Committee for Cultural Freedom
Encyclopedia
The Committee for Cultural Freedom (CCF) was an American
political
organization active from 1939 to 1951 which advocated opposition to the totalitarianism
of both the Soviet Union
and Nazi Germany
in foreign affairs, and promoted pro-democratic
reforms in public and private institutions domestically. Co-founded by influential philosopher and educator
John Dewey
and the anti-Soviet Marxist
academic Sidney Hook
, it was reorganized in January 1951 into the American Committee for Cultural Freedom
.
, socialists
, leftists
, and centrists
in the United States over the value of forming a popular front
and the need for violence, revolution, and dictatorship
in establishing a more just society. Many American far left-wing intellectuals in the 1920s and 1930s were Trotskyists
who believed in democracy and were opposed to the totalitarianism advocated by Joseph Stalin
and Stalinism
. The CCF was an attempt by John Dewey and other leftists to break with what they argued was the totalitarianism of the Communist Party USA
and "cleanse" left-wing politics to make it more platable to the main stream of American voters. But the goals of the group's founders were not uniform on this. Dewey saw the CCF as an independent organization. Hook saw the CCF as a means of undermining the popular front. Dewey believed that he could persuade other left-wing organizations to give up their belief in revolution and dictatorship and join with the CCF in promoting leftist ideals. Hook secretly worked against him in these negotiations. The CCF's statement of purpose was signed by 96 intellectuals in May 1939. However, it did not hold its first meeting until October 1939.
The primary co-founders of the organization were John Dewey and Sidney Hook. Dewey served as the organization's honorary chair and Ferdinand Lundberg
was its secretary, but Hook was individual who pushed for its formation. Hook played a critical role in the group. He and Frank N. Trager co-chaired the CCF's Committee on Plans and Organization, which was the backbone of the organization. The CCF produced a number of reports on politics, economics, culture, and foreign affairs during its short lifetime. Two of its earliest and most influential reports were "Stalinist Outposts in the United States" and "Nazi Outposts in the United States", which listed for the first time in Americna history front organization
s for the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. The CCF began publishing the CCF Bulletin, a monthly newsletter, in October 1939.
The founding of the CCF was not without controversy. Many leftists, such as Dwight MacDonald
, believed the CCF was not sufficiently leftist, and formed a splinter Trotskyist group with similar aims called the League for Cultural Freedom and Socialism. The CCF was criticized by mainstream liberal
intellectuals and groups as well. The political magazine The New Republic
actively campaigned in its pages against the CCF. The New Republic accused the CCF of actively aiding fascism
and supporting a Trotskyist revolution in the U.S. Freda Kirchwey
, editor
of The Nation
(a liberal political magazine), strongly criticized the CCF for equating Stalinism and fascism
without recognizing the two political systems' differences. The New Republic and The Nation pressured mainstream liberals and respected leftist intellectuals to resign their membership in the CCF. Hook and Trager, through the CCF Committee on Plans and Organization, sough to counteract this pressure through anonymous and signed letters to major newspapers, pamphlets, speeches, and anonymous and on-the-record quotations supporting the CCF.
or otherwise impose restrictions on intellectual or political freedoms. For example, the CCF very early on opposed attempts by state curriculum committees to censor elementary
and secondary education
textbook
s or investigate the political ideologies of textbook authors. The CCF also attacked the anti-communist Rapp-Coudert Committee's 1940 hearings in New York
state, during which widespread abuse of the subpoena
power, use of informants, reliance on hearsay
and rumor, and badgering of witnesses led to an anti-communist witch-hunt against public school teachers and professors in state-run colleges and universities. Nonetheless, the CCF did oppose active communist influence within other organizations (such as unions
) and the public schools. Its justification was that most communist organizations were Stalinist in outlook and opposed to democracy. In fact, one of the reason why Dewey agreed to co-found the CCF was that the Communist Party USA had taken control of the American Federation of Teachers
local (Local 5) in New York City
by the mid-1930s. The communists in Local 5 had diverted the union's attention away from wages, benefits, and working conditions and used obstructionist tactics to prevent the local union from functioning. Dewey, an AFT member, was determined to break the communist control of Local 5. After a lengthy series of battles, the CCF helped elect CCF member George Counts
elected president of the local union, breaking the communist insurgency within the AFT.
