ADDRESS AT THE ONE HUNDRETH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE GREATER PROVIDENCE YMCA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP67-00318R000100760001-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 13
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 2, 2013
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: May 14, 1953
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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ADDRESS AT THE ONE =BETH AmitIAL MEE
OF THE 'GREATER PROVIDENCE YMCA
MAY lLl-71953
NG
When Governor Sherman Adams, on behalf ofMr. Colt, told me of the
invitation to come to Providence, I answered that I was not in the speech-
making business. My job was to get just as little publicity and as much
anonymity as possible. Also I reminded him that as Head of the Central
Intelligence Agency I keep entirely out of politics.
Governor Adams, who is doing a great job in Washington, is a very
persuasive man. He told me this was not a political occasion. It was a
chance, he said, to talk on a subject which he knew I had been studying,
namely, what was happening to the youth in the Soviet dominated areas of
the world and what the Communists were trying to do to youth, even in the
free countries.
So I accepted your kind invitation and am glad to have this chance
of being with you on this significant anniversary in the work of the YMCA.
My son, a veteran of Korea, has often put this question to me, and
in various foims I have had the same kind of inquiry from many others of
his generation. The question is this: Why is it that the Communists seem
to be so successful in getting the fanatical support of their youth behind
a cause we all know to be false? And why is it that in many of the coun-
tries of the free West that same dynamic force seem to be lacking in the
younger generation?
Note that I said, "seem to be successful." I do not accept the impli-
cation of the question. I recognize that appearances justify it and I
concede that the answer is not an easy one.
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Thetreason why the West appears to come off second best in this
comparison varies from country to ceuntry as we look at the Free World.
Take certain Countries Of Western Europe, for example.
It is hard for us to appreciate the extent to which two world wars,
1914 and 1939, sapped the strength of Europe by decimating ite youth.
If at times we feel that there is a lack of vigorous leadership in some
European countries, we must realize that the very best of European youth
perished in World War I, which for countries like France, England, and
Italy was more costly in terms of casualties, than even World War II. It
is the men lost in Flanders Field and at Verdun who would be the political
leaders of Western Europe today if they had survived. Their loss in turn
has affected the younger generation of today.
Then too in some of these European countries, and here Germany can
be added with particular force, and idea of another war is unbearable for
both the older and the younger generation. Many want to have nothing to
do with anything warlike, even preparation for defense.
In other countries more remote from the immediate danger, although
they too are threatened by it, it is hard, particularly for the younger
generation, to appreciate the great peril of the moment. This is true to
some extent in the United States, despite the war in Korea.
Russia, and China too, suffered grievously in recent wars and yet
the young men there seem all too ready to sacrifice themselves for the
State and even for new military adventures. How has this come about?
The Soviet leaders have somehow managed to capitalize on the dis-
illusionment of youth in the period between the World Wars and particu-
larly after World War II. They well understood the instinctive desire
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of youth to devote thomsavo8, hnd even to sacrifice themselves, for a
cause, particularly a cause that involves mass youth movements. Such
movements seem to have far more appeal in the Slav countries and the
countries of Eastern Europe than, say, in Anglo Saxon countries where
the feeling of individual responsibility is highly developed.
But even in the United States the strange ideology of Communism
seemed to have a surprising appeal to youth in the post-war, post-depres-
sion era of the 30's - and to an extent that is not yet fully known.
Where youth is insecure there is a tendency to join mass movements,
to accept discipline and direction. The Communist leaders have cleverly
traded on the desire of youth to be led.
* * *
In the Communist world there is a carefully worked out system of
youth indoctrination which molds many of them into being slaves of the
system. Unfortunately their fanaticism -- evidenced, for example,
among many of the Communists we hold as prisoners of war in Korea -- is
not less.dangerous because it is synthetically created.
The Soviet policy toward youth is clearly illustrated by the pattern
of youth organizations which has been established not only in the Soviet
Union but also in every country which has come under Communist rule. In
the Soviet Union there is a succession of youth organizations. Non-Com-
munist youth organizations have long since been disbanded and most of
their members forced into the common Mold.
The Communist youth organizations are mass organizations. Membership
for most is automatic at the outset with successive steps of weeding out4
as the young people grow up. Children -- both boys and girls -- are taken
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into the OctobristS before they are eight. At 10 or 11 they "graduate"
into the Young Pioneers (of whot there are some 13,000,000) which keeps
them until they are 1.4 - 16. The next step is into the Komsomol, the
elite youth organization of SOMQ 9,000,000 from whom eventual party
maaibership is drawn
At every stage the emphasis is on discipline and Communist .principle,
- even for the youngest for whom a favorite puppet show is 'Big Ivan."
