THE NEW YORK TEACHERS UNION

In 1953, in our investigation of "Subversive Influence in the Educational Process", we paid particular attention to the New York Teachers Union. The evidence amply demonstrates that this union was an extremely significant weapon in the Kremlin's campaign to teach the Western World "the wrong things about the Soviet Union." At the height of its power, the union had a membership of 10,000 to 11,000 teachers in the New York school system (Educ., pp. 104–111). The president of the union from 1935 to 1945 was Charles J. Hendley. At the time he appeared before us (September 1952), he was secretary and treasurer of the corporation which publishes the Daily Worker, official newspaper of the Communist Party, United States of America. Hendley himself told the subcommittee that he joined the corporation for the "express purpose" of seeing to it "that the Daily Worker should carry out the party line." In 1952, he was still an active member of the union's educational policy committee.

Dr. Bella Dodd gave the subcommittee a very revealing picture of how the teachers' union operated to teach "the wrong things about the Soviet Union" not only to American schoolchildren, but also to the American public generally. Dr. Dodd was New York State legislative representative of the union from about 1936 to 1944. She was also New York State legislative representative of the Communist Party, and a member of the party's national committee.

Dr. DODD. The teachers' unions were used a great deal to formulate public opinion in America. The teachers were active in the parents' organizations; they were active with the students; they were active in their own professional cultural organizations, and in the American Federation of Teachers we had our conventions.

So that anything the Communist Party wanted to be popularized they would see to it that it had a copy of a resolution, which you then modified to meet your own individual needs (Educ., p. 16).

*** Whether it was collective security, whether it was prowar, whether it was against war, whether it was against the Dies committee, whether it was against some congressional legislation their resolutions would be introduced, and simultaneously you would have a large number of resolutions popularized in the newspapers, delegations going to the various men in public office, telephones, telegrams (ibid).

THE TEACHER NEWS

Like IPR, the teachers union operated within a constellation of Communist fronts and Communist propaganda agencies. The gravitational force in this constellation was chiefly supplied by the union publication, Teacher News.

Here, union members themselves were instructed in the Communist line, introduced to the publications of other front organizations, and taught how to bring the line into the classroom. Every opportunity was taken to drape the wolf's policies of the U. S. S. R. in the sheep's clothing of "peace" and "democracy."

One Teacher News column was of considerable significance in view of the Bogolepov testimony.

[From New York Teacher News, June 22, 1946]

THE GREAT CONSPIRACY

Since 1917, worldwide reaction has labored to bring about the overthrow of the Soviet Government through the fomenting of war from without and conspiracy from within. Sayer and Kahn's The Great Conspiracy, appearing shortly in a $1 edition, gives a detailed documented history of these maneuvers and intrigues. The book clarifies some of the principal causes of World War II, for the great conspiracy had a great deal to do with making the war inevitable. A reading of the book also helps one understand the present drive to end Allied Big Three unity, to isolate the U. S. S. R., and to prepare favorable political and military conditions for an anti-Soviet antidemocratic war.

Senator Pepper, who considers this book high-priority reading in the battle to win the peace, supplies an introduction to the new edition. The TU win-thepeace committee will engage in a summer campaign to sell the book to teachers in towns and at resorts. Every TU member is urged to purchase a copy and to persuade friends to do likewise.

The Great Conspiracy, to which union members were urged to devote an entire summer campaign, was the book Mr. Bogolepov described as having been secretly written in the Soviet Foreign Office.

Underground Communists in America's tax-supported school systems were thus clearly carrying out the Soviet Foreign Office line to the end that not only American schoolchildren, but the American people as a whole were taught "the wrong things" about the Soviet Union.

THE COMMUNIST TEACHER GOES TO WAR

Dr. Dodd was asked what assignments Communist schoolteachers sought during World War II in the armed services of the United States. Here is her reply:

Dr. DODD. Many of our teachers did seek to go into the educational division of the Army, the indoctrination course.

Mr. MORRIS.' How do you know that, Dr. Dodd?

Dr. DODD. From time to time the members would come back and we would discuss the question of what their work was, and they would discuss particularly the indoctrination courses where they were very eager to make the turn for the American soldier in a pro-Soviet fashion. Many of our soldiers were anti-Soviet, despite the fact that the Soviet Union was in the war with us. It was the question of making the turn and establishing the idea that the Soviet Union was a democracy and was, as a matter of fact, the most perfect democracy in the world.

The purpose of the indoctrination courses was to get as much of that in as possible. Of course, in some places they got a lot in; in some places they had to take little. They were very anxious to get it in.