In international affairs, the CCF condemned both the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany for engaging in totalitarianism. This opposition was controversial at the time, for many Americans perceived the Soviet Union to be acting as a bulwark against Nazi Germany and the territorial ambitions of Adolf Hitler
. In early August 1939, more than 400 people signed a public letter denouncing the CCF's linkage of Stalinism and Nazism, and defending the Soviet Union. Two weeks later, Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, severely undermining this argument and embarrassing the signers of the letter. Dewey resigned as honorary chair after news of the pact was made public. Reinhold Niebuhr
pleaded with him in 1944 to rejoin the CCF, but he refused—arguing too much of the Committee's attention was focused on opposing communism and not enough on other forms of totalitarianism.
groups like Americans for Intellectual Freedom and the American Committee for Cultural Freedom
. In 1951, Hook reorganized the CCF into the American Committee for Cultural Freedom (ACCF). In August 1948, the Soviet Union sponsored the World Conference for Intellectuals for Peace in Wroclaw
, Poland
, during which Western and democratic culture were widely denounced. The conference deeply unsettled American leftists and alarmed American political figures. American leftists subsequently held a conference March 25–27, 1949, at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
in New York City in which these criticisms were addressed. Many of the speakers, however, attacked the United States for taking an over-aggressive and militaristic stand toward the Soviet Union which had exacerbated tension between the two nations. "The Waldorf Conference," as the event came to be known, made headlines worldwide. The Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) and American political leaders became concerned that the United States was losing the battle for the hearts and minds of Western Europeans.
In 1950, the CIA secretly caused to be organized and funded the Congress for Cultural Freedom. Held on June 26, 1950, the Congress for Cultural Freedom brought together leading leftist thinkers, artists, and politicians from Western Europe and the U.S. at the Titania Palace in West Berlin
. While nearly all the attendees were socialists or strongly leftist, nearly all were also strongly anti-communist and vocally opposed to the Soviet Union. Using the far-left politics of the attendees as a cover, the Congress for Cultural Freedom began a worldwide effort to undermine Soviet influence in academia and the arts. It began funding and infiltrating the Europe-America Groups, small organizations of American and European writers established by left-wing American novelist Mary McCarthy
in 1948 to promote European-American understanding.
The CIA also began working with Sidney Hook, whose anti-Soviet views had dramatically intensified since the 1930s. Hook initially tried to get the Europe-America Groups to fund the CCF (by then largely moribund) so that the CCF might carry out anti-Soviet activities in the U.S. When that effort failed, Hook dissolved the CCF and created the American Committee for Cultural Freedom on January 5, 1951, to secure CIA funding indirectly through the Congress for Cultural Freedom. The American Committee for Cultural Freedom name was purposefully chosen to echo the predecessor organization's name and build on its good reputation. The primary co-founders of the ACCF were Hook, George Counts, novelist James T. Farrell
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
political
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
organization active from 1939 to 1951 which advocated opposition to the totalitarianism
Totalitarianism
Totalitarianism is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible...
of both the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
in foreign affairs, and promoted pro-democratic
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
reforms in public and private institutions domestically. Co-founded by influential philosopher and educator
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...
John Dewey
John Dewey
John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. Dewey was an important early developer of the philosophy of pragmatism and one of the founders of functional psychology...
and the anti-Soviet Marxist
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
academic Sidney Hook
Sidney Hook
Sidney Hook was an American pragmatic philosopher known for his contributions to public debates.A student of John Dewey, Hook continued to examine the philosophy of history, of education, politics, and of ethics. After embracing Marxism in his youth, Hook was known for his criticisms of...
