Some people have reported CIA involvement in the Iowa Writers' Workshop, which had a great deal of influence on the direction that literary fiction took in post-WWII America. I'm inclined to believe that such projects were likely the playthings of a few dilettantes in high places--spymasters with subscriptions to Commentary and Partisan Review--rather than a serious attempt at stifling dissent, or discrediting socialism, or cultivating soft power, or whatever.

https://www.openculture.com/2018/12/cia-helped-shaped-americ...