1966 On 27 April the New York Times, in the course of a series of articles on American intelligence, reported (without any mincing of words) that ‘the CIA has supported anti-communist but liberal organisations such as the Congress for Cultural Freedom and some of their newspapers and magazines. Encounter magazine was for a long time, though it is not now, one of the indirect beneficiaries of CIA funds.’
The revelation triggered the biggest scandal in higher journalism of the post-war era. Encounter had been founded in 1953 as a joint Anglo-American initiative. It was devised, from the first, as an attempt to capture the intellectual high ground from Marxist thinkers (Sartre, Gramsci, et al.).
The magazine was published in the UK, although from the outset it had a dual British–American editorship. The first editorial coupling was the English poet Stephen Spender (who had recently renounced his youthful communism in the book The God that Failed) and the American political commentator (later the father of neo-conservatism) Irving Kristol. Kristol was succeeded, five years later, by his compatriot (and fellow neo-con) Melvin Lasky.
Funding for Encounter (never profitable) was from the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF), based in Paris and Geneva. The cash, allegedly, came from a philanthropic source, the Fairfield Foundation, funded by the millionaire Julius (‘Junkie’) Fleischmann – enriched by the manufacture of margarine. In point of fact, the CIA was secretly the paymaster.
From the first there were suspicions. Despite being on friendly relations with Spender, E.M. Forster, T.S. Eliot and William Empson declined to contribute to the literary pages for which Spender was principally responsible. It was, as Eliot said, the American ‘auspices’ that made them reluctant. Empson came right out with it and accused Spender of being a lackey of American imperialism, which led to glasses of wine being thrown at parties (his suit was so stained, Empson said, that it would not show).
Spender, co-editor for fourteen years, maintained plausibly that he did not know about the CIA connection. Letters indicate that he was consistently lied to on the question of who was paying the piper. Kristol also claimed that he did not know, and in later life threatened to sue anyone who said he did. The question was raised again, after lawsuits were no longer a risk, with his death in 2009. Melvin Lasky was widely believed to be a CIA agent in place, although it has never been proved.
When the New York Times story broke, Spender was merely a ‘corresponding editor’, teaching at the time in America. His editorial position on Encounter had been taken over by Frank Kermode. Surviving correspondence proves that Kermode knew absolutely nothing about the CIA connection and had been lied to (notably by Lasky).
A terrific row ensued, in which much dirty washing relating to the American and British secret services was made public. The magazine carried on, in sadly damaged form, under the sole editorship of Lasky. The CCF was disbanded. In a sense they had won their battle.
Argument continues as to whether Encounter, which published some of the most distinguished higher journalism of its time, was – when all is considered – a good or bad thing. Was that journalism soiled by its remote connection with America’s spooks?