
Organizationsled by ex-communist Jay Lovestone andhis acolyte Irving Brown working withGeorge Meany in opposing communistinfluence in the labor movement throughthe Free Trade Union Committee (FTUC)were funded by the CIA beginning in1948 (51-56). But Lovestone refused totake direction from the CIA and relationswere fraught (56-60). The CIA alsocourted the CIO, to Lovestone’s dismay(60-65). Its relation to labor dwindled asthe 1950s progressed (65-69).
Ch. 4: A Deep Sickness in New York:Intellectuals.
The “New York
 
intellectuals”—led by Sidney Hook and James Burnham—were highbrow andanti-communist; the Congress forCultural Freedom’s New York-basedaffiliate, the American Committee forCultural Freedom (ACCF), was an evenmore troublesome client than the FTUC(70-98).
Ch. 5: The Cultural Cold War:Writers, Artists, Musicians,Filmmakers.
Sponsorship of theCongress for Cultural Freedom, the moststudied of the CIA front organizations,was a response to communism’s claim tobe the true heir of the Enlightenment; itwas exposed by the
New York Times
in1967, but was impossible to control (99-122).
Ch. 6: The CIA on Campus: Students.
Unclear whether Henry Kissinger knewthat the Harvard International SummerSchool that was conceived by Prof.William Y. Elliott and begun in 1951 wasfunded by the CIA (123-28). Yale andPrinceton were centers of recruitment(128). There were many autonomousanti-communist youth organizations(129-30). Allard Lowenstein, liberal anti-communist, appears not to have enjoyeddirect CIA support (130-34). The CIAintervened in elections of the NationalStudent Assn. (NSA) in the early 1950sand arranged for funding disguised asmoney from an anonymous donor (134-36). Details of how the CIA managed theNSA and kept most unaware that it was afront organization (though Tom Haydenfigured it out) (136-41). Gloria Steinemas “witting” director of the CIA-frontIndependent Service for Information(Zbigniew Brzezinski was also a “star”)(141-48).
Ch. 7: The Truth Shall Make YouFree: Women.
Dorothy Bauman,Minnesota-born wife of a U.S.businessman, was recruited in 1952 bythe CIA to lead what became in 1953 theCommittee of Correspondence, a pro-American propaganda organization (149-60). When CIA funding became public,many of the unwitting were furious (160-63). The CIA did try to shape theCommittee’s program, but the effect of this should not be exaggerated (163-65).Women were more “contained” than“liberated” by the covert patronage of the CIA (166).
Ch. 8: Saving the World: Catholics.
[Longest chapter] U.S. Catholicism’santi-communism (167-68). Tom Dooley’sfame was greatly to be attributed to theCIA’s Edward G. Lansdale, who hadWilliam Lederer rewrite Dooley’s best-selling
Deliver Us from Evil
(1956) andhad it promoted by
Reader’s Digest 
;those with covert connections to the CIAoriented his later career while coveringup his homosexuality; when he died of cancer in 1961, a Gallup poll rated himthe 3
rd
most esteemed man, afterEisenhower and the Pope, but this imagewas soon replaced with that of morallycompromised ethnocentric egotist whohelped make the Vietnam War possible(168-82). Unlike Dooley, Patrick J.Peyton, founder of the Family RosaryCrusade, was fully witting of the CIA’sharnessing of his campaign from 1958 to1966 and which was especially effectivein Brazil; when Catholic sponsors learnedof the CIA connection they, andultimately the Pope in 1965, demanded itbe severed (182-96).
Ch. 9: Into Africa: African Americans.
Richard Wright denounced covert U.S.sponsorship of radical groups in aNovember 1960 speech in Paris, daysbefore his death (198-99). An expatriatein Paris, was involved in organizing a five-person delegation to a September 1956international Congress of Negro Writersand Artists in Paris (198-205). When JohnA. Davis of CCNY helped set up a CIA-front organization, the American Societyof African Culture (AMSAC) in July 1957,Richard Wright felt growing concerns andended any association with it by the
of 00

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