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Science and Freedom: The Forgotten Bulletin

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Campaigning Culture and the Global Cold War

Abstract

The Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF) is probably the best known of the CIA’s attempts at covert cultural diplomacy, but its work in science has been largely forgotten. From 1954 to 1961, the CCF’s Committee on Science and Freedom published Science and Freedom, a bulletin nominally edited by the Hungarian-British polymath Michael Polanyi. Wolfe’s account of the origins of this committee, its work, and its publications explores the difficulties of using a journal premised on academic freedom to advance US political objectives. Science and Freedom never lived up to the CIA’s expectations, and the Agency finally cut off funding in 1961 in favour of a more mainstream journal, Minerva.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For histories of the CCF, see Peter Coleman, The Liberal Conspiracy: The Congress for Cultural Freedom and the Struggle for the Mind of Postwar Europe (New York: Free Press, 1989); Frances Stonor Saunders, The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters (New York: New Press, 1999); Giles Scott-Smith, The Politics of Apolitical Culture: The Congress for Cultural Freedom, the CIA, and Post-War American Hegemony (New York: Routledge, 2002); and Hugh Wilford, The Mighty Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played America (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008). None of these works give more than a passing mention to the CCF’s programming in science. For that, see Elena Aronova, ‘The Congress for Cultural Freedom, Minerva, and the Quest for Instituting “Science Studies” in the Age of Cold War’, Minerva 50 (September 2012), pp. 307–337, and Roy MacLeod’s essay in this volume.

  2. 2.

    The classic accounts of the Lysenko affair are Z.A. Medvedev, The Rise and Fall of T. D. Lysenko, trans. I. Michael Lerner (New York: Anchor Books, 1971), and David Joravsky, The Lysenko Affair (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970). Good starting points to more contemporary (post-Cold War) assessments are William deJong-Lambert, The Cold War Politics of Genetic Research: An Introduction to the Lysenko Affair (New York: Springer, 2012) and deJong-Lambert and Nikolai Krementsov, ‘On Labels and Issues: The Lysenko Controversy and the Cold War,’ Journal of the History of Biology 45 (2012), pp. 373–388.

  3. 3.

    Science and Freedom: The Proceedings of a Conference Convened by the Congress for Cultural Freedom and Held in Hamburg on July 23rd-26th, 1953 (London: M. Secker & Warburg for the Congress for Cultural Freedom, 1955). For the Milan meeting, see Bulletin of the Committee on Science and Freedom (hereafter Science and Freedom) 4 (1956); for the Paris meeting, see Science and Freedom 11 (June 1958); for the Tunis meeting, see Science and Freedom 13 (November 1959).

  4. 4.

    Muller, especially, tended to conflate fascism and Communism. For background on this postwar phenomenon, see L.K. Adler and T.G. Paterson, ‘Red Fascism: The Merger of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia in the American Image of Totalitarianism, 1930s–1950s’, The American Historical Review 75 (1970), pp. 1046–1064.

  5. 5.

    In 1955, the Rockefeller Foundation provided a grant of $12,000 to underwrite the Committee’s initial operations and publications. The file projects ongoing costs of $10,000 per year, including office expenses, printing, mailings and the occasional small conference. See Rockefeller Foundation, Grant File GA 55061, 12 January 1955, Folder 607, Box 65, Series 2.1, RG 6.1 (Paris Field Office), Rockefeller Foundation Archives, Rockefeller Archive Center, Sleepy Hollow, New York (hereafter RAC).

  6. 6.

    The low circulation figures have most likely contributed to Science and Freedom’s historical invisibility: WorldCat.org lists fewer than 100 repositories that hold any issues of the journal at all, and only a handful offer a complete run.

  7. 7.

    Warren D. Manshel to Nicolas Nabokov, n.d. 1955 [July], Box 274, Folder 1, International Association for Cultural Freedom Records, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library (hereafter IACF).

  8. 8.

