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Cornell University Press - Timothy Melley

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In December 2010 the U.S. Embassy in Kabul acknowledged that it was providing major funding for thirteen episodes of Eagle Four-a new Afghani television melodrama based loosely on the blockbuster U.S. series 24. According to an embassy spokesperson, Eagle Four was part of a strategy aimed at transforming public suspicion of security forces into something like awed respect. Why would a wartime government spend valuable resources on a melodrama of covert operations? The answer, according to Timothy Melley, is not simply that fiction has real political effects but that, since the Cold War, fiction has become integral to the growth of national security as a concept and a transformation of democracy. In The Covert Sphere, Melley links this cultural shift to the birth of the national security state in 1947. As the United States developed a vast infrastructure of clandestine organizations, it shielded policy from the public sphere and gave rise to a new cultural imaginary, "the covert sphere." One of the surprising consequences of state secrecy is that citizens must rely substantially on fiction to "know," or imagine, their nation's foreign policy. The potent combination of institutional secrecy and public fascination with the secret work of the state was instrumental in fostering the culture of suspicion and uncertainty that has plagued American society ever since-and, Melley argues, that would eventually find its fullest expression in postmodernism. The Covert Sphere traces these consequences from the Korean War through the War on Terror, examining how a regime of psychological operations and covert action has made the conflation of reality and fiction a central feature of both U.S. foreign policy and American culture. Melley interweaves Cold War history with political theory and original readings of films, television dramas, and popular entertainments-from The Manchurian Candidate through 24-as well as influential writing by Margaret Atwood, Robert Coover, Don DeLillo, Joan Didion, E. L. Doctorow, Michael Herr, Denis Johnson, Norman Mailer, Tim O'Brien, and many others.

Sujets

USA

United States of America

True crime

États-Unis

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Publié par	Cornell University Press
Date de parution	15 novembre 2012
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9780801465918
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

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Extrait

The Covert Sphere

Secrecy, Fiction, and the National Security State

Timothy Melley

Cornell University Press Ithaca and London

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

First published 2012 by Cornell University Press First printing, Cornell Paperbacks, 2012 Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data Melley, Timothy, 1963– The covert sphere : secrecy, ﬁction, and the national security state / Timothy Melley. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 9780801451232 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 9780801478536 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Spy stories, American—History and criticism. 2. American ﬁction—20th century—History and criticism. 3. Espionage in literature. 4. Terrorism in literature. 5. Secrecy in literature. 6. World politics in literature. 7. Literature and history—United States. 8. National security—Social aspects—United States. 9. Popular culture—Political aspects—United States—History— 20th century. 10. Popular culture—Political aspects—United States— History—21st century. I. Title. PS374.S5M45 2013 813′.087209—dc23 2012026271

Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials include vegetablebased, lowVOC inks and acidfree papers that are recycled, totally chlorinefree, or partly composed of nonwood ﬁbers. For further information, visit our website at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.

Cloth printing Paperback printing

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Preface

Contents

Introduction: The Postmodern Public Sphere Cold War Redux We Now Know Public Secrets Mere Entertainment Strategic Irrationalism Representations of the Covert State

1. Brainwashed! The Faisalabad Candidate Brain Warfare Little Shop of Horrors Softening Up Our Boys Renditions

vii

v i C o n t e n t s

2. Spectacles of Secrecy Trial by Simulation Political Theater Recovered (National) Memory The State’s Two Faces Fakery in Allegiance to the Truth The Fabulist Spy

3. False Documents True Lies Enemies of the State Psy Ops The Epistemology of Vietnam

4. The Work of Art in the Age of Plausible Deniability Narrative Dysfunction Calculated Ellipsis The Feminization of the Public Sphere The Journalist as Patsy Metaﬁction in Wartime

5. Postmodern Amnesia Assassins of Memory The Dialectics of Spectacle and Secrecy Secret History The Magic Show

6. The Geopolitical Melodrama Ground Zero Enemies, Foreign and Domestic Whatever It Takes Demonology Melodrama as Policy

Notes

Works Cited

Index

110

143

171

199

223

257

279

Preface

As I was ﬁnishing this book, I had the good fortune to receive a kind of unsolicited endorsement from the U.S. Department of State. On Decem ber 7, 2010, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul acknowledged that it was provid ing major funding for thirteen episodes ofEagle Four—a new Afghani television melodrama based loosely on the popular U.S. series24.Accord ing to National Public Radio,Eagle Four“tracks the ﬁctional adventures of an elite police unit that chases terrorists, kidnappers and smugglers in the midst of a war zone.” An embassy spokesperson refused to divulge the cost of the project but acknowledged its military purpose.Eagle Four is part of a strategy to transform Afghani suspicion of security forces into some 1 thing like awed respect. What does it mean when a wartime government chooses to spend valuable resources on a melodrama of covert operations? Among other things, it means that ﬁction has a powerful ability to shape the real world. This book began as a public lecture on that proposition. I was speak ing to a general audience, and my aim was to challenge the still widely

