OTEPKA WAS MAJOR ROADBLOCK IN TAKEOVER BY A 'NEW TEAM': NEW YORK TIMES LINKED TO CIA PLOT ON OFFL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP71B00364R000500280004-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 16, 2000
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: April 28, 1969
• Content Type: OPEN

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28, goved For Reletbsfang/661\ifeitrcpcklB003h1OMI500280004-9
There is in physics a series of laws having
to do with motion. There is a law of inertia,
which states that a mass that is headed in a
given direction is inclined to continue in
that direction until its force is spent or some
superior force deflects or overcomes it. There
is another law that states that for a given
force there is an equal and opposite force:
for every action there is an equal and oppo-
site reaction. In the laws of civilizations gone
by we can observe these same kinds of phe-
nomena; and injustice will continue until its
force is spent or until society rectifies. it;
and an injustice on one side may lead to an-
other injustice on the other. Even as the
poisons of racism are with us still, though its
legal foundations be destroyed and gone for
all time to come, so too can racism produce
ari equally deadly, opposite poison that can
only be called reverse racism. I say it can pro-
duce that opposite effect, for the laws of poli-
tics are not so precise as the laws of physics;
in social interaction there are no ,immutable
laws. It IS true that inertia exists in political
and social systems, much as it does in
physics, but an opposite action, a reaction,
will occur only when the force of inertia is so
great that on legitimate force can change it.
I believe that we are attacking the forces of
hate and bigotry, and I believe that however
slowly and painfully we may be doing it, our
country is overcoming the forces of racism. I
believe that the impetus of racism is spent,
or very nearly so, and that it is possible that
justice in this land can be achieved within
legitimate means.
VIOLENCE NOT ANSWER
I do not believe that violence is necessary
to obtain justice, and I do not believe that
hatred is necessary either; I do not believe
that there is any reason why despair should
be so great that reverse racism can be justi-
fied. Yet reverse racism, and reverse racists
exist and their voices are loud, if largely
unheard.
No man ought to either practice or condone
racism; every man ought to condemn it. Nei-
ther should any man practice or condone re-
verse racism.
Those who would divide our country along
racial lines because they are fearful and filled
with hatred are wrong, but those who would
divided the races out of desire for revenge, or
out of some hidden fear, are equally wrong.
A.ny man, regardless of his ambitions, regard-
less of his aims, is committing an error and a
2rime against humanity if he resorts to the
tactics of racism, If Bilbo's racism was
wrong?and I believe that it was?then so
are the brown Bilbos of today.
Fifteen years ago as a member of the City
Council of the city of San Antonio, Texas, I
isked my fellow Council members to strike
town ordinances and regulations that segre-
gated the public facilities of the city, so as to
end an evil that ought never to have existed
to begin with. That Council complied, because
it agreed with me that it was time for rea-
son to at long last have its day. Eleven years
ago I stood almost alone in the Senate of the
State of Texas to ask my colleagues to vote
against a series of bills that were designed to
perpetuate segregation, contrary to the law
of the land, I saw the beginnings then of a
powerful reaction to racist politics, and I
begged my colleagues to remember: "If we
fear long enough, we hate. And if we hate
long enough, we fight." I still believe this to
be true. Since then there has been vast prog-
ress in Texas. I dod not know how to describe
to you the oppression that I felt then; but I
Span tell you that the atmosphere today is like
a different world. Injustices we still have
aplenty, but no longer is there a spirit of
blatant resistance to just redress of just griev-
ance. Yet despite this change in the general
atmosphere, despite the far healthier tenor of
public debate and public action today, I felt
compelled almost exactly a year ago to ad-
dress the United States House of Representa-
tives on the continuing and alarming prac-
tice of race politics, and what I chose to call
the politics of desperation.
TACTICS or CONFRONTATION
There are those in Texas today?and I sup-
pose elsewhere as well?who believe that the
only way that the problems of the poor, and
the problems of the ethnic minorities, will be
solved, is by forcing some kind of confronta-
tion. This confrontation can be economic, or
it can be direct and personal, but whatever
form it may take, the object is to state in the
most forceful possible terms what is wrong,
and to demand immediate and complete cor-
rective action. This tactic leaves no room for
debate and often no room for negotiation,
however, reasonable that might be. It is the
tactic of drawing a line and saying that it is
the point where one system ends and another
begins. This may not sound unreasonable in
itself, and in fact the tactics of confronta-
tion may' be a place in political life. But the
proble ? is that this deliberate and very often
confrontation might or might not be
able, and the demands presented might
ght not be legitimate. The fact is that
ta,ctic deliberately attempts to eliminate
rnatives to violence, and it is therefore
y at best and at worst it can lead to dis-
er. This sort of politics is only one step
re oved from rebellion.
hen the politics of race are added to the
poli les of confrontation, the makings of
trag fly are abundantly clear. Race politics is
itsel highly unstable, and the same is true
of th politics of confrontation. When the
potent ? ixtures of long held passions are met
on a ha d line, but with justice obscured or
perhaps ost in the mists of empty slogans,
then grea and perhaps irreparable damage
can result.
There are ,,those in Texas who believe that
reverse racidrk can be mixed with the politics
of confrontatiqn, and that the result will be
justice?or if not justice at least revenge. One
cannot be certain whether the new racists
want justice or ievenge; only one thing is
certain and that is that you cannot have
both. 1
THE NEW RACISM
Probably the leading exponent of the new
racism in Texas is the current president of
the Mexican-American Youth Organization.
