A Lost Opportunity to Learn Lessons from the Cultural Cold War

Prof. Slick, who served in the CIA’s clandestine service for 28 years, writes that the book originally piqued his curiosity due to a LBJ course that ISP is offering this semester on covert action. He writes, “the ‘Cultural Cold War’ is a useful, indeed clever, label for the broad range of CIA covert activities undertaken to blunt the social, cultural and intellectual appeal of Moscow’s brand of Communism in war-ravaged European societies after World War II.” However, he continues: “Finks contributes little to understanding the historical record of the Cultural Cold War, those who participated in (or were affected by) the CIA’s covert programs, or the complex era in which the agency designed and implemented them.”

Read his full review here.