1. The Chelsea Manning & Harvard business is a good occasion for thinking about the relationship between the Ivy League & the CIA.
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4. An emblematic figure of the Ivy League/CIA connection was James Jesus Angleton, Yale undergrad, Harvard Law (1943).
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5. As an undergrad, Angleton had been steeped in the emerging High Modernist canon (Pound, Eliot, Empsonian "close reading")
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6. During World War 2, Angleton & other Ivy Leaguers heavily recruited for OSS (precursor to CIA). Later they were creators of CIA.
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7. The aesthetic propaganda used by the CIA very much that of mid-century elite colleges: high modernism, abstract expressionism, jazz.
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8. Reason why I'm emphasizing aesthetics is that the college education Angleton & other spooks received informed their spy-craft.
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9. Angleton fantasized about translating Eliot's "The Waste Land" into Russian & airdropping copies over USSR. Just to show the Ruskies.
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10. Angleton eventually became head of counter-intelligence, which is when he really to use his Ivy League education.
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11. From Empson and other New Critics, Angleton had been taught to be attentive to ambiguity, latent & hidden meaning.
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12. Angleton interrogated defectors. He could never accept their testimony at face value but looked for ambiguity & double meaning.
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13. Always fearing each defector was really a double agent, Angleton became increasingly paranoid, believing CIA infiltrated by moles.
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14. In his Ahab-like quest for the big mole, Angleton held defectors prisoner indefinitely & drugged them.
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15. Although later the CIA would democratize & accept recruits even from state schools, the Ivy League connection is still there.
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16. All of which helps explain why Harvard caved so quickly to some very dubious spooks.
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End of conversation
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