‘A Radical Democratic Political Offensive’: Melvin J. Lasky,Der Monat,and the Congress for Cultural Freedom

Abstract

The Congress for Cultural Freedom, formed in 1950 and lasting until 1979, was a major international institution based in Paris and dedicated to freedom of the intellect in the arts and sciences. However, since the late 1960s, revelations about its close links with the CIA have clouded its position within post-war cultural history. Yet, without an appreciation of its cultural origins its relevance becomes reduced to being merely a major example of intellectual fraud. This article attempts to reassess parts of the cultural dimension to its creation and raison d'être, largely through the figure of one of its principal founders, Melvin J. Lasky.