, it was reorganized in January 1951 into the American Committee for Cultural Freedom
American Committee for Cultural Freedom
The American Committee for Cultural Freedom was the U.S. affiliate of the Congress for Cultural Freedom, an organization that, during the Cold War, sought to encourage intellectuals to be critical of the Soviet Union and Communism, and to combat, according to a writer for the New York Times, "the...
.
Founding
The Committee for Cultural Freedom (CCF) was founded on May 14, 1939. The genesis of the CCF was a disagreement among communistsCommunism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
, socialists
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
, leftists
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
, and centrists
Centrism
In politics, centrism is the ideal or the practice of promoting policies that lie different from the standard political left and political right. Most commonly, this is visualized as part of the one-dimensional political spectrum of left-right politics, with centrism landing in the middle between...
in the United States over the value of forming a popular front
Popular front
A popular front is a broad coalition of different political groupings, often made up of leftists and centrists. Being very broad, they can sometimes include centrist and liberal forces as well as socialist and communist groups...
and the need for violence, revolution, and dictatorship
Dictatorship of the proletariat
In Marxist socio-political thought, the dictatorship of the proletariat refers to a socialist state in which the proletariat, or the working class, have control of political power. The term, coined by Joseph Weydemeyer, was adopted by the founders of Marxism, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, in the...
in establishing a more just society. Many American far left-wing intellectuals in the 1920s and 1930s were Trotskyists
Trotskyism
Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party of the working-class...
who believed in democracy and were opposed to the totalitarianism advocated by Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
and Stalinism
Stalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
. The CCF was an attempt by John Dewey and other leftists to break with what they argued was the totalitarianism of the Communist Party USA
Communist Party USA
The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....
and "cleanse" left-wing politics to make it more platable to the main stream of American voters. But the goals of the group's founders were not uniform on this. Dewey saw the CCF as an independent organization. Hook saw the CCF as a means of undermining the popular front. Dewey believed that he could persuade other left-wing organizations to give up their belief in revolution and dictatorship and join with the CCF in promoting leftist ideals. Hook secretly worked against him in these negotiations. The CCF's statement of purpose was signed by 96 intellectuals in May 1939. However, it did not hold its first meeting until October 1939.
The primary co-founders of the organization were John Dewey and Sidney Hook. Dewey served as the organization's honorary chair and Ferdinand Lundberg
Ferdinand Lundberg
Ferdinand Lundberg was a 20th century economist and journalist who studied the history of American wealth and power.-Background:...
was its secretary, but Hook was individual who pushed for its formation. Hook played a critical role in the group. He and Frank N. Trager co-chaired the CCF's Committee on Plans and Organization, which was the backbone of the organization. The CCF produced a number of reports on politics, economics, culture, and foreign affairs during its short lifetime. Two of its earliest and most influential reports were "Stalinist Outposts in the United States" and "Nazi Outposts in the United States", which listed for the first time in Americna history front organization
Front organization
A front organization is any entity set up by and controlled by another organization, such as intelligence agencies, organized crime groups, banned organizations, religious or political groups, advocacy groups, or corporations...
s for the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. The CCF began publishing the CCF Bulletin, a monthly newsletter, in October 1939.
The founding of the CCF was not without controversy. Many leftists, such as Dwight MacDonald
Dwight Macdonald
Dwight Macdonald was an American writer, editor, film critic, social critic, philosopher, and political radical.-Early life and career:...
, believed the CCF was not sufficiently leftist, and formed a splinter Trotskyist group with similar aims called the League for Cultural Freedom and Socialism. The CCF was criticized by mainstream liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
intellectuals and groups as well. The political magazine The New Republic
The New Republic
The magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...
actively campaigned in its pages against the CCF. The New Republic accused the CCF of actively aiding fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
and supporting a Trotskyist revolution in the U.S. Freda Kirchwey
Freda Kirchwey
Freda Kirchwey was an American journalist, editor, and publisher strongly committed throughout her career to liberal causes. From 1933 to 1955, she was Editor of The Nation magazine.-Biography:...
