Who Paid the Piper?

Who Paid the Piper? The CIA and the Cultural Cold War (US title The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters) is a 1999 book by the British historian Frances Stonor Saunders. She recounts the mid-20th-century efforts by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to infiltrate and co-opt artistic movements, using funds that were mostly channelled through the Congress for Cultural Freedom and the Ford Foundation. She argues that the funds came with strings attached, that the aim of these CIA-backed cultural initiatives was to curb Soviet political influence in Europe, and expand American political influence. Her thesis is that by entangling the state in "free" artistic expression, the Agency undermined America's moral position. She further suggests that American Cold War cultural activities were similar in kind to those of the Soviet Union.

Saunders' research and conclusions stirred up considerable debate. In Dissent, Jeffrey Isaac characterised Who Paid the Piper? as a "widely discussed retrospective on post-Second World War liberalism that raises important questions about the relationships between intellectuals and political power." In 2000 the book was published in the US under a new title, The Cultural Cold War, which The New York Times reviewer praised as "more neutral" than the provocative Who Paid the Piper?.

Content

Saunders begins by depicting the devastation in Western and Central Europe following the Second World War, and how the Soviets began staging plays, opera performances and other events for the culture-starved populations.