What is (was) the Freedom Academy?

In 1959, a man named Alan Grant testified to Congress in support of a proposal to create an independent academy to educate government officials, journalists, teachers, business people, labor leaders, and ordinary citizens about Soviet propaganda and disinformation. He called it the Freedom Academy.

Grant was a graduate of Harvard Law School who had studied guerrilla warfare. As he researched Communist tactics during the Cold War, he discovered that the Soviet Union was engaging the United States in an invisible war that Americans had no idea they were fighting. Historian Stacey Cone detailed his discoveries as follows:

Through the successful deployment of psycho-political tactics, Grant determined, communism was spreading very much as Marx and other Communist leaders had predicted. Their new approach to fighting was non-military, long-term, and indirect—no battlefields, bullets, or bombs were necessary. Instead, Communists used organized persuasion and mass propaganda campaigns to subtly and slowly win people in great numbers to their side. The concept Grant believed, was brilliant guerrilla strategy—a method that an open democracy could least prevent or defeat. Freedom of political thought and speech were hallmarks of democracy, but the Communists were insidiously turning both into vehicles whereby freedom’s enemy could render democracy vulnerable while remaining invisible during the attack. Unless Americans could come to understand what was happening, Grant thought, they were likely to lose this bloodless war. Ironically, he believed, it was possibly the most important battle of all. Nothing short of the American way of life was at stake.

Examining how educational institutions, including his alma mater, were training students about this threat, Grant was both shocked and disappointed. He found that universities trained students broadly in “area studies,” but not in understanding the psychological tactics that the Soviet Union was deploying against the United States and other countries around the world. Grant also discovered that secondary institutions were not adequately teaching history and civics in order to prepare future citizens of the importance of democracy.

Grant gathered a group of likeminded individuals in his hometown of Orlando, Florida to form what became known as the Orlando Committee. The Committee drew up a proposal for a government- and privately-funded institution that would train both Americans and foreign students in understanding Soviet information warfare tactics and countering them by advocating for the “essentials of democracy” around the world. The Orlando Committee sought to create a bipartisan coalition in support of the plan, recognizing that fighting Communism on the psychological battlefield would require transcending political ideologies and a uniting under a shared commitment to democracy. Their proposal was sent to about 170 influential government officials, journalists, intellectuals, and authors from the right and left of the political spectrum, and in 1958, Grant’s congressman, Albert Sydney Herlong (D-FL), agreed to introduce it in Congress.

The Freedom Commission Act proposed the creation of the Freedom Academy, a training facility to educate government officials and ordinary citizens on the threat of Soviet information warfare and how to counter it using democratic ideals, with the hope that they would spread that knowledge to their respective peers and communities. The Academy would be overseen by a Freedom Commission, an independent, executive branch agency that would have six Senate-confirmed members and a chairman. It was initially introduced in Congress in 1959 by Rep. Herlong and Rep. Walter Judd (R-MN). It received favorable editorial coverage from magazines and newspapers across the country, including Life, the New York Daily News, the St. Petersburg Times, and Reader’s Digest.

What happened after is perhaps a testament to both the virtues and weakness of our democratic processes. After the bill fizzled in the House, it was reintroduced in the Senate Judiciary Committee — again with bipartisan support — in 1959. Although it was met with great support, the House Un-American Activities Committee (ironically enough) resisted it, as did several government agencies like the Justice and State Departments, which didn’t see the need for a new agency competing with their resources and mandates. Ultimately, the combination of political climate, agency turf-protecting, and disagreements about how to combat psychological warfare in ways compatible with democracy won the day, and the Freedom Academy never became a reality.

When I first read this history, I was fascinated. I’m a Senior Lecturer at the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs, where I teach a class called Russian Intelligence, Information Warfare, and Social Media. I’m also a lawyer and the former Dean of Admissions at Yale Law School. And before that, I was a Special Agent in the counterintelligence division of the FBI. The Freedom Academy brought together my interests in foreign affairs, law and policy, and counterintelligence.

I loved the idea of a knowledge hub where people from all backgrounds convened to learn about how adversaries were manipulating their perceptions and society and empowering them to respond in ways that strengthen our democratic and social fabric. Sort of a “citizen’s academy” for democracy. For a brief time I wondered if such a program could be created as a center at a university — but working at one myself, I know that universities are primarily research institutions, and were ill-suited to the broad-based, practical purpose the Freedom Academy envisioned.

When I thought about creating a Substack, I knew I only wanted to do it if I could 1) offer something unique that readers couldn’t find anywhere else and 2) took advantage of the community-building capacity of this platform. I immediately thought of the Freedom Academy. My goal is to channel the spirit of Grant’s vision and use this platform to educate and create a community around understanding the threat of disinformation and its impact on democracy. Perhaps it’s fitting that this Freedom Academy is manifesting in an online format, given that the threat of information warfare today presensts largely in cyberspace. The great part is that this format has the capacity to bring together more people than the original concept ever imagined!

How does the Freedom Academy work?

The original vision of this Substack was a course called “Democracy in the (Dis)Information Age.” I built this course over three years, breaking down the content I teach at Yale into 52 bite-size lessons that each have an audio “lecture.” You can visit the syllabus here, and paid subscribers will have access to all the lessons to read/listen to at your leisure (and in any order you like!).

Beginning in 2026, I will be using this Substack to illuminate research that I am doing for my forthcoming book, Uncompromised: Activating Your Moral Compass in an Age of Complicity. My book will draw on my experiences assessing people in the FBI and as an admissions dean as well as research in psychology, leadership, and risk-taking to understand why some people go along to get along — even when they know it’s wrong — and why some people find the courage to push back.

Each month, I’ll interview two people. One will give us special insight into complicity and moral courage — how people become corrupted or manipulated, the psychology of decision making, the vulnerabilities created by weak moral identities, how autocrats entrench complicity, why some people are willing to take action when other’s aren’t, and more. The other will be someone who has shown moral courage in our current moment — I want to share their stories so we can all learn from them!

As a paid subscriber, you not only have access to these live interviews, but they will be recorded and posted for you to watch later if you miss them. And all of them will be available under the “Complicity and Courage” tab at the top of the main webpage.

You will also be a member of my Freedom Academy Book Club, which I do once a quarter. I choose books at the intersection of law, intelligence, and national security and interview the authors (so it’s OK if you don’t have time to read the book), where you have the opportunity to ask your own questions of the experts.

Finally, about once a month I do Zoom Happy Hours, often with a fun guest, where we just get to know each other and talk about the latest. I love the close-knit community we have built here through these interactive events.

But there is free content! Each week I send a Friday Round Up (on Saturdays) with insight and analysis of the latest news stories. When the news cycle gets really juicy, I write longer pieces inspired by the thoughts or threads I post on BlueSky. And I’ll be doing Substack lives for hot takes in breaking events.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my Substack. I hope you will subscribe to any version of it that piques your interest. I’m so excited to be on this journey together.