, editor
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
of The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
(a liberal political magazine), strongly criticized the CCF for equating Stalinism and fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
without recognizing the two political systems' differences. The New Republic and The Nation pressured mainstream liberals and respected leftist intellectuals to resign their membership in the CCF. Hook and Trager, through the CCF Committee on Plans and Organization, sough to counteract this pressure through anonymous and signed letters to major newspapers, pamphlets, speeches, and anonymous and on-the-record quotations supporting the CCF.
Activities
In domestic affairs, the CCF opposed any attempt to engage in an ideological or political witch-huntWitch-hunt
A witch-hunt is a search for witches or evidence of witchcraft, often involving moral panic, mass hysteria and lynching, but in historical instances also legally sanctioned and involving official witchcraft trials...
or otherwise impose restrictions on intellectual or political freedoms. For example, the CCF very early on opposed attempts by state curriculum committees to censor elementary
Primary education
A primary school is an institution in which children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as primary or elementary education. Primary school is the preferred term in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth Nations, and in most publications of the United Nations Educational,...
and secondary education
Secondary education
Secondary education is the stage of education following primary education. Secondary education includes the final stage of compulsory education and in many countries it is entirely compulsory. The next stage of education is usually college or university...
textbook
Textbook
A textbook or coursebook is a manual of instruction in any branch of study. Textbooks are produced according to the demands of educational institutions...
s or investigate the political ideologies of textbook authors. The CCF also attacked the anti-communist Rapp-Coudert Committee's 1940 hearings in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
state, during which widespread abuse of the subpoena
Subpoena
A subpoena is a writ by a government agency, most often a court, that has authority to compel testimony by a witness or production of evidence under a penalty for failure. There are two common types of subpoena:...
power, use of informants, reliance on hearsay
Hearsay
Hearsay is information gathered by one person from another person concerning some event, condition, or thing of which the first person had no direct experience. When submitted as evidence, such statements are called hearsay evidence. As a legal term, "hearsay" can also have the narrower meaning of...
and rumor, and badgering of witnesses led to an anti-communist witch-hunt against public school teachers and professors in state-run colleges and universities. Nonetheless, the CCF did oppose active communist influence within other organizations (such as unions
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
) and the public schools. Its justification was that most communist organizations were Stalinist in outlook and opposed to democracy. In fact, one of the reason why Dewey agreed to co-found the CCF was that the Communist Party USA had taken control of the American Federation of Teachers
American Federation of Teachers
The American Federation of Teachers is an American labor union founded in 1916 that represents teachers, paraprofessionals and school-related personnel; local, state and federal employees; higher education faculty and staff, and nurses and other healthcare professionals...
local (Local 5) in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
by the mid-1930s. The communists in Local 5 had diverted the union's attention away from wages, benefits, and working conditions and used obstructionist tactics to prevent the local union from functioning. Dewey, an AFT member, was determined to break the communist control of Local 5. After a lengthy series of battles, the CCF helped elect CCF member George Counts
George Counts
George Sylvester Counts was an American educator and influential education theorist.An early proponent of the progressive education movement of John Dewey, Counts became its leading critic affiliated with the school of Social Reconstructionism in education. Counts is credited for influencing...
elected president of the local union, breaking the communist insurgency within the AFT.
In international affairs, the CCF condemned both the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany for engaging in totalitarianism. This opposition was controversial at the time, for many Americans perceived the Soviet Union to be acting as a bulwark against Nazi Germany and the territorial ambitions of Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
. In early August 1939, more than 400 people signed a public letter denouncing the CCF's linkage of Stalinism and Nazism, and defending the Soviet Union. Two weeks later, Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, severely undermining this argument and embarrassing the signers of the letter. Dewey resigned as honorary chair after news of the pact was made public. Reinhold Niebuhr
Reinhold Niebuhr
Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr was an American theologian and commentator on public affairs. Starting as a leftist minister in the 1920s indebted to theological liberalism, he shifted to the new Neo-Orthodox theology in the 1930s, explaining how the sin of pride created evil in the world...
pleaded with him in 1944 to rejoin the CCF, but he refused—arguing too much of the Committee's attention was focused on opposing communism and not enough on other forms of totalitarianism.
