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Conspiracy Nation Vol. 07 Num. 82
Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 7 Num. 82
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("Quid coniuratio est?")
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The following first appeared as "Conspiracy for the Day" on July
14, 1993:
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The Power Elite, the CIA, and the Struggle for Minds
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[Excerpted from *The Higher Circles* by G. William Domhoff. New
York, Random House, 1970.]
-+- Capturing the Hearts and Minds of the Masses -+-
The basic premise that guides most policy decisions, foreign and
domestic, as stated in a National Security Council report is the
"...struggle for survival involving military power, economic
productivity, and influence on the minds of men in political,
scientific, and moral fields." {1} [See notes below]
This policy is summed up by sociologist Philip Rieff: "...a
permanent war economy based on a negative ideology of an absolute
enemy." {2} "It is the kind of ideology that can appeal to the
'higher loyalty' which guides upper-class CIA agents when they
undertake actions 'contrary to their moral precepts.' {3}. In
short, it is the kind of ideology traditionally used by power
elites to justify whatever actions are necessary to protect their
privilege and position."
The power elite compete with =The Enemy= "...in the military and
economic spheres. The power elite have accepted and marketed a
military definition of reality throughout the postwar era [i.e.
after WWII]... Closely tied to this is an increasing industrial
capacity, encouraged by tax favors and nurtured by defense
contracts."
The power elite are also quite serious in their competition for
"the minds of men in political, scientific, and moral fields."
{1}. "The power elite, for all their sweet reasonableness and
liberal rhetoric here at home, have their secretive, not-so-moral
side."
"The CIA has become [ca. 1970] one of the most important
organizations of the power elite, at home and abroad."
"Members of the power elite, as individuals and as organizations,
have purchased newspapers and created magazines to promote their
views and/or criticize and ridicule other views. They have
withdrawn advertising from mass media to silence opinions they do
not favor. They have created university chairs and research
institutes to pursue topics of interest to them, at the same time
playing an active role as university trustees in getting rid of
professors with undesirable views. {4}. They have written and
caused to be written articles and books that present their side
of every story as attractively and persuasively as is humanly
possible."
Some of the early practitioners of "public relations" specialized
"in the corporate image and the corporate conscience.
Functionally speaking, the public relations departments of large
corporations, in conjunction with the giant public relations
firms that service many corporations, have become the early
warning system of the upper class, picking up and countering the
slightest remark or publication that makes funny lines on their
sensitive radar. Thanks to them, public opinion is well-
monitored, with an assist of course from the alert social
scientists in certain university institutes financed by the big
corporations and foundations. Wayward opinions, once detected,
are duly corrected by a barrage of printed matter and public
pronouncements, unless the advisers consider the situation one in
which replies should be avoided... Truly, the attempt to
manipulate public opinion has become a conscious and full time
profession."
"That some [members of the power elite] are underhanded and will
stop at nothing is to be expected within a large collection of
mere human beings. But to find out that the power elite as a
group are intimately and intricately involved in secretive,
manipulative and deceitful operations, and in the name of saving
democracy and the open society, is to go beyond the peccadillos
of a few personalities to expose another side to the *modus
operandi* of the High and Mighty.
-+- The CIA and the National Student Association -+-
Under the premise that persons between the ages of 18 and 25 are
susceptible to political arguments, the American power elite
feared a possible loss of allegiance from this group. "Working
through the CIA, [the power elite] found their mark in the
National Student Association (NSA)... Starting in 1950,
apparently, the CIA began to help NSA. {5}
The CIA-NSA relationship continued until 1966, before an
idealistic NSA officer finally blew the whistle on the setup.
"In some years 80% of the NSA budget was coming from the CIA."
"NSA was not the only student organization utilized by the power
elite. They also [co-opted the] International Student
Conference... Between 1961 and 1965 they spent $180,000 on the
Independent Research Service, which sent American delegations to
actively oppose the communists at communist-oriented youth
festivals."
"This brief recounting does not even begin to tap the involvement
of the CIA and the power elite in student organizations all over
the world. For example, it says nothing about the Institute of
International Education, which brings many foreign students to
this country. {6}... Detailed studies of [these organizations]
will have to be left to scholars wishing to research what C.
Wright Mills called 'the cultural apparatus' and what Marxists
call 'ideological hegemony.' In the meantime, we can rest assured
that the power elite are not neglecting young minds." {7}.
-+- Patronizing the Intelligentsia -+-
"Intellectuals... are a narcissistic bunch, full of their own
self-importance. They love to talk, they love to see their words
in print, and they love to be flattered. The power elite,
through the CIA and other organizations, have been very
accomodating about these intellectual needs. In fact,
patronizing would be a better word. They have given American
intellectuals money to start organizations, to hold conferences,
and to publish magazines and books. They have encouraged them to
meet with intellectuals from all over the world. The result is a
series of CIA-financed associations, institutes, and magazines
that provide opportunities for discussion, travel, publication,
and mutual adulation."
