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Ford Foundation | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Founded | January 15, 1936 |
| Founders | Edsel Ford Henry Ford |
| Chairman | Francisco G. Cigarroa |
| President | Heather Gerken |
The Ford Foundation is a supposedly philanthropic organization founded in 1936 by the Ford family, who are associated with the Ford Motor Company.[1] The organization's first president was Edsel Ford, son of Henry Ford.[1] As of 2025, its president is Heather Gerken, the former dean of Yale Law School.[1][2]
Former chief administrator of the Marshall Plan and CIA officer Richard Bissell, who used to divert funds to the CIA to conduct anti-communist operations while director of the Marshall Plan, was named director of the Ford Foundation in 1952.[3][4]
Author William Blum has referred to the Ford Foundation as "a long-time conduit for CIA covert funds".[5]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Our origins." Ford Foundation.
- ↑ "Heather Gerken." Ford Foundation.
- ↑ Jeremy Kuzmarov. "Did Legendary Filmmaker Ken Burns—Whose Documentary Revealed Harsh Truths About the Civil War—Intentionally Hide Harsh Truths About the Vietnam War to Whitewash the CIA?" CovertAction Magazine. 2025-04-29.
- ↑ “In 1948, Bissell became a chief administrator of the Marshall Plan, and he designed many of the wonky details of distributing its funds. We recently made an episode about the plan, and it's how we got interested in Bissell. In November 1948, he met with Frank Wisner, then head of the CIA's covert operations arm. Wisner wanted Marshall Plan money for covert actions against communists in Europe. "When I began to press him about how the money would be used, he explained that I could not be told," Bissell later recalled. Bissell, nonetheless, diverted funds to them.”
Greg Rosalsky (2020-02-20). "The Most Dangerous Economist" NPR. - ↑ “The CIA also skimmed large amounts of Marshall Plan funds to covertly maintain cultural institutions, journalists, and publishers, at home and abroad, for the omnipresent and heated propaganda of the Cold War; the selling of the Marshall Plan to the American public and elsewhere was entwined with fighting 'the red menace'. Moreover, in their covert operations, CIA personnel at times used the Marshall Plan as cover, and one of the Plan's chief architects, Richard Bissell, then moved to the CIA, stopping off briefly at the Ford Foundation, a long-time conduit for CIA covert funds. 'Twas one big happy, scheming family.”
William Blum (2012). America's Deadliest Export: Democracy: The Truth About US Foreign Policy and Everything Else.