The American Committee for Cultural Freedom (ACCF) 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 continuing strength of the Soviet myth among the Western cultural elite. Despite all that had happened - the Moscow show trials, the Nazi-Soviet pact, the assassination of Leon Trotsky, the Russian attack on Finland, the takeovers in Eastern Europe, the mounting evidence of the gulag - Joseph Stalin still retained the loyalty of many writers, artists and scientists who viewed the Soviet Union as a progressive alternative to the 'reactionary,' 'war-mongering' United States." The CCF was in part funded by the CIA.
The dominant figure in the organization was Sidney Hook. Its 600-strong membership encompassed leading figures on both the Right and the Left, including: James Burnham, Alexander Calder, Whittaker Chambers, Max Eastman, Henry Hazlitt, Dwight Macdonald, Mary McCarthy, Sol Stein and Jackson Pollock.
Famous quotes containing the words american, committee, cultural and/or freedom:
“Anger becomes limiting, restricting. You can’t see through it. While anger is there, look at that, too. But after a while, you have to look at something else.”
—Thylias Moss, African American poet. As quoted in the Wall Street Journal (May 12, 1994)
“Any committee that is the slightest use is composed of people who are too busy to want to sit on it for a second longer than they have to.”
—Katharine Whitehorn (b. 1926)
“The only justification for repressive institutions is material and cultural deficit. But such institutions, at certain stages of history, perpetuate and produce such a deficit, and even threaten human survival.”
—Noam Chomsky (b. 1928)
““Letting go” ...implies generosity, a talent a good mother needs in abundance. Separation is not loss, it is not cutting yourself off from someone you love. It is giving freedom to the other person to be herself before she becomes resentful, stunted, and suffocated by being tied too close. Separation is not the end of love. It creates love.”
—Nancy Friday (20th century)