CIA’s secret propaganda war in Sweden

After the end of World War II, the Iron Curtain descended, and propaganda machinery was active throughout the divided Europe during the 1950s, 1960s, and beyond. The American intelligence agency CIA invested substantial sums of money and resources in propaganda warfare during the Cold War to minimize the influence of the Soviet Union. Economic support from the CIA flowed into Europe, including Swedish cultural figures in the ”Swedish Committee for Cultural Freedom” and other media operations such as Dagens Nyheter.

The influence of the United States was greater than previously believed, says history researcher Mikael Nilsson, working at Stockholm University, in the P3 radio documentary. Swedish local newspapers were provided with propaganda texts by the US Information Service (USIS) of the American Embassy, without specifying sources.

”It was a great success for American propagandists,” says Nilsson.

Money from the CIA was transported to Sweden via the American propaganda organization ”Congress for Cultural Freedom” (CCF), where the legendary debater and anti-communist Herbert Tingsten, former editor of DN and a professor of political science, was involved. He was closer to the American intelligence service than has been expressed.

CCF’s purpose from 1950 was to gather thinkers and cultural personalities to counter the ideological influence of Marxism spread by the Soviet Union. Mikael Nilsson has found documents in American archives showing that Tingsten attended a CCF meeting in 1950 and was elected to its international secretariat. He is believed to have attended two major conferences in Milan in 1955 and Berlin in 1960. At the end of the 1950s, he was mentioned as one of the congress’s best friends in Scandinavia. Even if Tingsten was not personally a member of CCF’s Swedish branch – the Swedish Committee for Cultural Freedom – he had close contacts with the organization that brought together well-known authors. ”SKKF” was created by Social Democrat Member of Parliament Ture Nerman and Vilhelm Moberg, and the committee’s magazine ”Kulturkontakt” was run by the author Birgitta Stenberg. The content was controlled by the CIA-supported Congress for Cultural Freedom before publication.

Sources:
[1] https://www.dn.se/nyheter/sverige/tingsten-medlem-i-cia-organisation
[2] https://sverigesradio.se/sida/gruppsida.aspx?programid=3304&grupp=6240&artikel=5459221

CIA’s secret propaganda war in Sweden