v i i i Preface

held notion that studying literature and culture is a noble but fundamen tally unserious pursuit, far removed from “real” political, diplomatic, and military conﬂicts. I could have used any number of historical examples, but because I was speaking at the height of public concern about the Bush administration’s “Global War on Terror,” I decided to focus on popular discourse about terrorism and U.S. antiterror policy. Several features of this discourse struck me as notable at the time. First, it was difﬁcult to ﬁnd historical, scholarly, and legal approaches to terrorism in the popular press. Several years into the War on Terror, many commentators still seemed genuinely perplexed about the nature, aims, and grievances of those who had recently attacked New York and Washington. Second, the most visible representations of the subject seemed to be ﬁlms and television series, most of which were melodramatic thrillers. Third, and most striking of all, many commentators and important public ﬁgures had explicated or de fended U.S. policy on the basis of these melodramas. While there is noth ing unusual about the use of ﬁction in political debate, a number of things about this case seemed singular, and they all had to do with the role of co vert action and state secrecy in the War on Terror. Why, I wondered, was there so little historical and political analysis of the state’s new enemies? And why so little objection to a counterstrategy rooted in Cold War pro tocols, particularly given the widespread public sense that the post–Cold War era was a radical departure from the Cold War? Had the substantially covert nature of the U.S. response shaped the political and cultural dynam ics of the moment? The Covert Spherepursues these questions through the cultural history of the Cold War and the War on Terror. My central claim is that the de velopment of the National Security State, with its emphasis on secrecy and deception, helped transform the cultural status of ﬁction as it relates to discourses of “fact,” such as journalism and history. As state secrecy shifted the conditions of public knowledge, certain forms of ﬁction became crucial in helping Americans imagine, or fantasize about, U.S. foreign policy. This transformation had a powerful role in fostering the forms of suspicion, skepticism, and uncertainty that would eventually ﬁnd their fullest expres sion in postmodernism. As I worked on this book, I incurred many debts. I would not have been able to complete it without generous grants from Miami University. Karen Schilling, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, gave me a leave

P r e f a c e i x

of absence just when I needed it, despite tough ﬁnancial times. A number of people invited me to present parts of my argument as it developed. I am grateful to Andreas Killen and Stefan Andriopoulos for inviting me to speak at Columbia University, and to Andreas Huyssen for his gener ous response; to Eva Horne and Anson Rabinbach for bringing me to the University of Konstanz, Germany, for a superb conference on conspiracy theory and history; to Michael Prince for an invitation to address the An nual American and Canadian Studies Conference in Kristiansand, Nor way; to Elisabeth Davies for the chance to speak at the Duke workshop on “Security, Suspicion, and Intelligence”; and to Molly Hite for an invita tion to Cornell. The feedback I received on these occasions was invaluable. Though he may not remember it, Anson Rabinbach was the one who no ticed my use of the phrase “covert sphere” and suggested I make more of it. Portions of this book have appeared elsewhere in slightly different form. Much of chapter 5 appeared as “Postmodern Amnesia,”Contemporary Lit erature44, no. 1 (2003): 106–31. Some of chapter 1 appeared in “Brain washed! Conspiracy Theory and Ideology in the Cold War United States,” New German Critique35, no. 1, 103 (Spring 2008): 145–64. A different por tion of the same chapter appeared as “Brain Warfare: The Covert Sphere, Terrorism, and the Legacy of Cold War,”Grey Room(2011): 18–39. 45 Quotations fromThe Public BurningRobert Coover, copyright 1976, by 1977 by Robert Coover, have been reprinted by permission of Georges Borchardt, Inc. My friends and colleagues have given me a lot of help and encourage ment. I am deeply grateful to Mary Jean Corbett for her support, guidance, and careful reading over several years. Special thanks as well to Peggy Shaffer, Madelyn Detloff, Elisabeth Hodges, Jonathan Strauss, and An drew Hebard, all of whom read portions of this book in draft and made excellent suggestions for improvement. At important moments along the way, Susan Morgan, Jim Creech, Erik Rose, Drew Cayton, Allan Winkler, Fran Dolan, Scott Shershow, Barry Chabot, and Jim Curell were invalu able interlocutors and advisers. I am grateful to my fellow members of the Miami University American Cultures Seminar and English Department for their feedback. At Cornell University Press, Peter J. Potter has been an incisive, critically engaged, and supportive editor from the start, and I was very lucky to have the help of Susan Specter, Susan Barnett, Dave Prout, and Marie FlahertyJones in getting this book to press. I am especially