Big Ivan is a huge blind peasant who stands for the Russian people oppressed
by little men labeled Czar, General, Priest, and Kulak. An owl finally
cures Ivan's blindness. In the end Ivan kills his tormentors and destroys
their palaces and churches.
As the final result of this indoctrination of youth the Communist
Party attempts to draw upon a thoroughly disciplined and fanatically
dedicated Komsomol for its own membership.
The over-all youth program is closely coordinated with the educa-
tional system, the sports programs and the military demands upon the youth.
Even the careers of Soviet youths are rigidly controlled and entry into
the restricted categories of technician or specialist is limited to those
with a good youth record. Membership in the Komsomol generally deter-
mines admission of students to universities, and without the approval of
the youth organization, it is not possible to enter into a profession.
Often even a young man's calling is chosen for him.
In reality the young people in the Soviet Union have little freedom
of choice. Taken at an impressionable age, they hear only one doctrine.
They are taught the infallibility of their leadership and their press.
Is it strange that so many of them come to believe only in the Soviet
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ideal? Particularly Since they are largely deprived of the religious
influence which Might serve as an antidote for Communist materialism?
Not all of the Soviet youth, by any means, are conscious that they
are the victims of coercion in their regimented organizations. On the
contrary, knowing no other sorts of youth activities most of them have
come to consider it a privilege to be included in those that are available,
the more so because of the tangible rewards for the future held out to the
Komsomol youth and the party member. It is this apparent enthusiasm, in
the absence of conscious choice, that makes Communist fanaticism the more
dangerous.
* * *
The systems that prevail in the European satellites do not differ
substantially from those in the Soviet Union itself. The Communist
program seems to achieve a high degree of success among the children in
the six to fourteen age group, but in the older group, say between 14 and
25, there is a large degree of apathy to Communist indoctrination. In
countries such as Poland and Czechoslovakia the older age group still
remembers the days of freedom, and indoctrination of the children there
is not easy.
In fact, some youth revolt from it, particularly resenting the
system of espionage and denunciation that pervades life in the European
satellites of the Soviet. The bold Polish MIG-15 pilot, Lt. Franciszek
Jarecki, who recently defected to Denmark is an example of this. In a
statement that he made a few days ago he said this:
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"I had determined to get out of Poland long before I was able to
fly a KG, because life under Communism sickened me. Nobody paid me to
escape. For years, even after I joined the air force, I didn't have a
single real friend. I didn't want the kind of friend who would be spying
on me, as I myself had been asked to spy on others. xxx*?
"Yes,sir," he goes on to say, "we are all ed up with the never
ending lies and idolizing of the Soviets and I can assure you if there
was only a little more chance a huge majority of the Polish flyers would
escape to the West."
The anti-religious theme, of course, is particularly stressed in
youth training. For example in Estonia the Central Committee of the
Komsomol recently circulated a pamphlet entitled "The Ten Commandments
of Communism" to combat religious resistance to regimentation:
1. Never forget that the clergy are the. greatest
enemies of the Communist state.
2. Try to convert your friends to Communism.
3, Advise your friends to avoid clergymen and Christians.
4. Beware of spies! Denounce saboteurs!
5. Distribute atheistic literature among the population.
6. A good Komsomol youth is a fighter for the cause of
atheism.
7. Fight the religious element wherever you can prevent
its influence on your comrade.
8. A good godless youth must also be a good policeman.
9. The godless movement grows also by means of monetary
contributions.
10. If you are not a convinced adherent of the godless
movement, you cannot he a good Communist and Soviet citizen.
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The prominence given to news on youth organizations in the Communist
press shows how seriously youth indoctrination is taken. Yet in Some of
the satellites it is interesting to note that the Communists have had to
admit partial failure as a result of over-zealousness. They have had to
cut back the doses of Marxism that are administered and substitute more
emphasis on mass sport programs, generally with a militaristic background,
including flying and gliding exercieses, parachute training, and the like.
Just the other day, on April 24th, the Communist Czech Government
ordered a sharp reduction in certain of the political education activities.
