Iain Hamilton
Iain Bertram Hamilton (3 February 1920 - 15 July 1986) was an author and journalist who was editor of The Spectator 1962-63. Later he was involved in the CIA propaganda operation Forum World Features, as well as the affiliated Institute for the Study of Conflict.
Contents
Journalism
Hamilton worked at the Daily Record from 1944–45 and then The Guardian, 1945–52. He joined The Spectator in 1952 and held various editorial positions until his appointment as editor in 1962. [1] He was unexpectedly removed from this post by the magazine's proprietor in 1963, causing protest amongst his staff. [2]
Supporting the Vietnam War
In 1967 Hamilton was one of ten signatories of a letter to The Times backing U.S. Policies in Vietnam. The letter stated that much of the criticism “represents the impact of suspect information upon uncritical minds; and much of it, coming from conformist protestors.” It referred to “Anti-American propaganda and added that, “The organisers of and participators in this vast, though ill-aimed, propaganda barrage should not deceive themselves into imagining that they have silenced the voices of reason”. [3]
The other signatories were Kingsley Amis, John Braine, Robert Conquest, Edmund Crispin, Anthony Hartley, Bernard Levin, Simon Raven, David Rees and Peregrine Worsthorne [4]
Forum World Features and the Institute for the Study of Conflict
In 1977 The Times identified Hamilton as one of three “prominent critics of communism” in Britain, along with Brian Crozier and Robert Moss. [5] Hamilton had by that time been involved in covert propaganda operations with Crozier and Moss for at least seven years. He was the managing director of Kern House Enterprises from 1970, until it was shut down in 1975. Kern House Enterprises was a CIA front company which ran the British propagnda outfit Forum World Features.
Hamilton was also involved in the Institute for the Study of Conflict, the think-tank which grew out the of Forum World Features operation. In August 1970 the Institute for the Study of Conflict published an issue of Conflict Studies called 'The Irish Tangle' which was written by Hamilton. It was the sixth issue of the journal and the first to be published by the Institute for the Study of Conflict (the earlier issues were published by the Forum World Features affiliated Current Affairs Research Services Centre).
After Forum World Features shut down, Hamilton became Director of Studies at the Institute for the Study of Conflict, a position he held from 1975–1977. [6]
Notes
- ↑ ‘HAMILTON, Iain (Bertram)’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2007; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007
- ↑ 'Protest Over Editor Of "The Spectator" Staff Complain Of Shabby Treatment', The Times, 2 November 1963
- ↑ The Times, Saturday, Jan 21, 1967; pg. 9; Issue 56845; col D
- ↑ The Times, Saturday, Jan 21, 1967; pg. 9; Issue 56845; col D
- ↑ The Times, Saturday, Jan 15, 1977; pg. 14; Issue 59908; col A
- ↑ ‘HAMILTON, Iain (Bertram)’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2007; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007