"In what follows I will... focus on the Congress for Cultural
Freedom [CCF], an organization which financed such avant-garde
magazines as Great Britain's *Encounter*" In 1967, a CIA agent
named Thomas Braden bragged about "his role in putting CIA agents
and money into the [CCF] and *Encounter*." {8}.
"The financing for the [CCF] programs and *Encounter's* articles
came in large measure from two above-board CIA conduits. The
first, the Farfield Foundation, is at the heart of the New York
Establishment; the second, the Hoblitzelle Foundation, is in the
same position in Texas."
"Many people concern themselves with the problem of which
intellectuals 'knew' and which were mere dupes, but that is of
secondary importance. The point is that some men have views the
power elite like, and some don't. The likeable group gets
financial, institutional, and mass media support (overtly and
covertly) from members of the power elite." {9}.
-+- Using the Experts -+-
"American academia at the major universities is in large measure
a collection of experts, with each expert relatively confined to
his particular specialty. Some of these experts are more useful
than others. The more useful are housed in institutes as well as
the traditional departments. They receive research grants from
foundations, institutes, corporations and governments to further
develop their expertise and train new experts. They often do
consulting on the side for industry, government and power elite
associations."
"CIA entanglements with the experts are several: hiring them as
agents and analysts, supporting their research, financing the
publication of their articles and books. The first well-
publicized instance concerned CIA involvement in the Center for
International Studies at MIT. {10}. A second instance showed
how the CIA and Michigan State University collaborated in
propping up the American-created government in South Vietnam.
{11}.
However, "to focus too narrowly on the infrastructure of the
seamy side [of the power elite] and the minor conduit foundations
is to miss the point... *All* power elite foundations,
institutes and associations, above ground and below ground, are
involved in ideological combat... [And yet] they ask us to
believe that ideology has suddenly ended -- and in our own time,
no less."
The temptation to "...buy the power elite propaganda about non-
ideology is very great. We hear it every day from the nicest
people in the most respectable journals. But it must be
resisted. Those who want to understand the power structure must
stand back and assert in the face of all the power elite's
kindness to academics, and all the intellectual establishment's
objectivity and scientificality, that all power elite
foundations, institutes, and associations are propaganda fronts
which are involved in maintaining the legitimacy and
respectability of the present Establishment."
"When C. Wright Mills called the power elite 'irresponsible' and
accused them of practicing the 'higher immorality,' the
intellectual establishment was annoyed... Now, 13 years later
[ca. 1970], there can be little doubt about the validity of
Mills' indictment... The activities of the CIA at home and
abroad in para-military and intellectual undertakings are in
themselves enough to expose the power elite and their morality
for all to judge... The power elite and their intellectual
collaborators have re-affirmed an age-old axiom about governing
classes and their word magicians. However they may plead
otherwise, they are primarily self-interested partisans, their
horizons severely limited by the ideologies and institutions that
sustain and justify their privilege, celebrity and power."
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Notes:
{1} Henry M. Jackson, *The National Security Council: Jackson
Subcommittee Papers on Policy Making at the Presidential Level*
(New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1965), p. 76.
{2} Philip Rieff, "Socialism and Sociology," *C. Wright Mills and
The Power Elite*, G. William Domhoff and Hoyt B. Ballard, eds.
(Boston: Beacon Press, 1968), p. 169.
{3} David Wise and Thomas B. Ross, *The Espionage Establishment*
(New York: Random House, 1967), p. 293.
{4} Lionel S. Lewis, "The Academic Axe: Some Trends in
Dismissals From Institutions of Higher Learning in America"
(Social Problems, Fall, 1964), pp. 156-157; Lionel S. Lewis,
"Dismissals from the Academy" (Journal of Higher Education, May,
1966), pp. 257-258.
{5} The following account is based upon three sources: Sol
Stern, "NSA-CIA" (Ramparts, March, 1967); Stuart H. Loory, "How
CIA Became Involved in NSA" (San Francisco Chronicle, February
28, 1967), pp. 1, 12; and the concise summary of all articles
and letters on the problem in *The New York Times*, which appears
on pages 1269-72 of *The New York Times Index*, 1967, Volume 55
(New York: The New York Times Company, 1968).
{6} Michael Holcomb, "Student Exchanges Serve U.S. Policy"
(Guardian, January 20, 1968), p. 6.
{7} Michael Holcomb, "The Pass-Through: How the CIA Bankrolled
Private Projects" (Newsweek, March 6, 1967).
{8} Thomas Braden, "I'm Glad the CIA Is 'Immoral'" (Saturday
Evening Post, May 20, 1967), p. 10.
{9} Jason Epstein, "The CIA and the Intellectuals" (The New York
Review of Books, April 30, 1967), pp. 19-21.
{10} David Wise and Thomas Ross, *The Invisible Government* (New
York: Random House, 1964), pp. 243-244.
{11} Warren Hinckle, Sol Stern and Robert Scheer, "University on
the Make" (Ramparts, April, 1966); Martin Nicolaus, "The
Professors, the Policemen, and the Peasants" (Unpublished
manuscript, January, 1966).
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