Mr. MORRIS. You know this, Dr. Dodd, because of the fact that you knew these particular Communist teachers who did come back and as a matter of fact reported to you at Communist Party headquarters how they were carrying on their own indictrination courses in their service?

Dr. DODD. As a matter of fact, no Communist went to the Armed Forces or came out of the Armed Forces without reporting to the party his experience, his work. No man came in on leave without reporting to the party and finding out just what the pitch was.

Mr. MORRIS. In the postwar period, in the immediate postwar period, Dr. Dodd, did these Communist teachers participate in any other work? Do you recall the "bring the boys back home" movement?

• Former United States Senator Claude E. Pepper, of Florida.

Robert Morris, former chief counsel to the subcommittee, now a judge of the Municipal Court for the Ninth District, City of New York.

Dr. DODD. Yes. I guess all of us remember the tremendous agitation to bring the boys back home from the Pacific and from Europe. The American mothers wanted their boys home, the boys wanted to come home. We are a nonmilitaristic people. The campaign, however, achieved organized proportions. Those of you who remember reading the papers will remember the almost sitdown strikes there were in the Philippines, in Austria, and Italy; and I at the time, reading the newspapers, remembered the names of some of the leaders and among them were not only some of the trade-union leaders whom I knew as Communists, but also some of the teachers whom I knew as Communists. There is no doubt that we brought the boys home, 14 million men were disbanded, and our Armed Forces were disbanded; and that was the time when Russia marched into Eastern Europe and made her advances in China (Educ., H., pp. 522, 523).

Gen. Mark Clark, who was the American commander and United States High Commissioner in Austria after the German surrender, gave the subcommittee the picture of what happened in Austria.

Mr. CARPENTER. Did you have any demobilization demonstrations in your command at the end of the war?

General CLARK. My command at the end of the war moved into Austria. When the demonstrations began, my headquarters was located in Vienna. There had been some demonstrations prior to that time in Germany, I recall, and I was very much disturbed that some of my soldiers might march on my headquarters demanding they be returned home. I knew that would give great comfort to the Soviet troops who were right there with us, and it would be a devastating blow to the morale of the Austrians who looked to us as their liberator.

So we did everything we could to forestall, to tell our men why we were not able to send them all home and demobilize them. Actually, there was no march on my headquarters. The group sent a telegram back to the President of the United States, and to Members of Congress. I think they included Drew Pearson and some other commentators in their distribution list protesting about being kept in Austria and alleging many of the men had no real jobs and the generals were keeping them because they wanted more to command. That was the effect of the telegram.

Mr. CARPENTER. Were those demonstrations fomented by Communist acts[ General CLARK. My belief was that there was at least one Communist organizer who fomented this particular demonstration. Our intelligence agencies were activated and had been active. The result of their investigation led me to believe that at least one man was the Communist organizer who had been a member of the Communist Party, had been with my Fifth Army during the war, behaving and waiting for the opportunity to do the most damage and cause me the most embarrassment (H. 1657).

History again becomes ruinously entangled in the net which the Kremlin threw over the western mind. As already pointed out, because we learned the wrong things about the Soviet Union, we had the wrong thoughts about it. Because our thoughts were wrong, our actions were wrong. And because our actions were wrong, 700 million people in 2 continents suffer the agonies of Red tyranny today.

SECTION VIII

WHAT IS I. AND E.?

On September 5, 1944, the War Department issued a circular on Orientation, Information, Education, which described the functions, powers, and purposes of the Information and Education Division.

It is obvious by the terms of this circular that the Information and Education Division had unlimited access to the minds of 8 million American soldiers during World War II. The I. and E. program was comprehensive. It was continuous. And it was compulsory. (H., p. 1508 ff.)

Much of this program, of course, was harmless. Some was useful, perhaps even beneficial. But at the focal points, at the points where it touched the subject of the Communist world conspiracy, the "education" program of the United States Army taught this captive audience of 8 million young Americans "the wrong things about the Soviet Union." It taught them the wrong things about Communist China, too.

The basic document in the entire program was a Guide to the Use of Information Materials. This pamphlet, according to its own foreword, was "an outline of principles to govern the use of ideas so that they may become more effective weapons in the war." It was a book of instructions for those who administered the program, both at home and in every foreign theater. Here are some passages from the Guide, under the heading "Our Allies, the U. S. S. R."

Whether their present government is the kind of political system that is most satisfactory to the Russian people has been sufficiently answered by a war in which the political faith of the people as well as of the armed forces has stood the trial by fire.