    Two important exceptions are John Krige, American Hegemony and the Postwar Reconstruction of Science in Europe (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006) and the discussion of the efforts of the United States Information Agency to make 1958 a ‘Year of Science’ in Nicholas Cull, The Cold War and the United States Information Agency: American Propaganda and Public Diplomacy, 1945–1989 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008), pp. 148–157.

  9. 9.

    For background on Polanyi, see Mary Jo Nye, Michael Polanyi and His Generation: Origins of the Social Construction of Science (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011). For the history of the Society for Freedom in Science, see William McGucken, ‘On Freedom and Planning in Science: The Society for Freedom in Science, 1940–46’, Minerva 16 (1978), pp. 42–72, and Nye, pp. 200–222.

  10. 10.

    David A. Hollinger, ‘Free Enterprise and Free Inquiry: The Emergence of Laissez-Faire Communitarianism in the Ideology of Science in the United States’, New Literary History 21 (1990), pp. 902.

  11. 11.

    Nye, Michael Polanyi, pp. 209–210.

  12. 12.

    Hollinger, ‘Free Enterprise and Free Inquiry’, p. 909.

  13. 13.

    Nye, Michael Polanyi, p. 200; for Koestler’s stint as a science journalist, see Coleman, Liberal Conspiracy, p. 22.

  14. 14.

    Nye, Michael Polanyi, pp. 211–212. See also Rockefeller Foundation, Grant File GA 55061.

  15. 15.

    Edward Shils, ‘The Scientific Community: Thoughts after Hamburg’, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (May 1954), p. 151.

  16. 16.

    Nicolas Nabokov to Michael Polanyi, 19 October 1953, Box 273, Folder 8; Nabokov to M. Polanyi, 21 May 1954, Box 273, Folder 11; Manshel to Michael Josselson, 7 June 1954, Box 272, Folder 7, IACF.

  17. 17.

    George Polanyi to Manshel, 6 June 1954, and Manshel to Josselson, 7 June 1954, Box 272, Folder 7, IACF.

  18. 18.

    Manshel to G. Polanyi, 22 June 1954, and Manshel to G. Polanyi, 14 July 1954, Box 272, Folder 7, IACF.

  19. 19.

    According to Saunders, the CIA sent both Manshel (in 1954) and Hunt (in 1956) to gain a tighter grip over the CCF’s operations. See Saunders, The Cultural Cold War, pp. 242–243.

  20. 20.

    Manshel to G. Polanyi, 6 December 1954, Box 272, Folder 7 IACF.

  21. 21.

    Manshel to G. Polanyi, 29 March 1955, Box 272, Folder 9, IACF.

  22. 22.

    Manshel to G. Polanyi, 4 April 1955, Box 272, Folder 9, IACF.

  23. 23.

    See, for instance, G. Polanyi to Josselson, 8 June 1955, Manshel to G. Polanyi, 9 July 1955, and Josselson to Priscilla Polanyi, 28 November 1955, Box 272, Folder 8, IACF; Josselson to G. Polanyi, 8 March 1956, Box 273, Folder 2, IACF; Josselson to G. Polanyi, 30 October 1956, Box 272, Folder 10, IACF; Josselson to P. Polanyi, 7 January 1957, Box 273, Folder 3, IACF; Melvin Lasky to G. Polanyi, 17 April 1957, Box 273, Folder 3, IACF; and Josselson to G. Polanyi, 16 March 1958, Box 273, Folder 4, IACF.

  24. 24.

    Josselson to P. Polanyi, 16 September 1954, Box 272, Folder 7, IACF.

  25. 25.

    Josselson to G. Polanyi, 3 November 1954, Box 272, Folder 7, IACF. See also Science and Freedom 1 (1954).

  26. 26.

    See, for example, Nicholas Nabokov to G. Polanyi, 5 July 1956, Box 273, Folder 1, IACF; Josselson to G. Polanyi, 21 August 1957, and Marion Bieber to G. Polanyi, 13 May 1957, Box 273, Folder 3, IACF.

  27. 27.

