Why are the Pentagon and the CIA in Hollywood?

• Author: Matthew Alford,Tom Secker
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ajes.12180
• Published date: 01 March 2017
• Date: 01 March 2017

Why are the Pentagon and the CIA in

Hollywood?

By TOM SECKER and MATTHEW ALFORD

ABSTRACT. The CIA and the U.S. Department of Defense are both

engaged in programs to influence the content of movies produced by

Hollywood studios. Although they claim their only purpose in these

ventures is to guarantee the accuracy of how military and intelligence

activities are conducted, it is clear that their agenda goes beyond that goal.

Their true aims include ensuring that movies project a positive image of the

relevant government agencies. However, the CIA and DoD differ in their

understanding of what constitutes good publicity. Films scrutinized and

supported by military agencies are primarily evaluated according to

whether they provide a vehicle for showing the technical and

organizational competence of the Pentagon. To that end, films based on

comic book characters or extraterrestrial invaders are viewed positively

because they show the war-fighting capacity of the military without having

to name any actual enemy. The CIA, by contrast, prefers to support films

that enable citizens to develop a stronger sense of patriotism in a world of

moral ambiguities. As a result, the CIA is much less fearful of revealing the

dark side of its undertakings, as long as a given movie presents a story that

shows the value of the CIA in protecting the security of the nation.

Introduction

The field of film politics is typically dominated by textual interpretations

that are, to a considerable degree, predicated on the political leanings of the

commentator. Attaining an objective perspective on the ideological persua-

sion of any particular movie or set of movies may never be possible but

Matthew Alford is a teaching fellow at the University of Bath. His research focuses on

the relationship between entertainment, political power, and propaganda in the United

States. Matthew’s documentary film, The Writer with No Hands, premiered at Hot Docs

in Toronto and won runner-up at the Ammar Popular Film Festival in Tehran.

Tom Secker is an independent researcher and FOIA specialist focusing on govern-

ment involvement in the entertainment industry. He runs the website spyculture.com

and hosts several podcasts including ClandesTime and The CIA and Hollywood.

American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Vol. 76, No. 2 (March, 2017).

DOI: 10.1111/ajes.12180

V

C2017 American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Inc.

recently, through the use of previously unavailable government documen-

tation, we have been able to build a much more coherent picture of how

many, and how significantly, sensitive films relating to U.S. foreign policy

have been tacitly endorsed and both directly and indirectly affected—to a

truly remarkable degree—by the U.S. government.

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Department of

Defense (Pentagon or DoD) are major elements of the U.S. national

security infrastructure that openly admit to undertaking public relations

efforts in the screen entertainment industries. The conventional under-

standing of the CIA’s and Pentagon’s Entertainment Liaison Offices (ELOs)

isthattheyareprimarilyeffortstohelprecruitandretainstaffandtomain-

tain a realistic public image of these organizations. While no specific direc-

tives are available that reveal the official purpose of the offices, the CIA

website contains a page on its Entertainment Industry Liaison that states:

“Our goal is an accurate portrayal of the men and women of the CIA, and

the skill, innovation, daring, and commitment to public service that defines

them” (CIA 2007). This article challenges the conventional view by show-

ing that “accuracy” plays a far smaller role than “persuasion.”

We can observe the tension between “accuracy” and “persuasion”

even in official guideli nes by comparing the form al statements of the

DoD and the U.S. Marine Corps, each of which has programs designed

to work with Hollywood producers and directors in shaping movie

scripts and productions.

In July 2015 the Department of Defense (DoD) issued an updated

version of its instruction 5410.16 on Assistance to Non-Government,

Entertainment-Oriented Media Productions. It explains that production

assistance can be provided “when cooperation of the producers with

the Department of Defense benefits the DoD, or when such coopera-

tion would be in the best interest of the Nation.” As the DoD explains,

assessments as to whether to provide assistance are based on the pro-

duction fulfilling one or more of three criteria:

1. Presents a reasonably realistic depiction of the Military Services

and the DoD, including Service members, civilian personnel,

events, missions, assets, and policies

2. Is informational and considered likely to contribute to public

understanding of the Military Services and the DoD; or

The American Journal of Economics and Sociology382