BENNETT SPEECH

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70B00338R000200230165-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 20, 2004
• Sequence Number: 165
• Publication Date: February 15, 1967
• Content Type: SPEECH

Approved For Release 2004/05/12 : CIA-RDP70B00338R000200230165-9
Bennett speech
1W
I should like to call to your attention the James Reston
article in the New York Times of 15 February. I believe it will
help in placing in proper perspective the controversy over the
National Student Association. As the cold war cools off, we
tend to forget the Stalin era during which the Soviets were
engaged in an all out effort to dominate the institutions of the
free world and through them the free world itself. Student
organizations in much of the world are a powerful political
force; we have all witnessed the phenomenon of governments
in Latin America and other areas of the world which have
been overthrown by student actions. You can be assured that
the Soviet Union recognized the political power lodged in
student organizations - the huge sums they spent and are
spending in their attempt to control the youth of the world
attest to this.
Faced with an opposition to whom funds were nearly
limitless, U. S. student leaders of the time sought appropriate
assistance and got it - not the huge sums which would have
been needed to match the Soviet effort, but at least enough
to maintain their presence on the international scene and to
resist the total Soviet take-over of their organizations. As
a former member of the National Student Association, I applaud
their courage in doing what needed to be done.
Approved For Release 2004/05/12 : CIA-RDP70B00338R000200230165-9
 B%Wbhl PFOf/ elease 2004/05/12 : CIA-RDP70B00338R000200230165 9 5 `DEB 1967
I should like to call to your attention the James Reston
article in the New York Times of 15 February. I believe it will
help In placing in proper perspective the controversy over the
National Student Association. As the cold war cools off, we
tend to forget the Stalin era during which the Soviets were
engaged in an all out effort to dominate the institutions of the
free world and through them the free world itself. Student
organizations in much of the world are a powerful political
force; we have all witnessed the phenomenon of governments
in Latin America and other areas of the world which have
been overthrown by student actions. You can be assured that
the Soviet Union recognized the political power lodged in
student organizations - the huge sums they spent and are
spending in their attempt to control the youth of the world
attest to this.
Faced with an opposition to whom funds were nearly
limitless, U. S. student leaders of the time sought appropriate
assistance and got it - not the huge sums which would have
been needed to match the Soviet effort, but at least enough
to maintain their presence on the international scene and to
resist the total Soviet take-over of their organizations. As
a former member of the National Student Association, I applaud
their courage in doing what needed to be done.
Approved For Release 2004/05/12 : CIA-RDP70B00338R000200230165-9