ustxtxb_obs_1961_09_29_50_00003-00000_000.pdf

GENERAL WALKER UPHELD UN, Churches, Liberals Blasted at Seminar lea by peaceful means: By philosophy, mysticism, development of liberal cults, furtherance of atheism, descrediting of all Christian creeds. By the destruction of marriage and. the advancement of theoretical inter-racial practices, which would include concepts of intermarriage between blacks and whites. By cultivating the ugly and futuristic in art, literature, drama, and music. By passivism, disarmament, and cultivating -the friendship of liberal-minded ministers. The communists, he said, are attacking through the clergy one of the divine institutions set down in the Bible: nationalism. Some of the speakers had been accused of being members of the John Birch Society. Bill Henderson, a member of the Jaycees and the public relations representative for the Americanism program, told the Observer: “There is no proof nor evidence of the fact that any of the \\speakers can be presently tied in with the John Birch Society or Robert Welch. Until these facts can be proven, how can statements be made to that effect?” Wedemeyer confirmed, however, that he is on the board of advisors of “American Opinion,” the Birch publication. All San Antonio newspapers had supported the seminar. Until the Hearst-owned Light came out in editorial support of the seminar, it had frequently carried stories quoting Maury Maverick Jr. and County Commissioner Albert Pena protesting the seminar. But after the Light officially endorsed the occasion, it carried only stories in support of it, and some of the peo.ple quoted in these stories, critics said, were members of the Birch organizations. Strange Offerings In the lobby “Americanism” material books and pamphlets were given away or sold. The staff of the Liberty Bell Book Shop handled sales of The Naked Communist, by ‘Cleon Skousen, and distributed books available \(“mail stores. This list included the famous Blue BOok of the John Birch Society, books by Dr. Fred Schwarz of the Anti-Communism Crusade, and periodicals such as the John Birch Society’s “American Opinion,” Fulton ;Lewis Jr.’s “Top of the News,” Dr. B. J. Hargis’s “The Christian Crusade” and William Buckley’s “National Review.” The Observer reporter asked one of the Liberty Bell salesgirls why The Blue Book wasn’t on sale there, and she said, “I don’t think the city wanted us to sell any books except those by speakers,” but she said she would be glad to take an order for the book after the night’s session was over. Seek Welch Support Also distributed in the lobby was “Freedom Views,” a publication of the Austin Anti-Communism League. On the back page of this issue was an appeal for funds to support the appearance of John Birch Society director Robert Welch in Austin on November 20, 1961. Jack Sucke, general chairman of the Austin Anti-Communism League, held down a front-row seat throughout the program. Also distributed as a part of the supposedly non-partisan activities was the September issue of the San Antonio American Legion’s “Militant American,” which on page two featured a column by associate editor Clyde Wantland, accusing the American Civil Liberties Union of being “avowedly friendly to communism; not only friendly, but zealously partisan to communism,” immediately naming Maury Maverick Jr. as an ACLU attorney, and then asked: “Just why two generations of Mavericks have prostituted \\ their talents to a groveling defense of the ACLU and its communist conspirators is a matter known only to the Mavericks. Bearing a name once respected in Texas as defenders of independence and freedom and the better things of the American way of life, neither the current Maury nor his father were forced to accept as a legal client this treasonable ACLU.” Page three of this newspaper, prominently offered in the lobby, carried the headline “Frisco Riots Show Menace of Red Infiltration,” and page four had a story about the Liberty Bell Book Shop being a “haven for patriots.” Also in the auditorium lobby was a table where members of the army reserve were asked to register to obtain retirement points for attending the seminar. Donald L. Jackson, ex-congressman from California and former member of the House Un-American Activities Committee, entered into the non-partisan spirit of the occasion by telling his audience, “I am so non-partisan I don’t care which Republican you elect to congress.” Much laughter and apThen he got down to business. Attacks Teachers He spoke of “collaboration between educators and ministers and communist spokesmen.” Giving his version of early American history, ‘he said: “There was no outcry of indignation from the liberals, nor charges of ‘narrow nationalism,’ when Nathan Hale, a noose about his neck, uttered his words, ‘My only regret is that I have but one life to lose for my country.’ ” He said that, contrasting with the old fire-eating International Workers of the World, “today’s communist or communist sympathizer is a horse ofif not another colordifferent breeding, training, background, and intelligence. He may be a successful manufacturer, a noted man of medicine, a Nobel prize winner. He may wear academic robes, and even more unfortunately, he may be attired in the cloth of tjhe ministry as he aids and abets an aggression more insidious than that of Ghengis Khan.” He said that in the schoolrooms across the land “there is accruing a burden of evidence which indicates an organized and directed effort to mold” communist thinking. He deplored the influence of socialists in college faculties and won applause by defining socialism as “naked communism, dressed in a Bikini bathing suit.” He said, yes, left-wing critics were fast to denounce Trujillo, Franco or aBtista, “But where are the cries and where are the critics when the Khrushchevs, the Castros, and the Titos inflict their tyrannical excesses upon helpless victims?” He said communism would be seen in the same light as fascism “save for the inability of some liberals to recognize this fact, and the unwillingness of some liberal spokesmen to acknowledge that both systems constitute the total state.” He said statements made by Dr. J. B. Hunter, executive secretary of the Arkansas Council of Churches, would sound appropriate to the People’s World. One statement he attributed to Hunter: “After all, the F.B.I. is just a secret police network which inAnd he said that the National Council of Churches recommends communist authors on its reading list. Jackson warned his audience that if they wished, to watch the destruction of the nation, they would watch without protest “the concerted efforts of the left-wing, the bleeding hearts, the global fraternalists, the professional and self-announced liberals to destroy our internal security system.” The usual question-answer period did not follow Jackson’s speech. He left the stage immediately and it was announced that he must catch a plane. Two Omission’s A mimeographed copy of Jackson’s speech was distributed to the press. As a rule he followed this written version very closely. But he left out two sections, one of which stated: “Most parents are responsible citizens, most clergymen, labor leaders, educators and youth spokesmen are dedicated and loyal Americans. For every minister who takes the Fifth Amendment in answer to a question respecting sworn testimony identifying him as a communist, there are 10,000 who proudly proclaim their allegiance to God, and their devotion to the principles of the American Republic. For every educator who espouses socialist theory or who apologizes for American foreign policy, there are thousands of dedicated, underpaid teachers who labor conscientiously for a deep understanding of our economic system on the part of their students. “Collaboration with the communist effort is limited to a few Americans, most of whom are wellmeaning, but whose enthusiasm for the discovery of new avenues of approach to problems age-old in nature, lead them into paths paralleling those of the Marxist aggression.” These sentiments, which Jackson chose not to read that night, tallied closely with those found on page seven of a mimeographed speech by Admiral Arleigh A. Burke, distributed in the lobby of the auditorium. The speech hit hard at external communism, but as to domestic communism, it said, “There aren’t many communists or people who support the communists in this country.” The fireworks which San Antonians anticipated were slow in developing Friday, for the first speaker, Dr. Gerhart Niemeyer, Notre Dame professor, rigorously limited his talk to an academic discussion of the tenets of communism. Even in the questionanswer period when a man arose to ask stridently: “Don’t you think that the United Nations is nothing but a communist Trojan horse that has been planted in the United states?” \(loud applause from take the bait. He said, “After the reception you gave me, I hate to disappoint you. . .. From the very outset, the communists were lukewarm toward the United Nations. I don’t think it was planted here. . . . The reason the United Nations was established in this country was to assure continued . U.S. interest” \(as contrasted, he said, to our rapid falling away of interest in the He added, “I do not think much of the United Nations, but that is