3 ms·

Gloria Steinem worked for the CIA as well. It becomes very difficult to understand what happened during the 50s and 60s, the more you look into it.

77pt77 7y ago
It used to be a conspiracy theory. Now the only question is the extent to which she did that. There is good evidence that the magazine was also paid for by the 3 letter agency.
- jMyles 7y ago
  > There is good evidence that the magazine was also paid for by the 3 letter agency. Do you mean New York or Ms.? I'm not familiar with this theory; can you link to more info?
  - LifeLiverTransp 7y ago
    This really was a clash of systems- the CIA was concerned red art, literature and movies would become avantgarde for the western society, so it tryied to create its own "western" culture program. Subsidizing book authors, movies and music suddenly makes sense in this total secret-war.
- cgb223 7y ago
  They even pay some people to comment on Hacker News The only question now really is how much they influence the comment section here
imglorp 7y ago
In the 40s was intense and widespread hands-on war time patriotism that involved almost everyone at every level: draft of most men of age; rationing including melting silverware etc; companies diverted to war materiel; even citizens financing the whole thing with war bonds. Then the Stalinist Russians, with some 5 million people in the gulags, became nuclear in 49. The Rosenbergs were executed in 53. This was some scary, tangible stuff. All that red scare whipped into a frenzy by Hoover and McCarthy built on all that wartime patriotism. So I don't find it surprising that a few celebrities visiting abroad might write up a few trip reports or befriend diplomats, doing their part to keep the red menace at bay.
- pvg 7y ago
  I think it was both more pervasive and subtle than that. This (by no means the only research on the topic) gives a bit of the flavour: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/pgp53z/how-the-cia-infiltrated-the-worlds-literature https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/pgp53z/how-the-cia-infilt...

77pt77 7y ago

It used to be a conspiracy theory. Now the only question is the extent to which she did that. There is good evidence that the magazine was also paid for by the 3 letter agency.

jMyles 7y ago
> There is good evidence that the magazine was also paid for by the 3 letter agency. Do you mean New York or Ms.? I'm not familiar with this theory; can you link to more info?
- LifeLiverTransp 7y ago
  This really was a clash of systems- the CIA was concerned red art, literature and movies would become avantgarde for the western society, so it tryied to create its own "western" culture program. Subsidizing book authors, movies and music suddenly makes sense in this total secret-war.
cgb223 7y ago
They even pay some people to comment on Hacker News The only question now really is how much they influence the comment section here

imglorp 7y ago

In the 40s was intense and widespread hands-on war time patriotism that involved almost everyone at every level: draft of most men of age; rationing including melting silverware etc; companies diverted to war materiel; even citizens financing the whole thing with war bonds. Then the Stalinist Russians, with some 5 million people in the gulags, became nuclear in 49. The Rosenbergs were executed in 53. This was some scary, tangible stuff. All that red scare whipped into a frenzy by Hoover and McCarthy built on all that wartime patriotism. So I don't find it surprising that a few celebrities visiting abroad might write up a few trip reports or befriend diplomats, doing their part to keep the red menace at bay.

pvg 7y ago
I think it was both more pervasive and subtle than that. This (by no means the only research on the topic) gives a bit of the flavour: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/pgp53z/how-the-cia-infiltrated-the-worlds-literature https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/pgp53z/how-the-cia-infilt...