ANTI-AMERICANISM AND THE PEOPLE'S CAPITALISMMOVEMENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80B01676R003800180024-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 16
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 31, 2002
• Sequence Number: 24
• Publication Date: September 20, 1957
• Content Type: SPEECH

1111 oil "I'll I
FOR RELEASE: After 1 PM, FRIDAY September 20, 1957
"ANTI-AMERIlCANIISM AND T H E PEOPLE I S CAPITALISM MOVEI ENT"
an address by
THEODORE S. REPPLIER
President? The Advertising Council
at a luncheon of
the C01,5'ONt1EAI.TH CLLM OF CALIFORNIA
San Francisco
Friday, September 20, 1957
(EXEC ;`T 'r err:
~ p Relea a 2002/02/1 :.CIA-RDP80B01676R003800180 4-8
For
The AdveAt RQJQY&gi is a non-pro f, non-partisan usiness organization which serves the public iterest by
marshaling the forces of advertising to promote voluntary, individual actions in solving national problems.
Executive Registry
 Approved For Release 2002/02/13 : CIA-RDP80BO1676R003800180024-8
I have been asked to speak: to you on "Anti-Americanism and
the People's Capitalism movement", and I an happy you have
"liven me this assignment. For both of these topics deal With
ideas; and there is nothing more important than ideas today,
when the cold war has heated history to the boiling point.
After spending much of the past three years of my life in
studying this struggle between communism and freedom around the
world, I feel strongly that ideas will engineer the road to the
future. This is rough on Americans, for we are a people of
action, We have produced few philosophers, possibly because
Americans find it hard to si still very long at one time.
If anyone doubts the explosive nature of ideas, let him
consider that roughly three-fifths of our entire national
budget is being spent for cold wcr activities. About sixty-two
cents of every dollar the Internal Revenue Bureau extracts from
you goes for activities which spring directly from the present
conflict in ideologies.
Hence, he who aspires to any reduction of his income tax
might well give some attention to ideas.
Consider also, that one half the world has been set against
the other by a book -- a book containing the economic philosophy
Of Karl Marx.
Ideas got the world into this predicament, and ideas -- not
bombs -- are likely to be chat gets us out.
Yet we Americans think so little of ideas that whereas
last year we spent 35 billions on our military establishment,
Approved For Release 2002/02/13 : CIA-RDP80BO1676R003800180024-8
 Approved For Release 2002/02/13 : CIA-RDP80BO1676R003800180024-8
-2-
we gave the U. S. Information Agency only :,;113 million to
project the facts about us to the world -- about 70; of chat
one American company spends to advertise its products at home.
And this year Congress cut even that modest sum 16;, causing
USIS to shut up shop in country after country and leaving a
clear field to the delicfhted communists.
There has been much loose talk about how poorly we run our
ideological war, often by ill-meaning amateurs with a hatchet
to grind. And there has likewise been loose talk about anti-
Americanism, talk often so loose it needs a bit of Sanforizing.
When a tourist comes back from abroad, and declares that
anti-jWiericani.sm is rampant, it is often another way of saying
that he had a tiff with a concior-e in Paris, was cheated by a
barber in Rome, and read a critical editorial in a London news-
paper.
Actually, personal experience is about as valid an index
to public opinion as a one-wife survey. As a matter of fact,
public opinion is often confused with several other types of
opinion.
First, there is government opinion -- the statements about
us made by officials of foreign countries. Second, there 9.s
elite opinion; for example, the leaders of the various foreign
political parties. Third, there is newspaper comment and edi-
torials. None of these three are true public opinion, although
often quoted as such.
Approved For Release 2002/02/13 : CIA-RDP80BO1676R003800180024-8
 Approved For Release 2002/02/13 : CIA-RDP80BO1676R003800180024-8
It is very easey to be didactic -- and wrong -- about
public opinion. Somebody says, III have been to Pakistan and I
know the Pakistanis feel thus and so" -- but, of course, he
knows no such thing. The French journalist Raymond Cartier.
wrote an article for "Paris iiatch"" entitled 111.1hy are the Ar-Leri-
cans detested?" in which he took the attitude the Americans
are detested everywhere, everybody knows that.
:)as he right? I doubt it. We are envied, yes -- and envy
often emerges above the :;surface of the ego looking 'like irate.
:Then I was in Tokyo, a nevws)a_ner correspondent friend of mine
spent an evening parrying the vicious stabs at America by a
group of Japanese teen-agers.ien he was about to leave, the
most vituperative of the Japanese youngsters took him aside and
asked his help in gettinc: a visa to the U. S.: :', little envy
is a good thing; it is often a better stimulant to ambition
than vodka.
