Gloria Steinem, the most recognizable figure of American second-wave feminism and founder of Ms. magazine, died at age 92 on Wednesday. Tributes poured in from across the political establishment, yet the most damning chapter of her career remained largely absent.
From 1958 to 1962, Steinem worked for the Independent Research Service, an organization exposed by Ramparts magazine in 1967 as a CIA front. She also served on its board in 1968 and 1969. While employed, she organized American students to attend Soviet-aligned World Youth Festivals, reported on foreign attendees, and distributed literature. In 1967, when The New York Times confronted her about the role, Steinem defended herself, stating: “In my experience, the Agency was completely different from its image; it was liberal, nonviolent and honorable.” She added, “Far from being shocked by this involvement, I was happy to find some liberals in government in those days who were far-sighted and cared enough to get Americans of all political views to the Festival.”
Later, Steinem founded the Ms. Foundation, which received substantial funding from the Ford Foundation—chaired by former National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy. Under Bundy’s direction, the Ford Foundation pursued a divide-and-conquer strategy in postwar America by pitting different groups against each other. Bundy personally directed financing for left-wing university courses aimed at radicalizing students through racial, homosexual, and women’s studies.
Bundy stood at the intersection of U.S. foreign policy, intelligence, and nonprofit organizations. He attended Yale University, a renowned CIA recruitment ground, after World War II. Bundy joined the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) as a political analyst in the late 1940s, where his work on European affairs placed him within circles that included prominent foreign-policy figures and future intelligence officials. The Ford Foundation’s archival biography confirms his CFR tenure before he advanced to Harvard University and later served as national security advisor to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.
In the White House, Bundy dealt directly with CIA leadership and participated in the administration of covert operations. His position made him one of the principal civilian officials overseeing the nation’s intelligence apparatus. In 1966, Bundy left the White House to become president of the Ford Foundation, a role he held until 1979. Notably, he negotiated an arrangement allowing him to remain available for special assignments from President Johnson.
Thus, Bundy’s career exemplifies the fluid movement of personnel among the CFR, academia, government, intelligence, and philanthropic foundations that defined postwar America. In The Influence of the Carnegie, Ford, and Rockefeller Foundations on American Foreign Policy, author Edward H. Berman notes: “The conceptualization of these foundation educational ventures coincided with the demise of the colonial empires of Britain, France, and the Netherlands after 1945.”
The upshot is that Gloria Steinem spent her formative organizing years working for a CIA front—a role she never denied—and later built an institution funded by the same network that supported academic programs fostering identity politics, which have long divided the country.
Born March 25, 1934, in Toledo, Ohio, Steinem married David Bale, a British-born businessman, environmentalist, and animal-rights activist, and father of actor Christian Bale. After a life spent at the pinnacle of power and celebrity, she died on September 2 at her home in New York City.