Dissolution
The CCF was the inspiration for several anti-communistAnti-communism
Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...
groups like Americans for Intellectual Freedom and the American Committee for Cultural Freedom
American Committee for Cultural Freedom
The American Committee for Cultural Freedom was the U.S. affiliate of the Congress for Cultural Freedom, an organization that, during the Cold War, sought to encourage intellectuals to be critical of the Soviet Union and Communism, and to combat, according to a writer for the New York Times, "the...
. In 1951, Hook reorganized the CCF into the American Committee for Cultural Freedom (ACCF). In August 1948, the Soviet Union sponsored the World Conference for Intellectuals for Peace in Wroclaw
Wroclaw
Wrocław , situated on the River Oder , is the main city of southwestern Poland.Wrocław was the historical capital of Silesia and is today the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. Over the centuries, the city has been part of either Poland, Bohemia, Austria, Prussia, or Germany, but since 1945...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, during which Western and democratic culture were widely denounced. The conference deeply unsettled American leftists and alarmed American political figures. American leftists subsequently held a conference March 25–27, 1949, at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
The Waldorf-Astoria is a luxury hotel in New York. It has been housed in two historic landmark buildings in New York City. The first, designed by architect Henry J. Hardenbergh, was on the Fifth Avenue site of the Empire State Building. The present building at 301 Park Avenue in Manhattan is a...
in New York City in which these criticisms were addressed. Many of the speakers, however, attacked the United States for taking an over-aggressive and militaristic stand toward the Soviet Union which had exacerbated tension between the two nations. "The Waldorf Conference," as the event came to be known, made headlines worldwide. The Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
(CIA) and American political leaders became concerned that the United States was losing the battle for the hearts and minds of Western Europeans.
In 1950, the CIA secretly caused to be organized and funded the Congress for Cultural Freedom. Held on June 26, 1950, the Congress for Cultural Freedom brought together leading leftist thinkers, artists, and politicians from Western Europe and the U.S. at the Titania Palace in West Berlin
West Berlin
West Berlin was a political exclave that existed between 1949 and 1990. It comprised the western regions of Berlin, which were bordered by East Berlin and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945...
. While nearly all the attendees were socialists or strongly leftist, nearly all were also strongly anti-communist and vocally opposed to the Soviet Union. Using the far-left politics of the attendees as a cover, the Congress for Cultural Freedom began a worldwide effort to undermine Soviet influence in academia and the arts. It began funding and infiltrating the Europe-America Groups, small organizations of American and European writers established by left-wing American novelist Mary McCarthy
Mary McCarthy (author)
Mary Therese McCarthy was an American author, critic and political activist.- Early life :Born in Seattle, Washington, to Roy Winfield McCarthy and his wife, the former Therese Preston, McCarthy was orphaned at the age of six when both her parents died in the great flu epidemic of 1918...
in 1948 to promote European-American understanding.
The CIA also began working with Sidney Hook, whose anti-Soviet views had dramatically intensified since the 1930s. Hook initially tried to get the Europe-America Groups to fund the CCF (by then largely moribund) so that the CCF might carry out anti-Soviet activities in the U.S. When that effort failed, Hook dissolved the CCF and created the American Committee for Cultural Freedom on January 5, 1951, to secure CIA funding indirectly through the Congress for Cultural Freedom. The American Committee for Cultural Freedom name was purposefully chosen to echo the predecessor organization's name and build on its good reputation. The primary co-founders of the ACCF were Hook, George Counts, novelist James T. Farrell
James T. Farrell
James Thomas Farrell was an American novelist. One of his most famous works was the Studs Lonigan trilogy, which was made into a film in 1960 and into a television miniseries in 1979...
.