03-05-2016, 09:54 AM
I am reading JERZY KOSINSKI: A BIOGRAPHY (1996), an excellent book by James Park Sloan about the enigmatic Polish émigré novelist
best known for his great novel THE PAINTED
BIRD. The biography deals with the allegations that Kosinski had CIA connections.
The author mentions work Kosinski did early in his time in the US (including two anti-Communist books) that
had U.S. government funding, possibly including CIA involvement, but the author
does not believe Kosinski was an actual agent. Kosinski did some scriptwriting for the United States Information Agency,
the government's official propaganda arm, but was rejected
in his application for full-time USIA employment for security
reasons. He also wrote scripts for Radio Free Europe, which was sponsored by the CIA. (A personal note: When I was the principal writer
of the USIA worldwide TV special in tribute to the Solidarity
Movement, LET POLAND BE POLAND [1982], I proposed
that we put Kosinski on the program but was turned
down on the grounds that the harsh portrait of Polish peasantry
in THE PAINTED BIRD had made him deeply
unpopular in Poland. I didn't know any of his U.S. government connections at the time.
I had tried, with Kosinski's blessing, to get a film made of THE PAINTED
BIRD, but everyone I approached in Hollywood said it was impossible
to make a Holocaust film. This was years before SCHINDLER'S LIST was made.)
In the course of the biography's discussion of Kosinski's U.S. government ties, something emerged
about C. D. Jackson, who, as readers of this Forum well know,
was the publisher of Life who bought the Zapruder film
and kept it under lock and key. Jackson had extensive
intelligence connections and was described by Carl Bernstein
in his famous 1977 Rolling Stone article on the CIA penetration of the media
as having been "For many years, [Henry] Luce's personal emissary to the CIA."
Jackson, a general and an OSS veteran, had been President Eisenhower's advisor on psychological warfare. He had been in charge
of Life since 1960 and worked for Time, Inc., off and on from 1931
until his untimely death in September 1964, just nine days before the
publication of the Warren Report.
Kosinski's U.S. government-backed book THE FUTURE IS OURS, COMRADE: CONVERSATIONS
WITH THE RUSSIANS (1960), published
under the pseudoname of Joseph Novak, was published by Doubleday. The editor of
the book was Adam Yarmolinsky. Sloan writes that Yarmolinsky's "sole connection
with the book's origin was Frank Gibney, then a correspondent for Life magazine.
When Gibney brought him the manuscript, Yarmolinsky circulated it among friends
at the CIA, asking their opinion on its authenticity. They responded that it appeared to be authentic.
"At Life Frank Gibney's beat included Eastern Europe, and especially Eastern European
defectors, so he had excellent access and contacts at the CIA. When they had a defector
they wished to publicize, the CIA contacted Gibney's boss, C. D. Jackson, or sometimes
Gibney himself, and Gibney generally wrote the story. He had been allowed unusual
access to CIA archives as editor of THE PENKOVSKY PAPERS, the (supposed) papers
of an American agent in the Soviet Union. . . ." (p. 111)
This indication of a special operational interest by Jackson in defectors -- including those from what
was known as "the Soviet bloc" -- might shed further light on how he and the Luce
organization dealt with Oswald and the assassination.
best known for his great novel THE PAINTED
BIRD. The biography deals with the allegations that Kosinski had CIA connections.
The author mentions work Kosinski did early in his time in the US (including two anti-Communist books) that
had U.S. government funding, possibly including CIA involvement, but the author
does not believe Kosinski was an actual agent. Kosinski did some scriptwriting for the United States Information Agency,
the government's official propaganda arm, but was rejected
in his application for full-time USIA employment for security
reasons. He also wrote scripts for Radio Free Europe, which was sponsored by the CIA. (A personal note: When I was the principal writer
of the USIA worldwide TV special in tribute to the Solidarity
Movement, LET POLAND BE POLAND [1982], I proposed
that we put Kosinski on the program but was turned
down on the grounds that the harsh portrait of Polish peasantry
in THE PAINTED BIRD had made him deeply
unpopular in Poland. I didn't know any of his U.S. government connections at the time.
I had tried, with Kosinski's blessing, to get a film made of THE PAINTED
BIRD, but everyone I approached in Hollywood said it was impossible
to make a Holocaust film. This was years before SCHINDLER'S LIST was made.)
In the course of the biography's discussion of Kosinski's U.S. government ties, something emerged
about C. D. Jackson, who, as readers of this Forum well know,
was the publisher of Life who bought the Zapruder film
and kept it under lock and key. Jackson had extensive
intelligence connections and was described by Carl Bernstein
in his famous 1977 Rolling Stone article on the CIA penetration of the media
as having been "For many years, [Henry] Luce's personal emissary to the CIA."
Jackson, a general and an OSS veteran, had been President Eisenhower's advisor on psychological warfare. He had been in charge
of Life since 1960 and worked for Time, Inc., off and on from 1931
until his untimely death in September 1964, just nine days before the
publication of the Warren Report.
Kosinski's U.S. government-backed book THE FUTURE IS OURS, COMRADE: CONVERSATIONS
WITH THE RUSSIANS (1960), published
under the pseudoname of Joseph Novak, was published by Doubleday. The editor of
the book was Adam Yarmolinsky. Sloan writes that Yarmolinsky's "sole connection
with the book's origin was Frank Gibney, then a correspondent for Life magazine.
When Gibney brought him the manuscript, Yarmolinsky circulated it among friends
at the CIA, asking their opinion on its authenticity. They responded that it appeared to be authentic.
"At Life Frank Gibney's beat included Eastern Europe, and especially Eastern European
defectors, so he had excellent access and contacts at the CIA. When they had a defector
they wished to publicize, the CIA contacted Gibney's boss, C. D. Jackson, or sometimes
Gibney himself, and Gibney generally wrote the story. He had been allowed unusual
access to CIA archives as editor of THE PENKOVSKY PAPERS, the (supposed) papers
of an American agent in the Soviet Union. . . ." (p. 111)
This indication of a special operational interest by Jackson in defectors -- including those from what
was known as "the Soviet bloc" -- might shed further light on how he and the Luce
organization dealt with Oswald and the assassination.