    George Polanyi’s explanation of why he preferred not to cover accusations that the United States had used biological warfare in Korea is telling. While the accusations themselves were ‘not suitable’ material for Science and Freedom, he thought something on why scientists ‘allowed themselves to become the instruments of this lying propaganda’ might be more appropriate. For Polanyi, the standards of scientific behaviour mattered more than Cold War politics per se. See G. Polanyi to Bieber, 21 May 1956, Box 273, Folder 3, IACF.

  28. 28.

    Committee on Science and Freedom, ‘Report on the First Year’s Activities: July 1954–August 1955‘, Box 9, Folder 12, Committee on Science and Freedom Records, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library (hereafter CSF).

  29. 29.

    Science and Freedom 3 (1956).

  30. 30.

    See, for example, W. Mays, Marcello Boldrini, and A. Buzzati-Traverso, ‘Encounters with Soviet Thought’, Science and Freedom 2 (1955), on Soviet presentations at a recent philosophy of science meeting.

  31. 31.

    For the University of Tasmania, see Science and Freedom 4 (1956); for British universities, see Science and Freedom 7 (1957).

  32. 32.

    For Spain, see Science and Freedom 5 (1956); for Hungary, see Science and Freedom 8 (1957).

  33. 33.

    Committee on Science and Freedom, ‘Study Group: Science and Freedom’, 4 March 1956, Box 273, Folder 2, IACF.

  34. 34.

    Josselson to G. Polanyi, 8 March 1956, Box 273, Folder 2, IACF.

  35. 35.

    Sidney Hook to M. Polanyi, 16 March 1956, Committee on Science and Freedom (118.2), Box 118, Sidney Hook Papers, Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford, California.

  36. 36.

    Josselson to G. Polanyi, 17 March 1956, Box 273, Folder 3, IACF; Rockefeller Foundation, Grant File GA G 5604, 4 May 1956, Series 100, Box 6, RG 1.2, RAC.

  37. 37.

    The papers were reproduced as a special issue: ‘Freedom and Responsibility: Papers Read at a Study Group on Science and Freedom held in Paris, August 1956’, Science and Freedom 11 (June 1958).

  38. 38.

    Hunt and Josselson had been urging Polanyi to consider the problem of Chinese universities for at least three years. For a typical example, see Josselson to Polanyi, 21 August 1957, Box 273, Folder 3, IACF.

  39. 39.

    William H. Newell, ‘Universities in Modern China’, Science and Freedom 14 (1960), pp. 17–25; on Kristol’s recommendation, see G. Polanyi to Josselson, 3 May 1960, Box 273, Folder 6, IACF.

  40. 40.

    Hunt to G. Polanyi, 8 March 1960, Box 273, Folder 6, IACF.

  41. 41.

    ‘Notes on the Discussion of the Bulletin of the Committee on “Science and Freedom”, Paris, 23 January 1955’, 23 January 1955, Box 272, Folder 9, IACF.

  42. 42.

    Committee on Science and Freedom, ‘Report on the First Year’s Activities: July 1954–August 1955’.

  43. 43.

    Committee on Science and Freedom, ‘Report on the Work Carried Out by the Secretariat of the Committee on Science and Freedom During January and February 1960’, 1960, Box 9, Folder 19, CSF.

  44. 44.

    Committee on Science and Freedom, ‘Report on Activities in the Period September 1956–April 1957’, April 1957, Box 9, Folder 15, CSF.

  45. 45.

    Committee on Science and Freedom, ‘Report on Activities in the Period September–November 1955’, November 1955, Series 100.D, Box 25, Folder 180, RG 1.2, RAC.

  46. 46.

    Committee on Science and Freedom, ‘Report on the Work Carried Out by the Secretariat of the Committee on Science and Freedom During January and February 1960’.

  47. 47.

    A typical example is G. Polanyi to Professor Duyvendak, 19 April 1955, Box 5, Folder 4, CSF.

  48. 48.

    M.E. McKinnon to G. Polanyi, 20 July 1955, Box 5, Folder 5, CSF.

  49. 49.

    Alexander Szalai to G. Polanyi, 20 October 1956, Box 5, Folder 10, CSF.

