[silence] (OT) BBC Radio - The CIA and the Avant Garde

[Guy De Bievre]

another of their channels: voice of america, recorded (and co 
sponsored) great jazz performances to be broadcasted exclusively 
towards eastern europe, as an example of American freedom (in days 
when black musicians and black people in general were still being 
segregated in half the US). And the concerts were of course not 
broadcasted in the US (too much freedom I guess)

At 06:24 PM 9/27/2006, John Whiting wrote:
>A fascinating program! As someone who did sound projection and 
>occasionally lectured
>there for a dozen years, I found it informative and evocative but 
>not surprising,
>even though I knew nothing of the CIA's fine Italian hand in its 
>early history. It
>ties in neatly of course with their support of the English literary magazine
>Encounter (which collapsed when its cover was blown) and also the 
>unlikely elevation
>from obscurity to notoriety of the intransigent artist Jackson 
>Pollack. The reason
>for their support of the avant-garde (at least at the higher, less 
>intellectual
>levels of authority) appears to have been simply the fact that both 
>Hitler and Stalin
>had opposed it.