The 5,000 young people a month that have joined the flight from East
Germany to Berlin is evidence of-the continuing distaste with which young
Germans are reacting to the Communist indoctrination they are receiving.
In March of this year 10% of those fleeing to Western Berlin were in the
age group 14 -25; in April this figure had risen to 15%.
In China the Communists had penetrated the student movement long
before they came into power. Skilled agitators, on the basis of experi-
ence gained in the 20's, laid the groundwork during the long war with
Japan. Upon this foundation the Communists were able to erect a student
movement which materially helped them to national power. This movement,
known as the All-China Student Federation, was fully organized by March,
1949, six months before the Communist regime formally proclaimed its
takeover of the Chinese government. The strength of the Federation has
allowed it to reach abroad and spark the penetration of Southeast Asia
student movements, playing upon the deep-seated connection whiCh links
overseas Chinese with the land of their fathers.
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Alongside the student movement the Chinese Communists have created
other youth groups, very similar to those in the Soviet Union, with the
Young Pioneers gathering in the children of 8 to 15 years and the all-
embracing New Democratic Youth Corps taking the older ones. Here, as in
the Soviet Union and in the European Satellites, the emphasis is upon
iron discipline, and, of course, complete devotion to the regime.
* * *
Side by side with the youth organizations within the Soviet Union
and other Communist countries, there have been developed, "for external
use only," international front organizations for youth and students.
Their purpose is to influence the youth of the free -world and to impress
them with a picture of strength and solidarity among Communist youth.
TWO of the most important of these front organizations are The World
Federation of Democratic Youth and the International Union of Students.
These two organizations are the vehicles of Soviet youth policy out-
side of the areas controlled by the Communist governments. Those who are
responsible for Communist youth policy on both sides of the Iron Curtain
are not troubled by theAdemands of consistency. This is shown in the
stark contrast in attitudes toward military service. Behind the Iron
Curtain the youth organizations work constantly to integrate their members
into the military system of the Communist countries. For example, the
Hungarian youth organization issued a statement to its members on the
7th of May 1952 telling them that their primary task was mental and phy-
sical preparation for defense. On almost the same day The World Federa-
tion of Democratic Youth, whose headquarters are in Budapest, issued a
call to all youth in the Western World to join in a conference which it
labeled "For the Defense of the Rights of Youth."
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This Congress, according to its Budapest headquarters, promoted the
idea that youth should be allowed to exercise its inalienable rights to
continue education unhampered by any demand for armed service and that
youth should demand that armament expenditures be reduced and that the
money saved should be given towards scholarships. This appeal to paci-
fism and exhortation-to refuse military service was, of course, limited to
the youth of Western countries.
For youth in areas like the Middle East, Southeast Asia and the
free Far East, the Communists advocate still another course. In those
areas Communist international front organizations have called on youth
to "fight for peace with weapons in their hands." The Communist youth
organizations have been training their members in Southeast Asia in guer-
rilla tactics:a4d in the use of arms to participate in uprisings against
constituted governments of the area.
At large Communist youth festivals, such as the 1951 rally in Berlin,
the delegates from the Communist guerrilla forces of Greece, Malaya, North
Korea and Viet Nam are always given the most honored place and their
active rebellion against non-Communist governments was held up as the
finest example of youth activity.
On the day that the new Japanese treaty went into effebt, the Commu-
nists started a bloody riot against foreign military forces in Japan. The
hard core of Communists who incited the riot were students from Japanese
universities. They shouted slogans against American military forces
stationed in Japan and demanded an end to U. S. military installations in
that country. At the very same time the Communist youth organizations in
East Germany were glorifying the Soviet military forces stationed in their
country.
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From all this it is clear that the Soviets intend that youth organi-
zations be used not for the development of its individual members but for
the furtherance of Soviet foreign policy, whatever that policy may be in a
particular area. In the Communist areas, that policy calls for youth to
participate in military training, in Western Europe the policy demands
that youth be pacifists, and in the East that youth participate in active
rebellion and sabotage.
At given times the men who control the Communist youth apparatus
stage special events to show their power and to attempt to frighten the
West by parading samples of the millions of young people whom they can
get to dance to their tune. The World Federation of Democratic Youth,
which claims 78,000,000 members throughout the world, and The Inter-
national Union of Students, which claims 5,000,000 student members, to-
gether sponsored a series of mass demonstrations in Berlin in August of
1951 which were truly frightening by their size alone. These Berlin
demonstrations were labeled by their sponsors "A Youth Festival for Peace."