;Fortunately, we can at least _;et a clue to public attitudes
in ::;urope through the existence of some continuing public
opinion surveys. These were made by private firms usint tl.e
Gallup method, and are at least .;iore reliable than conversations
in h gh school French with six Paris taxi-drivers.
i eginning with 1954, people of Great Britain, Italy ,
Austria, ?;rest Germany, Belgium and France were asked f1:;hit is
your general opinion of such and such a country? Very good,
good, fair, bad or very bad, The list of countries ::ientioned
Approved For Release 2002/02/13 : CIA-RDP80BO1676R003800180024-8
 Approved For Release 2002/02/13 : CIA-RDP80BO1676R003800180024-8
included both the United States and Soviet Russia.
"'hen the answers were in, the "Foods" and the "bads" were
added up for each country, and the lesser subtracted from the
greater. And whereas the Soviet Union was in each case in the
minus or unpopular column -- .,lore "bads" than "goods" -- the
united States was in each case well up in the plus or popular
column -- many more "goods" than "bads". These studies have
been repeated. periodically up to the present time, and not
once from 151L to 1.57 did the United State:, fall down out of the
talus area.
;e came close to it tiith. Britain public opinion at the time
of Quemoy and ilatsu; but in 6 months we were back up to talus 50.
?;e slid again at the time of Suez, but surprisingly enough we
bobbed right back in a week or two.
On the graph slh:owwin:; this trend of public opinion, our
curve runs generally highest in Belgium and Austria., next
highest in Uest Germany and Italy, then Britain and lowest of
all, France. '1e keep just above the dividing line with the
French. The French are, however, cynical about everything in-
cluding themselves; to paraphrase "iiy Fair Lady", the French
don't care what marries they call us as long as they pronounce
them ;~roper?ly.
Probing human feelings is a complex and uncertain business
at best; but the, next time some one tells you that _:mericans
are disliked everywhere; I think you may reply that even if
Approved For Release 2002/02/13 : CIA-RDP80BO1676R003800180024-8
 Approved For Release 2002/02/13 : CIA-RDP80BO1676R003800180024-8
-5-
'unericans are, America isn't.
But please note this: being loved is relatively un-
important. It is pleasant to be admired, of course, but ue
are in something far more serious than a popularity contest.
Remember, it is possible to be popular and dead at the same
time. -,-e are in an ideological war of attrition between two
opposing ways of life, and what really counts is whether us
are winning or losing. '.;hose philosophy and ideals are gaining
converts, and whose is losing them?
Now right here we have to stop and ask ourselves what
this bitter struggle is all about. The basic differences are
familiar to all of you, but it is useful to review a few hi th
points from communist doctrine, as revealed by Karl liar,,.
Vastly oversimplified, iiarx taught that virtually every
condition of life finds two opposing forces at work, which
he calls the thesis and anti-thesis. These two forces, he
said, eventually produce a synthesis, which represent the next
upward step in human living. Thus, the primitive society was
succeeded by a society based on slavery (as in ancient home),
the slave-based society was succeeded by feudalism, feudalism
was replaced by ca vitalism, and capitalism will fall and be
replaced by communism.
The opposing forces present in capitalism, said Marx and
angels, are the means of production and the private ownership
of }roduction. The built-in conflict present in these forces
Approved For Release 2002/02/13 : CIA-RDP80BO1676R003800180024-8
 Approved For Release 2002/02/13 : CIA-RDP80B01676R003800180024-8
-6-
results in crises, said Tiarx, ihich grow deeper as capitalism
develops. To preserve profits, the capitalists progressively
squeeze the workers until the oppressed finally revolt. Hence,
it is inevitable that capitalism will fall and communism will
become universal. Khrushchev is perfectly sincere when, after
a few vodkas, he says "Ile will. bury you."
_Iow note particularly three devastating points in this
conu:lunist doctrine;
First, that capitalism is a system where the few e::;.ploi t
the many.
Second, that capitalism. is immoral and evil.
Third, that the fall of capitalism is inevitable; it is
doomed by history.
These are essentially the points that have been ha:imered
home by the world-wide Communist propaganda apparatus for over
thirty years, illustrated in terms of current events. They
have been drummed into the ears of the world -- particularly
; urope and now i sia -- to the point where virtually every
country has been contaminated by theca to some extent.
For example, a public opinion study in 19,;6 polled people
in five capitalistic European countries as to their opinion of
capitalism -- with shocking results.
