CONTENTS Page Section I: Figures in a pattern.. Section II: Changes in the laws. Section III: Work of special task forces. Section IV: Activities of Soviet secret intelligence. Section V: Interlocking subversion in policymaking.. Jonathan Mitchell on Harry D. White- Section VI: Radio operators and naval files. The meeting with Secretary Knox No change in written orders.... Roosevelt, Knox, Stevenson documents. Section VII: The net over the mind. If you learned the wrong things. It was a very big business of ours. III U. N.—Activities of United States Citizens employed by U. N. IPR-Institute of Pacific Relations. Ed.-Subversive Influence in the Educational Process. H.-Hearing (Interlocking Subversion in Government Departments unless R.-Report. REPORT OF THE SUBCOMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE INTERNAL SECURITY ACT AND OTHER INTERNAL SECURITY LAWS SECTION I "FIGURES IN A PATTERN" This report of the subcommittee is merely a pause for breath to examine the figures which have been added to the pattern since the last report was issued. Four years ago, for example, the subcommittee began its existence with a far-reaching investigation of the Institute of Pacific Relations. In the course of this investigation we examined the activities of a group of political advisers assigned by the State Department to Lt. Gen. Albert C. Wedemeyer who was Chief of Staff to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek in the years before the Chinese Communist triumphs. "If we had followed their advice," General Wedemeyer told the subcommittee, "communism would have run rampant over China much more rapidly than it did." In the Institute of Pacific Relations investigation we also studied the activities of Communist and pro-Communist individuals who directed the Pacific operations of the Office of War Information and the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. In the early part of this year we disclosed serious Communist penetration into the Information and Education Division of the United States Army during World War II. At the end of the year we had under scrutiny a group of Americans who have been and are giving aid and comfort to the cause of Red China, both in the Far East and the United States. Virtually every one of these individuals has some connection with persons or institutions which had been scrutinized in previous investigations mentioned above. Some were attached to the Institute of Pacific Relations and some worked for the Office of War Information and the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. One was a research scientist with the atomic bomb project at Los Alamos. One was in the United States Information Service. One was in the Information and Education Branch of the Army. One worked for the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund. of Almost every one made his way to the Far East at the expense the American taxpayer. Their story, like all the others scattered throughout our entire record, emphasizes the myriad entanglements of the Communist pattern. A YEAR'S WORK During the year 1954, the Subcommittee on Internal Security held hearings on the following subjects: 1. Activities of Soviet secret intelligence. 2. Interlocking subversion in policymaking. 3. Merchant marine radio operators and subversive files of the United States Naval Intelligence. 4. Communist infiltration of the United States Army's Information and Education Division of World War II. 5. Activities of United States citizens in Red China. 6. The Korean war and related matters. (The subcommittee has presented a separate report on this subject.) 7. Strategy and tactics of world communism. 8. Communist printing and propaganda. 9. Subversive influence in labor organizations. 10. Southern Conference Educational Fund, Inc. SECTION II CHANGES IN THE LAWS Before presenting its report on the matters outlined above, the subcommittee calls attention to the record of legislation of the 83d Congress in regard to anti-Communist legislation. The subcommittee believes that no previous Congress ever made such an impressive record in this field. The record disposes once and for all of the argument that congressional investigations of Communist activity have no legislative purpose. Of the 10 antisubversive bills enacted by Congress and approved by President Eisenhower, several were the direct result of information developed in hearings of the Internal Security Subcommittee. For instance, immunity legislation was recommended by the subcommittee in July 1952, in its report on the Institute of Pacific Relations, and was introduced by the then chairman, the late Senator Pat McCarran. It is intended to provide a means through which a reluctant witness can be required to testify. Legislation requiring the registration of printing equipment used in producing Communist propaganda, was initiated by Senator Herman Welker, a subcommittee member, after he had conducted a series of hearings which revealed the variety and enormous volume of Communist literature produced in this country. Legislation recommended by the subcommittee and initiated in 1951 by the late Senator Pat McCarran, Democrat of Nevada, then chairman, to curb the Communist influence in labor unions was enacted in 1954 as Public Law 637. This law denies bargaining power to unions which have been found by the Subversive Control Board to be dominated by Communists. Senators Butler and Welker, committee members, Senator Homer Ferguson, Republican of Michigan, and Senator Barry Goldwater, all of whom had sponsored legislation in this field, were cosponsors with Senator McCarran in the final draft. The legislation passed the Senate as recommended by the subcommittee and the Judiciary Committee, but with amendments adding provisions to outlaw the Communist Party. Another bill, S. 23, containing other safeguards against Communist infiltration in labor unions, also was recommended by the subcommittee and by the full Judiciary Committee, but Congress adjourned before it was considered by the Senate. Among its provisions is one which would permit an employer, without being held accountable for an unfair labor practice, to discharge an employee who is a member of a subversive organization. Supporting data for provisions of new legislation strengthening the foreign agents registration laws was provided by our hearings on espionage activities of personnel attached to the Iron Curtain embassies, activities of Soviet secret service, and subversive and illegal aliens in the United States. The need for such legislation also was emphasized by testimony of Col. Ismail Ege and Nicolai Khokhlov, former Soviet secret police officers, and by other testimony before the subcommittee. There also can be no question that the subcommittee's hearings on Government infiltration, particularly the phase involving former Treasury officials, generated support for such legislation as that authorizing the FBI to conduct investigations of Treasury personnel, to prohibit payment of Federal annuities to persons convicted of subversive activities, and for forfeiture of United States nationality upon conviction of advocating, or conspiring to advocate, the overthrow of our Government by force or violence. In addition to the legislation which is now public law, the Senate passed six other antisubversive measures on which the House did not act. All of these undoubtedly will be reintroduced in the new Congress. The new legislation referred to follows, with the public law number: Public Law 600. To provide immunity for certain witnesses before congressional committees. Public Law 557. To require registration of printing equipment owned or operated by subversive organizations. Public Law 637. To bar Communist-dominated unions from benefits of the National Labor Relations Act and to strip from the Communist Party all its legal rights. Public Law 264. To authorize the seizure, under the Espionage Act, of the vehicle, vessel, or aircraft used in illegal transportation. Public Law 725. Authorizing the FBI to investigate irregularities among Treasury personnel. Public Law 777. Making the death penalty applicable upon conviction for peacetime as well as wartime espionage and sabotage and otherwise strengthening the espionage law. Public Law 772. For forfeiture of United States nationality upon conviction of advocating, or conspiring to advocate, the overthrow of the Government of the United States by force and violence. Public Law 769. To prohibit payment of Federal annuities to persons convicted of treason, sedition, subversive activities, and other crimes. Public Law 602. To increase the penalties for harboring fugitives from justice. Public Law 603. To increase the penalties for bail jumping. |