They could more accurately be described as a threat to the free govern-
ment in Western Germany.
This political demonstration in East Germany was probably the most
expensive youth rally of our time. Over a million German youths were
transported to Berlin in scores of railway trains and every other means
of conveyance to demonstrate "loyalty" to Communism and the Soviet Union.
They were joined in military type parades, shouting slogans, by over
25,000 foreign youths who were brought to Berlin from all corners of the
world, without charge to themselves. The entire bill was footed by the
Communist governments of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. The cost
must have been tens of millions of dollars. During the two weeks that
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the rally lasted there was not a single business meeting or public dis-
cussion in which any of the youth delegates could participate. There were
many speeches, but always by the leaders of the Communist youth organiza-
tions, not by the youth delegates.
But even this Berlin spectacle had its kickback for the Soviet Union,
thanks to our able High Commissioner, Mr. John J. McCloy. Almost a million
of the Communist youth visited the Free Western Sector of Berlin in direct
violation of orders. Probably they went there to jeer, but they stayed
to wonder. Many of them wanted to stay permanently. They were shown the
sights of the free city of Western Berlin. The most impressive sight
they saw was the American High Commissioner himself who sat down pith
large groups of these students, heard their problems and answered their
questions candidly and fully. Word of this spread throughout the entire
youth festival and was an impressive contrast to Communist techniques of
permitting no free discussion of youth problems at the Rally.
The latest Communist youth rallies in areas exposed to the outside
world, such as Berlin and Vienna, have been less and less successful, and
' the Communists have become alerted to the danger of exposing their in-
doctrinated youth to an alternative way of life. Recently they staged -
a so-called world-wide youth conference in the Russian sector of Vienna
under the high sounding title of Conference on the Defense of the Rights
of Youth. To hide the Communist character of the sponsorship of this
conference, many non-Ccmmunist organizations were invited, even the inter-
national YMCA. The meeting was largely a failure.
This summer behind the Iron Curtain these Communist front groups
are staging four more mammoth conferences, one of which is called the
Fourth World Youth Festival for Peace. A letter written by an East German
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to a friend in the United States while he was temporarily in West Germany
throws a somewhat sinister light on what the Soviet mean by stressing
peace in their youth organizations. "The teen-agers," this German boy
writes, "are given preliminary training by the association for sport and
techniques, including glider flying, shooting, and other service prepara-
tory to entering. the Army, Navy, or Air Force."
Everywhere throughout the Soviet orbit the propaganda word is peace,
but the preparation is for war.
It is well, it seems to me, that we should understand what communism
is doing to youth. Dangerous as it is we should not conclude that there
is no answer. All Communist youth is not convinced or fanatical. Youth
in the Soviet Union, despite appearances, is, over-all, possibly less
fanatical than in some of the countries where Communism is newer. Some
Soviet youth have seen the disillusionment of their parents who them-
selves had gone through Communist youth training. Youth in the Satellites
and in China have not seen this.
The Communist masters of the youth program have learned one lesson
we should take to heart. In dealing with youth they have seen the use-
fulness of discipline, coupled with serious attention to the individual
members of the organization. They use this as a means of achieving high
morale and Obedience. Discipline, if applied on sound principles, can
help create morale based on pride in a common experience. In some
instances the more severe the discipline the higher the Communist morale.
Sometimes it is more effective to demand severely of people than to promise
them too much and to cater to their wishes.
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The moral of this, as I see. it, is that we Americans are apt to
underrate the importance in youth training of organizational principles.
For this reason we tend to attribute Soviet successes too much to ideolo-
gical training and too little to the fact that they have studied carefully
and applied consistently the basic principles of human organization and
discipline.
It is great organizations like the Y.M.C.A, which can help to instill
the proper principles of discipline and at the same time protect the freedom
of the individual.
Finally it is important that we should appreciate that the youth of
the non-Communist world are looking more and more to American youth for
inspiration and guidance. The Y.M.C.A., with its ties with youth groups
throughout the world, has a unique opportunity to join with the youth
of the Free World and to lend moral and other support. This is particu-
larly true in the Middle East and Asia, which have only recently gained
their independence, and where the youth are looking for some guiding
inspiration.
If we do not take this opportunity, many of the world's youth may.,
by default, slip under the influence of those sinister Communist front
groups, whose mission, under the guise of peace, is preparation for further
conquest.
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