THE WASHINGTON SCENE THE CRITICAL QUESTION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70-00058R000100120059-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 6, 2000
• Sequence Number: 59
• Publication Date: May 1, 1958
• Content Type: NSPR

MAY
or R 2001 3/Q,2
CPYR~ :CIA-R P70-000 0001001200
41%i~ T VUNIn lon Seene i
The Cirl ! al Question CPYRGHT
Jilt WILLI4M R , .
g S1'1" INCER, Ie1, Washington Barean, The Christian Science Monitor
Washington
611t: of d- 111.0b UJ..Lt=
questions of these days, no
doubt, is whether the stir and
change under way in the
Soviet Union will humanize
nd individualize and dein-
octrinate Soyt thought
rocesses. 14464, whether
he Soviet-me ntality can ac-
ept some of that mental lib-
ration which the centuries of
ation history have brought
And , thus whether the
olossus known as the
7.S.S.R. will join more,.co-
peratively and temperately
ii humanity's global partner-
hip.
A good deal depends o
(Soviet youth and the impact
of the Soviet educational
process on Soviet youth.
Latest repuris from Moscow
say that by 19C0 virtually
all young 1,erpie will be in
school throw'h the age of 17
-a larger showing than in
the United *,.!fes certainly.
The Soviet. curriculum will
permit no elective subjects.
All will receive the same
education to that point, and
it will includr indoctrination
on the superiority of the So-
viet-Communist system. So-
viet history books examined
recently give little credit to
the Western armies in 'the"'.
defeat of Hitler, for instance.
When a group of Washing-
ton newsmen discussed this
spreading of Soviet education
with former Senator William
Benton of Connecticut, who
has served Washington ex-
tensively in the field of psy-
chological warfare, he ex-
pressed some doubt about the.
liberalizing ""impact of this
training.
On the other hand, AlleDulles, director" of the"'
entral 1nt 1ligence Agency,
nds a measure of genuine
hope in this spread or inten-
sification of Soviet educa-
tional, thinking processes.
Succinctly he says: "Educa-
tion educates." He believes
the newer Soviet generations
will have expanded critical
faculties and more independ-
ence of mind, particularly in
' a leF e` eal*e
dc+ Prnta s r?ntagPrn
and elsewhere has brought
higher concepts o:f the value
of the individual }.[e has new
rights, including the crucial
right of self-government.
What about the Soviet
Union? It is encouraging that
the members of the new So-
viet rulership, unlike Stalin.'
and unlike Adolf Hitler, have
shown themselves susceptible
to the human process of rea-
soning things out. Any normal
amount of reasoning would
have shown Hitler that his
dream of world conquest was
impossible. Stalin rejected
reason to maintain that
atomic war would destroy
only the capitalist system. The
new Soviet hierarchy accepts
reason sufficiently to admit
that atomic war could destroy
all civilization, . communistic
included. To a degree, then,
reason has tempered the im-
pact of Communist dogma on
their thinking.
Reason, we may under-
stand, is a very active, indeed
the most active, human
faculty. A great deal, un-
doubtedly will depend on the
amount of reasoning the So-
viet educational system per-
mits. Allen Dulles undoubt-
edly would hold that if
questioning and discussion
are permitted in realms of
chemistry and electronics,
these thought processes will
spill over into social and po-
litical theory eventually.
The other argument is that
education can be sufficiently
blindered and compartmen-
talized' and the human mind
alances develop, and, the
opular will must be con-
ulted.
Will this freeing' bf the
hought processeat ..hanpen in
lie T 4W. "a _ba tter -neigh=
rew;ive anyway
etnag'ogic t nd iqs in the
opular mind even when
Perhaps w, can get at the
asic answer here if we see
he world struggle.-trough
he centuries - largely in
erms of the, gradual attain-
Have Been Straying In a
Westerly Direction'
ent of an improved concept
man's inviolable individu-
ity as the child of -God.
vidual man is gradually
ion message he defined the
ue nature tf the struggle
w taking "'place in the
an is a soulless, animated
achine to be enslaved, used,
d consumed :by the state for
own glorification."
process to the full. Nor:
have ; ufficient facts from
which ' to reason. :In short,
that " e6ple can be reared
and made to go about in a
state of semiindiiduality,
their' 'rue selves', partially
obliterated, their critical and
reasoning faculties-in a state
of partially suspended ani-
mation.
Whether the Soviet ruler-
ship wishes to or can main-
tain this state of semiindivid-
uality among is objects is
O
perhaps the $64,fltf
question.
Perhaps it will try. Or per-
haps Soviet youth and Soviet
thought will be caught up in
the questing, humanistic, in-
i~i9iiultls~+`MN?Izz'~P59
always glorified, accept- through the world's mental
33