Only in Great ;;ritain did the majority have a favorable
opinion of capitalism -- and that by the slender margin of
plus 7. In Italy, the majority opinion was unfavorable --
Approved For Release 2002/02/13 : CIA-RDP80B01676R003800180024-8
 Approved For Release 2002/02/13 : CIA-RDP80BO1676R003800180024-8
-7-
minus 1.7. In ?Jest Germany it was minus 25; in France, minus
35; and in the Netherlands, almost minus L1o.
In other words, capitalism is indeed a nasty word almost
everywhere. The result was that not long back hardly a sin ;le
U. S. propagandist dared mention it. We were caught in a
deadly semantic trap.
hen the full implication of this predicament darned on
no in the course of a round-the-:rorld propaganda study, I was
thoroughly depressed. If the world went on believing all capi-
talism was evil, capitalism would doubtless eventually fall.
And as capitalism went, so went America.
But Z rI :~t are the actual facts about capitalism?
';ell, no fair observer could deny that capitalism, a r,
-oract:i.ced in some parts of the world, was a pretty smelly
business. In parts of Asia and ,frica, it was synonymous with
ruthless exploitation of resources and the natives. In areas
of Europe, it meant restrictive cartels, rigid class lines, and
low wage levels. But while all this was going on, a species of
capitalism was evolving; in the United State;; so different as to
be virtually a new social invention.
You all know the story. Take just one group -- xierican
industrial workers. This is the group which iIarx said must be
progressively squeezed by capitalism. Yet since 19111, the
beginning period of swift change, the average wage level
of American industrial worl.ers has risen 507;; while the ,rices
Approved For Release 2002/02/13 : CIA-RDP80BO1676R003800180024-8
 Approved For Release 2002/02/13 : CIA-RDP80BO1676R003800180024-8
of things they buy has risen only 168?,. And while the U. S.
worker's pay was climbing, his hours of work declined from Li9.4
to 110.1.
Of late years, Sunerica's middle income group has literally
exploded. And at the same time, the proportion of very rich
and very poor has shrunk spectacularly. You see evidence of
our new shared benefits in highways jammed with cars and
colleges crowded beyond their gates. Yes, something has
happened here unique in the world's history -- we are rapidly
bringing the good life to all our people. This is a case
history that confounds Marx.
Turn now to the question of who supplies the capital that
fuels ,meri.ca's prosperity and you discover another unique
phenomenon. Almost every _aerican:has become a capitalist.
Directly or indirectly, either through ownership of stocks or
bonds or a farm or through money in savings banks, life insurance,
pension funds, or even labor unions, he has funds at work helping
io produce goods and services.
These are facts nobody can dispute. Studying them, it
seemed. evident to The _',dvertisin, Council that it was urgent
that we Americans ceased being defensive about capitalism. Not
to mention the word at all was playing right into Communist
hands.
The Advertising Council, therefore, proposed in a public
address that our unique American capitalism be given a new,
Approved For Release 2002/02/13 : CIA-RDP80BO1676R003800180024-8
 Approved For Release 2002/02/13 : CIA-RDP80B01676R003800180024-8
-9-
descriptive name; and that this name make clear that our form
of capitalism operates for the benefit of the many. That was
the principal point -- the name must get across that our new
capitalism is for the little man.
Very deliberately, we suggested that 1,e the People liberate
a word made famous by the American Constitution and by Abraham
Lincoln -- and call our American invention People's Capitalism.
lie felt this reclaiming of the word -tpeop:Le T s'1 -- which, like
"neaceff and "democracy", has been debased by the Kremlin -- would
provide the shock value needed to get the idea quick attention
and discussion. As it tul:,ned out, the same idea also occurred
to many others -- including Louis X. Ilenchini, a newspaper
publisher in this city.
In theory, this idea should start to erode the foundations
upon which communism is built. For, if capitalism can benefit
the many, then communism has nowhere to go. But this was only
theory. The real test would come in the Communist's reaction.
If nobody in Iioscow yelled ""Ouch", the idea probably didn't hurt
much after all.
Fortunately, the Russians couldn't keep their reactions a
secret. Following use of the phrase by President Eisenhower and
the U. S. Information Agency, the Communist propaganda mechanism
immediately began to behave like a seismograph at an earthquake.
