The CIA Book Club: The Secret Mission to Win the Cold War with Forbidden Literature

Journalist English (The Gallery of Miracles and Madness) offers a riveting look at a little-known CIA operation designed to spread alternative media throughout Soviet-controlled Poland. Communist censors banned or edited materials that depicted life beyond the Iron Curtain, unsavory parts of U.S.S.R. history, or Polish national identity; they also heavily regulated news media and restricted access to printing materials. Drawing on firsthand accounts, English shows how a network of anti-Communist activists—among them Mirosław Chojecki (who gained international recognition for going on a hunger strike while imprisoned for his publishing activities), Kultura magazine publisher Jerzy Giedroyć, and Helena Łuczywo, editor of the underground publication Mazovia Weekly—worked with the CIA to evade the censors and amplify the Polish Solidarity movement. The network created illicit broadcasts, magazines, and cassettes; smuggled books, printing materials, and radio equipment into the country; and helped fund anti-establishment efforts (including violent ones). Intrigue follows as conspirators engage in evasive maneuvers, coded messages, double-crossings, and other flimflammery. Yet, despite this spycraft-centric focus, the author steers admirably clear of divisive Cold War ideological messaging, instead maintaining a captivating focus on the sacrifices made by the activists. (At one point, English chronicles a Mazovia Weekly deputy editor’s heroic, single-handed production of an entire newspaper at a crucial moment when her colleagues were all away.) The result is a thrilling account of ordinary people fighting for their intellectual freedom. (June)