A book reveals how the CIA created consensus through intellectuals

Published in Great Britain in 1999 with the original title ‘Who Paid the Piper?’ (Who paid the piper?), comes in Italia almost thirty years late, a classic of historical journalism Of Frances Stonor Saunderstranslated into over twenty languages, published by Fazi Editore: ‘The cultural cold war. Like the CIA influenced the European imagination’ (Le terre series, pages 668; price 22 euros) with translation by Silvio Calzavarini and preface by Giovanni Fasanella.

With this book the journalistEnglish writer and documentary maker revealed for the first time how, in post-war periodThe United States – through its very powerful Agency – have supported and oriented a vast network of cultural initiatives in Europawith the aim of countering theSoviet influence and influence the Western intellectual debate.

Welcome to Italy

When it came out in Great Britain in 1999, then in United States the following year, the Italian press he welcomed him with a coldness that Giovanni Fasanellain the preface to this first Italian edition, bluntly calls it the “rejection mechanism”. Those who could not ignore him neutralized him by accusing him of puritanesimo. No publisher translated it. For almost three decades, in Italiathe book circulated only as bibliographical citation. Now think about it Phases to fill this historical gap.

The thesis of the book

Imagine someone revealing to you that much of the post-war European culture — the literary magazinesi music festivalsthe mostre d’arteeven certain philosophy e Nobel prizes — was secretly financed by CIA. Not as a rumor, not as a bar conspiracy, but as a documented fact, reconstructed name by name, foundation by foundation, check by check. This is exactly what it does Frances Stonor Saunders in his monumental ‘The Cultural Cold War’. The thesis of the book is that cultural life inPost-war Europe was secretly financed by CIA through a network of philanthropic foundations e figurehead. The code name of the operation was “packet“.

The congress for cultural freedom

The visible arm was the ‘Congress for cultural freedom‘, founded in Berlin in 1950 to counter theSoviet influence. The method was not there propaganda of the posters, but what Arthur Koestler called “half truths“: the orientation of living roomsfrom the magazinesfrom the careers.

Sources and method

Frances Stonor Saunders it’s not a conspiracy theory, it’s one historical e British journalist that he worked on declassified primary sources, CIA archive documents, direct testimonies e materials of the time. The quotes in the book are documented and verifiable. Fasanella defines it as “a powerful and irrefutable reconstruction” and the strong point of the book is precisely that it is not a matter of hypotheses, but that the journalist presents a map with nomi, date, amounts, institutions.

The Italian chapter

The chapter regarding theItalia. The meeting of Berlin of July 1950, in which the ‘Congress‘, was chaired by Benedetto Croce and prepared by Ignazio Silone. Altiero Spinellifounder of European federalist movementwas among the Italian delegates. The Italian section included Adriano Olivetti e Mario Pannunzio. And the network extended to magazines who formed the post-war Italian secular culture: ‘The World‘, ‘The Bridge‘, ‘Present Tense‘, ‘The Mill‘, financed directly or indirectly through the CIA consortium.

The Roman living rooms

The chapter on Roman living rooms it is the one in which Italian history emerges most forcefully. Marguerite Chapin CaetaniAmerican patron linked to the circles ofConsortium‘, he directed from Caetani palace the magazine ‘Dark shops‘, which promoted the best of Italian literature of the twentieth century: Calvin, Moravia, Pasolini, Carlo Levi, Attilio Bertolucci. His son-in-law was a former officer of the allied secret services specialized in psychological warfare. Elena Crocedaughter of Benedettocollaborated with her and selected for theSIS — evolution of American propaganda offices – The intellectuals “who was worth talking to.”

Power networks and relationships

The husband of Elena, Raimondo Craveriagent of partisan servicesindicated to theAmerican embassy i reliable politicians. Their house was frequented by Henry Kissinger and by the young man Gianni Agnelli and dominated by the figure of Raffaele Mattiolifounder of Mediobancaof which the Americans they trusted him enough to discuss plans for the reconstruction already in 1944.

The moral question

“Some of them certainly knew that the Congress he was a creature of CIA – he writes Fasanella in the preface – others sensed it, but preferred not to delve further. Still others were probably unaware of it.” moral question that runs through every page of the book is precise and disturbing: there is a limit beyond which even those who fight a good cause – and the anti-communist cause He had his reasons – is he in the wrong? Saunders he does not respond in a Manichean way. His is one rigorous reconstructionwhich never falls into the easy moralismbut which leaves the reader with a sense of increasing discomfort. Because the point is not that CIA financed the world of culture to fight theUSSR. The point is that he did it without their knowledge intellectuals involved, and that these intellectuals thus became, without knowing it (or without wanting to admit it), instruments of one sophisticated propaganda.

A story that continues

The story it tells Saunders begins in post-warbut it is not closed with the fall of Wall. It’s the story of how the consentof how the culture can be used as arma and how even the noblest ideas — the freedomthe democracyil critical thinking — can be put at the service of someone (or something) else.