The Daily ?darker, the captive radios of the satellite
countries, Pravda, the Iloscow radio -- all began talking at
once, ridicul:i.ng the absurdity of the idea that capitalism could
Approved For Release 2002/02/13 : CIA-RDP80B01676R003800180024-8
 Approved For Release 2002/02/13 : CIA-RDP80BO1676R003800180024-8
-10-
benefit the people. Dmitri Shepilov, then Foreign Minister and
now in disgrace, said at the 20th party congress that People's
Capitalism was as absurd "as fried ice". The Soviet humor
magazine Kopatko published a cartoon showing a cloak labelled
"People's" being sewed around the decaying form of capitalism.
The magazine Kommunist also launched an attack. Soviet economist
Eugene Varga was unleased to do a series of articles demolishing
the un-I1arxian idea that the common man could be well off under
car italism.
On our side of the ideological chessboard, the realization
began to dawn that we were at long last off the defensive. The
;American press applauded the idea of People's Capitalism in
dozens of editorials. The U. S. Information Agency adopted
People's Capitalism as a global theme and asked The Advertising
Council to plan an overseas exhibit explaining some of its prin-
ciples. This was done and the e_chibit was sent abroad on tour.
Thus far, it has been shown to capacity crowds in Colombia,
Guatemala, Chile and Ceylon. It is soon to show in India.
The startling effect of this can be gauged by a few quotations
from the foreign press.
In Bogota, Colombia the newspaper La Paz said "the exhibit
is the best reply to any campaign to disavow or criticize the
high standard of living the workers of America enjoy."
La i?eoublica commented that "The real revolution which man
has had to bring about is no-,: achieved, but capitalism rather
than communism has made it a reality."
Approved For Release 2002/02/13 : CIA-RDP80BO1676R003800180024-8
 Approved For Release 2002/02/13 : CIA-RDP80BO1676R003800180024-8
-11-
The Guatemalan press waxed even more enthusiastic and
talked about ,'a new economic era in the U. S.," "the people who
refuted i,Iarx," and "a people which sakes :iarx look ri dicu~_ous."
The `tmerican correspondent Robert U. Hallett, reporting from
Santiago, Chile said "A public discussion is still reverberating
in Chile over the recent ?People's Capitalism' exhibit...
"Chileans are-prone to define capitalism as a completely
exploitive system for the benefit of a few..
"The intent of the exhibit is to disabuse people of this
trite concept of American society. Uany have called the showing
the best the U. S. has ever had here. At least it aroused re-
sounding public debate.."
over on the other side of the world, in ,sia, similar
reactions were being produced in socialist minded Ceylon. In
Colombo, Ceylon, USTS reported that the exhibit "has awal_ened
a tremendous interest in the il,icrican way of life, not only
among the more conservative elements but also among..the leftist
elements."
/
The mayor of
/ Dandy, the second city of Ceylon, remarked "The word capi-
talism has meant to many of us something rather bad..today's
exhibit..'Peoplets Capitalism' has shown us that.. capitalism is
not as bad as we had been persuaded to think.'
Now just one more anecdote which I think will amuse you.
As a part of our of for. t;:, at economic education here in
America, The advertising Council in cooperation with Yale Uni-
versity held, about eight months ago, a Pound Table discussion
Approved For Release 2002/02/13 : CIA-RDP80BO1676R003800180024-8
 Approved For Release 2002/02/13 : CIA-RDP80BO1676R003800180024-8
-12-
at New Haven -- a full day's discussion by brilliant minds on
the American economy.
Participating in the di cussion were distinguished Yale
professors of economics, political science, history, conservation
and religion, as well as representatives of business and labor.
The discussion was summarized by Professor David Potter in
a penetrating little book entitled "People's Capitalism."
This booklet was circulated to the U. S. press and received
an ovation. It was also sent to professors of economics, politi-
cal science, etc. in `:,-me.rican colleges, and was distributed by
the U. S. Information ?, gency to its posts overseas. The leading
Ja)anese economic publication translated it into Japanese and re-
printed it in full.
At about this time, a mysterious stranger was found wandering
about the corridors of the U. S. Information Agency in .'ashi_ngton.
A receptionist went up to him and askrd if she ,.ii-ht help. He
said, yes, that he had come for information on People's Capitalism.
after she had answered his questions for several minutes, the
young lady asked if he would be good enough to identify himself.
He said certainly, that he was an officer of the Russian ;m bassy.
'almost before the young lady could recover her composure,
a second caller came wanting information on p'eople's Capitalism.
He turned out to be a correspondent from Tass, the Soviet news
service. And he in turn was followed by a third eager gentleman,--
an editor of the Soviet magazine, U.S.S.A.
