Feedback
From Ernest Wistrich
Dear Sir,
I have read the article ‘Spinning the European Union: pro-European propaganda campaigns in the British media’ by Andy Mullen in your Winter 2002 issue. Whilst it contains a number of minor inaccuracies it includes one major misrepresentation, namely that the European Movement, of which I was director between 1969 and 1986, received funding from the CIA and that the accounting structure of the Movement was designed to hide this fact. When Mr. Mullen interviewed me for the purposes of his article he did not put to me any questions relating to the CIA. Had he done so I would have categorically denied that the Movement had received any funds from foreign sources and in particular not from the CIA. The Movement’s accounts were properly audited and contained no hidden accounts. Will you please put the record straight and inform Mr. Mullen accordingly.
Andy Mullen responds:
Dear Mr Wistrich,
In response to your letter, I would like to make three points.
- In my ‘Spinning the European Union: Pro-European Propaganda Campaigns in the British Media’ article (winter 2002 issue), I claimed that between 1970 and 1971 the British European Movement attracted £5 million from business sources and the CIA to help persuade the British public of the merits of joining the EU. Unfortunately, during the editing process I have attributed this claim to the wrong source. Until I locate the correct source, I will have to retract this specific claim.
- However, the study of declassified US records by Aldrich 2 revealed that promoting European unity through the European Movement, and other organisations, was one of the biggest covert operations by the US in the post-war period. He claimed that ‘while the funds that the CIA steered to the European Movement via ACUE (American Committee on United Europe) [between 1949 and 1960] reached more than $4 million, wider American covert funding of European unity groups was considerably greater. The complex nature of the whole European Movement, with dozens of subsections and splinter groups, local and national bodies, was ideal for this’ (p.363). Given that US policy towards European integration in the post-1960 period has been one of continued support, it seems reasonable to deduce that covert US operations to support pro-Europeans continued.
- The specific issue of CIA funding aside, it is crucial to note that you did not challenge the notion that pro-European forces in Britain have, on several occasions, spent substantial amounts of money on propaganda to `sell’ the EU to the British people. These propaganda campaigns did little to educate people about the realities of EU membership and they significantly out-spent the campaigns of Eurosceptics. As such they effectively undermined the democratic process. The case stands.
Richard Aldrich, The Hidden Hand: Britain, America and Cold War Secret Intelligence, (London: John Murray, 2001)