The Russians are under attack; they are fighting to maintain their right to determine how they shall be governed. * * *

*

*

*

Speak of the Red army and the Red navy, not the Russian Army (H. 1523).

The Moscow Pact, one of the strongest Allied acts of the war, recognizes as a first condition of peace the protracted cooperation of all the Allies. In view of this agreement anything written or said that tends to alienate the U. S. S. R. from the United States may be counted as a self-inflicted wound (H., p. 1523).

ARMY TALKS

The subcommittee found ample documentation to show that the "principles" stated here were scrupulously obeyed in "the stuff they gave the troops." The major instrument for the indoctrination of 8 million young Americans was a weekly publication known as Army Talks. Army Talk 53, published on January 6, 1945, was entitled "Checking the Score on Our Soviet Ally." Here is a passage that appeared there:

They [the Communists] early believed that a dictatorship "of the Proletariat" was necessary in order to destroy capitalism and set up socialism; that then the dictatorship should gradually evolve into a democracy, as now provided in their constitution. Thus, although they now have a secret police and a Governmentcontrolled press, their ultimate political ideals are directly opposite to the stated ideals of Fascist dictatorship, and their hope is to drop the appurtenances of dictatorship in the process of democratic evolution.

Red: This was the color of the Russian Revolution's flag, and thus has become identified with the whole nation in the way that "Stars and Stripes" has become a national phrase for us. In the period right after World War I, it was used to contrast the revolutionists with the "white" forces, the Czarist group which fought against the Reds. In some cases, too, the word that means "red" in Russian has the further meaning of "beautiful."

Army Talk 64 was on fascism. Here is part of what appeared in that document:

It is accurate to call a member of a Communist Party a Communist. For short, he is often called a Red. Indiscriminate pinning of the label Red on people and proposals which one opposes is a common political device. It is a favorite trick of native as well as foreign Fascists.* * *

Learning to identify native Fascists and to detect their techniques is not easy. They plan it that way. But it is vitally important to learn to spot them,

even though they adopt names and slogans with popular appeal, drape themselves with the American flag, and attempt to carry out their program in the name of the democracy they are trying to destroy. ***

What is the difference between communism and fascism? Aren't they essentially the same?

In any discussions on fascism there will be some who will argue that there are strong similarities between fascism and communism. Under both systems, there is neither freedom of speech nor of press as we know it. Both forms of government permit only one political party. Both have a secret police. But beyond this, there are important and fundamental differences in philosophy, aims, purposes, and methods. ***

While the early leaders of communism in the Soviet Union advocated world revolution, Stalin modified that policy in 1927. * * * Through pledges at the conferences at Moscow, Teheran, and Yalta, and through daily repetitions to its people, the Soviet has reaffirmed its aim as lasting peace through international cooperation. ***

*** The Russians have great confidence in the future improvement of their lot, although the average Russian is poor in comparison to American standards. Russians are now confident that their upward march will be rapidly resumed with the end of the war, the resumption of production for civilian use, and the expansion of their great resources.

Army Talk 66 discussed Our Ally China. Here is part of what was said:

*** When we speak of the Chinese Communists, we should remember that many competent observers say that they stand for something very different from what we ordinarily intend when we use the word "Communist." In the first place, unlike Communists of the orthodox type, they believe in the rights of private property and private enterprise. Their chief interest at present is to improve the economic position of China's farmers, many of whom own but little land themselves, and rent their land in part or in whole from wealthy landlords.

THE I. AND E. MESSAGE

What has been quoted here are mere fragments of the whole message with which I. and E. indoctrinated 8 million American soldiers. The text of these Army Talks (originally published as Army Fact Sheets) clearly indicates that those in charge of their preparation wanted 8 million American soldiers to believe that

1. Communism is "most satisfactory" to the Russian people. 2. Communism differs fundamentally from fascism.

3. It was communism-not their native land-that the Russian people defended when they rose against the Nazi invader.

4. When the war is over they will return to communism's "upward march."

5. The Communist "overrunning of the Baltic provinces" was justifiable.

6. To write or say anything critical of communism "may be counted as a self-inflicted wound."

7. The Communist dictatorship is a transitory phenomenon, which ultimately will be laid aside by the dictator himself in favor of democracy.

8. The Red flag of the Communist revolution is not a fearful bloody thing-it is beautiful.

9. Americans who fight communism are probably false patriots and "native Fascists."

10. Stalin abandoned the original Communist program of world revolution in 1927.

11. Communism's whole international aim is "lasting peace through international cooperation."