  50. 50.

    G.J. Minnaert to G. Polanyi, 20 April 1957, Box 6, Folder 7, CSF.

  51. 51.

    Paul Koenig to G. Polanyi, 2 October 1956, Box 5, Folder 13, CSF.

  52. 52.

    See Coleman, pp. 139–157, 199–209; and essays by Eric Pullin, Elizabeth Holt, and Asha Rogers in this volume.

  53. 53.

    P. Gisbert to George Polanyi, 9 April 1956, Box 5, Folder 14, CSF.

  54. 54.

    Committee on Science and Freedom, ‘Report on Activities in the Period September–November 1955’.

  55. 55.

    Committee on Science and Freedom, ‘Report on Activities in the Period September 1958–May 1959’, June 1959, Box 9, Folder 18, CSF.

  56. 56.

    G. Polanyi to Josselson, 6 May 1958, and Josselson to G. Polanyi, 9 May 1958, Box 273, Folder 4, IACF; G. Polanyi to Josselson, 25 May 1959, P. Polanyi to Hunt, 26 June 1959, and Hunt to P. Polanyi, 3 July 1959, Box 273, Folder 5, IACF.

  57. 57.

    Hunt to P. Polanyi, 19 February 1960, Box 273, Folder 6, IACF.

  58. 58.

    P. Polanyi to Hunt, 23 May 1961, Box 273, Folder 7, IACF.

  59. 59.

    It is unclear whether Hunt delivered this news in person or via correspondence. The archival record includes only the draft of such a letter (Hunt to M. Polanyi, ‘Draft Letter’, n.d. [May 1961], Box 274, Folder 11, IACF). A later letter from Michael Polanyi to Hunt, asking how George and Priscilla took the news, makes clear that he agreed with the decision: M. Polanyi to Hunt, 17 June 1961, Box 274, Folder 11, IACF.

  60. 60.

    Aronova, ‘Studies of Science Before “Science Studies”’; MacLeod, this volume.

  61. 61.

    Nabokov to Polanyi, 19 October 1953, Box 273, Folder 8, IACF.

  62. 62.

    Dwight D. Eisenhower, ‘Annual Message to the Congress on the State of the Union’, 9 January 1958, in Dwight D. Eisenhower: 1958: Containing the Public Messages, Speeches, and Statements of the President, January 1 to December 31, 1958, 2005, available online through The American Presidency Project, <http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu>; Cull, p. 152.

  63. 63.

    See, for instance, the list of proposals for using science as propaganda prepared by Harold Goodwin, the science advisor for the United States Information Agency, for presentation to the Operations Coordinating Board: Harold Goodwin to Mr Harkness, ‘“Project Proposals” Included in the Paper on Development of a Science Program’, 28 February 1958, Box 3, Folder: IOP/A Basic Paper 1958 [Folder 2/2], RG 306, P 243, US National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland.

  64. 64.

    Saunders, in a footnote, suggests that Josselson may have shut down the Committee because ‘[Michael] Polanyi himself was showing all the signs of mental illness’ (Stonor Saunders, p. 449, n.1). Given that Michael Polanyi and the Secretariat discussed the need to straighten out George Polanyi’s operation, this seems exceedingly unlikely. Her passing description of Science and Freedom identifies Michael, rather than George, as the editor (p. 214), suggesting multiple inaccuracies in her account of this committee.

  65. 65.

    G. Polanyi to Josselson, 5 February 1956, Box 273, Folder 2, IACF; G. Polanyi to Hunt, 26 May 1959, Box 273, Folder 5, IACF.

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  1. Independent Scholar, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Audra J. Wolfe

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Correspondence to Audra J. Wolfe .

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  1. Institute of History, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Giles Scott-Smith

  2. Amerika-Institut, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany

    Charlotte A. Lerg

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Wolfe, A.J. (2017). Science and Freedom: The Forgotten Bulletin. In: Scott-Smith, G., Lerg, C. (eds) Campaigning Culture and the Global Cold War. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59867-7_2

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