Not very long after this, the world-wide Communist propaganda
Approved For Release 2002/02/13 : CIA-RDP80BO1676R003800180024-8
 Approved For Release 2002/02/13 : CIA-RDP80BO1676R003800180024-8
-13-
apparatus began to snap, crackle and pop anew at People's Ca>i-
talism. Leading Romanian publications devoted lengthy ~_ icles
to demolishing the idea. The party chairman in Norway opened
the ninth national congress by saying that there was no such
t,' ing as people's capitali s.ri. The USSR published a 6)4 mag;e pam-
plilet called "The Bourgeois Lie about People's Capitalism." The
Bulgarian labor organ Trud attacked "The Theory of Peoole's
Capitalism and its Reactionary Nature." Tlh Czechoslovak Communist
party adopted an official resolution urging everybody to counter
the people's capitalism t1-.e-,:le.
But the most delicate compliment of all was that iloscoww
also staged a Round Table. There were present professors of
political science, economics and history, but no professors of
religion, no business men and nobody from labor.
The results of this discussion under the title of "The
ilyth of People's Capitalism" is published in the Soviet =iag-azine
"International Affairs." This journal has been circulated to
intellectuals around the world. :nd it is melancholy to reflect
that for every one intellectual who sees our booklet, nrohably
thirty ti-li:Ll see the communist rebuttal.
Howwever, thanks to the Voice of merica, ,adio Free Nurope
and ;'.adio Liberation -- all of whJ.ch have i.n.oed the People's
Capitalism theme -- reverberations are being felt iii. iioscoiii it-
self. Not long ago the communist youth publication corr.lented that
Soviet University students were being shaken by two react:i_onary
ideas. The first was the extent of freedom in 1Iestern countries,
Approved For Release 2002/02/13 : CIA-RDP80BO1676R003800180024-8
 Approved For Release 2002/02/13 : CIA-RDP80BO1676R003800180024-8
-1)4-
and the second was eeople's cap_talism.
Out of all that has been written on the subject, it seems
to me that the most perce_)tive comment from overseas ca,-ie from
round Stevens, the Eoscow correspondent of the Christian Science
Monitor. ,.J-riting from Moscow in June, iir. Stevens said:
"People's Capitalism has recently been under heavy attack
in the Soviet press and periodicals.
"Indeed, few conoents...that have co_iie out of the ".;est in
recent years have provoked such indignant...rebuttals...
"Obviously, Communist ideologists could not ignore such
a challenge without compronrl.si n-; their principles. If the
claims of people's capitalism were allowed to stand, then many
long-standing i iar.xist assumptions would have to be either jetti-
soned or revised. Communism would be shorn of its most cogent
arguments and appeal, not only abroad but at home."
`.,'e Americans have made a beginning at stemming, the tide of
artful ccuimuni.st propaganda. Tut it is only a beginning.
If we are going to win this ideological struggle, we had
better realize, all. of us, that regardless of transocean misai.le
ideas are the ultimate weapon.
';c must cease uncle r-esti:iating our op ;onents. Be ;inning
with "Pavlov and his dogs, ::.ussian scientists have studied be-
havior patterns. The fiendish efficiency of their brainwashing
revealed their deep knowledge of psychology.
U,:e must finance the idea war properly. '.ie are out-advertised
thirty to one. The U. S. Tnfor.,:ation Agency should have a budget
Approved For Release 2002/02/13 : CIA-RDP80BO1676R003800180024-8
 Approved For Release 2002/02/13 : CIA-RDP80BO1676R003800180024-8
-15-
double its present size.
:le must select a few truths about America and put our full
force behind them. We have tried to tell too much, too seldom.
Lastly, we must be far more aggressive and courageous in
telling the story of People's Capitalism. This is '_mericats
great contribution. No other society can adopt it ready-made,
but nearly every new nation can benefit by our experience.
In the 'eopl.e's Capitalism overseas exhibit there is a
final panel which gives the visitor a parting; message. ,nd I,
too, would like to leave you with this message.
"Si.ncc~c the dawn of time, men have dreamed of a day when
there would be more to life then a grinding struggle for food
and shelter.
They have dreamed of a society in whic?n. all men would be
free with each nian as good as his neighbor.
americans, like other peoples, have marched toward this
shining goal. Thanks to good fortune, ingenuity, hard work, and
respect for human dignity, they have achieved a dynamic new -:ay
of life.
It is, in truth, People's Capitalism -- Capitalism) 'of the
.people, by the people, and for the people.,
It is man's newest ua,i of life.
It is bright with prou:i.se as the way of the future. 11
Approved For Release 2002/02/13 : CIA-RDP80BO1676R003800180024-8