A Shadow US Foreign Policy

As for the role of CIA officials, the guidance asserted, "they do not want to be involved in managing these programs and will not be. We have nothing to hide here." But if a reporter then "pressed about where [Raymond] last worked ...the answer was "he retired from CIA...If pressed about what his duties were: His duties there were classified." Indeed, sources say Raymond was the CIA's top expert on propaganda and psychological operations.

As NED took shape, Gershman was in frequent contact with Raymond, who oversaw a network of inter-agency task forces that implemented a global propaganda and psy-op strategy. Documents also make clear that Raymond kept CIA Director Casey periodically informed about the project's developments.

In effect, NED took over many CIA responsibilities but did them more openly. The U.S. government also took steps to insulate NED from the resistance of targeted countries. Governments that objected to NED's presence were deemed anti-democratic and thus subjected to other pressures.

But governments that permitted NED to function often found themselves facing internal political pressures from NED-funded NGOs to shift those countries' policies to the right by eliminating social programs deemed "socialistic" and hewing to "reform" demands from international bankers, which usually meant ceding some sovereignty to the IMF or other global institutions. [For more details on Raymond's operation, see Robert Parry's Lost History.]

A Hand Out

Documents released by the Reagan library also reveal that one of the first organizations to put a hand out for U.S. government largesse was Freedom House, which describes itself as a human rights organization.

For instance, on Aug. 9, 1982, Freedom House executive director Leonard R. Sussman complained to Raymond that money problems had caused Freedom House to consolidate two of its publications, stating: "We would, of course, want to expand the project once again when ... and if the funds become available. Offshoots of that project appear in newspapers, magazines, books and on broadcast services here and abroad. It's a significant, unique channel of communication."

Once NED was up and running in 1983 and beyond, Freedom House became a major recipient of grants as it frequently echoed U.S. propaganda themes, though the public had little knowledge about the behind-the-scenes relationships.

But the network that Casey and Raymond built has outlived both of them and has outlived the Cold War, too. Nevertheless, NED and its funding recipients have pressed on, trying to implement the strategies of hardliners such as former Vice President Dick Cheney, who wanted not just the dismantling of the Soviet Union but the elimination of Russia as any kind of counterweight to U.S. hegemony.

Indeed, the momentum that this three-decade-old "public diplomacy" campaign has achieved -- both from NED and various neocons holding down key positions in Official Washington -- now pits this shadow foreign policy establishment against the President of the United States. Barack Obama may see cooperation with Vladimir Putin as crucial to resolving crises in Iran and Syria, but elements of Obama's own administration and U.S.-financed outfits like NED are doing all they can to create crises for Putin on his own border.