Animal Farm and a CIA Propaganda Operation | #118

Also, the descendants of Muhammed Ali Jinnah

Aug 20, 2022

Hello,

A satirical allegorical novella by Motihari born George Orwell released in August 1945. Animal Farm: A Fairy story, that was the original title by the way, was meant to be a fable reflecting the events leading up to the 1917 Russian Revolution.

The main protagonist of the novella - Napoleon is a pig who emerges as the leader, after Mr Jones is thrown out.

The newsletter this week is dedicated to this remarkable book that is still so relevant 77 years later. If nothing else, you will avoid making the mistakes that Shilpa Shetty did, when she spoke about the novel.

Things we learnt this week 🤓

T.S. Eliot rejected the publication of Animal Farm as an editor stating, “We have no conviction that this is the right point of view from which to criticise the political situation at the present time.” Here is the copy of the letter that Eliot wrote (courtesy @britishlibrary).

Given the nature of the novel, the CIA used it as a propaganda tool in the Iron curtain. Operation Aedinosaur, was CIA’s attempt to get the books into the hands of the people on the Eastern divide of the Berlin Wall. They would load balloons with copies of Animal Farm and would drop copies in Poland, Czechoslovakia etc. Maybe the CIA could have done with some commie-rcials instead.
The Horn and Hoof flag mentioned in the book was a direct attack on the Chinese communist flag and one of the reasons why the book was banned in China. One wonders why? The flag does look like, well, the horn and the hoof 🤓
The Horn and Hoof Flag on the left and the Chinese Communist Flag on the right