askchapo

One of the factors to consider is that the CIA funneled huge amounts of cash into the arts in order to present an alternative to Soviet propaganda.

https://daily.jstor.org/was-modern-art-really-a-cia-psy-op/

The CIA also did this with the post-Marxist left at the same time.

If the CIA can do that, and it's within their budget too, then there's no reason why they couldn't be doing the same by propping up legit propaganda and signal-boosting it.

Here's a reading list in no particular order:

Finks: How the C.I.A. Tricked the World's Best Writers by Joel Whitney

Workshops of Empire: Stegner, Engle, and American Creative Writing During the Cold War

The Mighty Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played America by by Hugh Wilford

Who Paid the Piper and The Cultural Cold War by Frances Stonor Saunders

Then of course there's the whole Orwell and Animal Farm deal where the IRD and I believe the CIA worked together to distribute the book in multiple languages across the world. The CIA and IRD had a direct hand in the works of Robert Conquest and Encounter Magazine too. I assume this is just the tip of the iceberg and it's stuff that they've allowed to be released under freedom of information.