purely a personal political opinion. I do not think it is a communist conspiracy.” Another question which got enthusiastic applause from the audience: Did Niemeyer see any chance for a totalitarian revolution from the right? He said he didn’t, although”I do not put it out of the realm of possibility. The rise of a new rightist ideology” would come, if it comes, from “the humiliation of the French and the Belgians . . . but at present the enemy is communism and nothing else,” he said. ‘Forgive’ Liberals But the academic approach disappeared with the appearance that evening of W. Cleon Skousen, a former member of the FBI and chief of police of Salt Lake City, whose appeal to the Americanism audience was noticeably more profound. Skousen recited his version of history as smoothly and entertainingly as a nurse putting children to bed with a tale. He was full of quips and was pointedly forgiving of “misinformed liberals.” He told how during World War II “there were some men in Washington” who had in mind making Russia control half the world and “they went to work to bring this about.” Foremost among them, he said, was presidential advisor Harry Hopkins, who was “socialistically inclined” and who on several occasions sent secret files and material for making atomic bombs to Russia. He told how during the war “500 hard core communists were found in Navy working as communication operators,” handling the most confidential material. “But when this was brought to the attention, of Adlai Stevenson,” Skousen related, he said to leave them where they were so long as they did their jobs, “and the president concurred.” Skousen said that after Roosevelt’s death, “the state department fell into the hands of a hard core left-wing group” \(whose leader, he were responsible for the structure of the United Nations. Marshall Villainized He said Hiss “scrutinized every phase of the U.N. charter to be sure it fitted some design he had in mind.” This, he said, is why “the United Nations doesn’t work.” “When you realize that Hiss wrote the charter so it would be favored by Russia,”. said Skousen, “you will agree with that group of scholars who think it is high time the United States re-wrote the U.N. charter!” \(Very strong apSkousen told how Gen. George Marshall “ordered Chiang KaiShek to cease fire, allowing the communists to take over Manchuria,” and that when Chiang persisted anyWay, “the left-wing branch of the U.S. state department ordered all aid to Chiang cut off.” Skousen alleged that then Secretary of State Dean Acheson “from what motives I do not know” . . . “practically invited the attack” on South Korea. He credited Truman only with having THE TEXAS OBSERVER Page 3 September 29, 1961 “the good sense to overrule his left-wing advisors.” As for John Foster Dulles’ brinkmanship,” Skousen said “a certain left-wing segment of the Washington press group began to hammer this” until people began to criticize the policy “and Russia caught the signal and said stop sending their prisoners home, and prepare Matsu and Quemoy for attack again.” Skousen called for a shake-up of the United Nations, a “throughgoing investigation” of the state and a severance of diplomatic relations with Russia \(more jubilant He closed by deploring that France and Canada had sent grain to the starving Chinese, and he won a standing ovation. Ex-Rep. Jackson came on to say that “such work as Skousen is carrying out has resulted in a great wave of conservatism from coast to coast.” Rep. Dan Struve of Campbellton, who made tape recordings of the speeches, sent a telegram to the White House, asking for an investigation of the Fourth Army’s role in the seminar. Maverick, in a statement this week, said: “We have just witnessed in San Antonio, Texas, the spectacle of the U.S. Army and the City Council sponsoring, or assisting, or commending W. Cleon Skousen who reflected on the patriotism of Franklin Roosevelt, and in effect described Harry Hopkins as a traitor; former Congressman Donald Jackson who attacked the Methodist Church and the National Council of Churches; and General Albert Wedemeyer who denounced the Episcopal Church for seekin i g justice for the Negro through the Freedom Riders, and who, by indirection, reflected on the patriotism of President Kennedy in contending that the present administration is appeasing the communists. “These speakers had the right to say what they pleased and that right should have been protected, but the U.S. Army had no business in sponsoring speakers who reflected on the loyalty of their old Commander in Chief, Franklin Roosevelt, or their present one, Mr. Kennedy.” An opposing view was taken by