This young man is filled with passions that
may be obscure even to hiniself; he is ready
to accuse anyone who does lint help him of
being a "turncoat" and anyond,who opposes
him of having "gringo tendencies" and con-
cludes that most of the citizenS, of Texas
are racists. Indeed, if he is opposed, he says,
". . . within a few years I will nO longer
try to work with anybody." He is not ertain
of what he wants, except that he do not
want to "assimilate into this gringo so iety
in Texas." He wants to be "Mexicano" ?ut
not "Mexican." He wants to expose and eli ? I-
nate "gringos," and by that he means killi
if "it doesn't work," Of course, I am to
that this young man never meant to ma
such threats, though he clearly uttered the
But those who utter threats and who clearl
mean them, must be prepared to be chal
lenged. And I do not believe that anyone wh
claims any position of responsibility,
anyone who pretends to leadership can ma
threats of killing and still be expected
be called responsible.
This young man and his followers hive
attempted to find settings in Texas to p ac-
tice their militance, and in particular toltest
out their theory of confrontation. /
They distribute literature that is replete
with hatred, and which builds on the sup-
posed romance of revolution; too often one
finds a photo of Juarez running alongside
a photo of Che Guevara in MAYO literature.
It would be hard to find a broader appeal
than that to build a myth based on Guevara.
They print such patent nonsense as "there
is no bad luck, just bad gringos." They like
sudde
reas.
or ?
th
alt
ri
as
113153'
to label enemies; "if you label yourself a
gringo then you're one of the enemy." They
give the overall impression that anyone the
MAYO leadership disapproves of is either a
gringo or has "gringo tendencies" or is a
"turncoat." Only one thing counts to them:
loyalty to la raw above all else, and MAYO
next. Of course they reserve the right to
judge who is loyal and who is not.
Filling people with the bright phrases of
revolution and the ugly phrases of race hate,
MAYO seeks to find a confrontation. They
sought it at Del Rio, Texas on Palm Sun-
day, but did not find it. Some of them sought
it at Denver that same weekend, but did not
find it. When they do, they have every likeli-
hood of doing great harm to themselves and
the cause they supposedly are trying to ad-
vance. The fuel of tension and the flame of
passion make a dangerous mix.
I do not favor repression, because I do
not believe that order is something that can
be forced, at least not in an open and free
society. I believe that there is enough good
will and enough determination in this coun-
try that justice will prevail, and without re-
sort to violence on one side or the other.
The young racists want to promote and
exacerbate fears that already exist; they want
to destroy what they perceive as an equilib-
rium, or a stalemate, that militates against
their perception of justice. I do not think
that they will succeed. I believe that most
Americans believe, as I do, and as Sandburg
did, that:
"Across the bitter years and howling winters
The deathless dream will be the stronger
The dream of equity will win."
This is no land of cynics, and it is no land
of demagogues; it is a land wherein I believe
reason can prevail; if it cannot succeed here
it can succeed nowhere.
I oppose this new racism because it is
wrong, and because it threatens to destroy
that good will, that sense of justice that
alone can bring ultimate and lasting justice
for all of us. This new racism threatens di-
visions that cannot soon be healed, and
threatens to end whatever hope there may
be?and I think that hope is considerable?
of peaceful progress toward one country, in-
divisible, with liberty and justice for all."
I do not want to see in Texas riots and
burned buildings; and I do not want to see
men beaten, men killed, and fear rampant. I
have seen it happen in other cities; I have
seen fear and hate and violence destroy that
essential impetus toward full justice. I have
seen the ugliness of division and violence, I
do not want to see it again, and I do not
want again to have to fight against blind,
unreasoning intolerance. It is not necessary,
and it is not inevitable.
RETROGRESSION', DESTRUCTION
But the fruit of racism is not prejudice,
fear and distrust. There can be no benefit
from it, no matter how you color it with ro-
mance or the new techniques of confronta-
tion. There can only be tragedy from it. If
MAYO gets its confrontation, it will not
"crush any gringo who gets in (the) way"
"squashing him like a beetle" and it will not
"kick the door down." It will only find itself
beaten in the end, and with it, the hopes of
many innocent people who follow their false
banner.
The new racists, if they succeed in their
divisive efforts, will in the end only unloose
destructive forces that may take generations
to control, for those who plumb the well-
springs of hate and break the dams of pas-
sion always learn too late that passions and
hatreds are far easier to open than they are
to close. It is not possible to pursue a just
cause with unjust tactics, and it is not pos-
sible to justify cruel and deceitful actions by
the end hoped for. It is not possible to ex-
pect sympathy or justice from those whom
you threaten with hatred and destruction,
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113154 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD -- HOUSE
and it is self-deluding to think that there is Was this why Otto Otepka had to be
notnaternative to inviting violence, removed from the State Department?
stand for justice, and I stand for class- Mr. Speaker, I include a most in-
less, raceless politics. I stand for action, and formative report on the Otepka removal
I stand for freerlibm. I stand against vio-
lence, racism, and anyone or anything that from the Government Employees Ex-
threatens our ability in this land to govern change April 6, 1969; a report on Johr
ourselves as a free people. Patton Davies from the Washington Post
April 27 and related clippings from the
local Washington papers:
[From the Government Employees Exchange
Apr. 16, 19691
RESTRUCTURING OF JOB CORPS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a
previous order of the House the gentle-
man from Texas (Mr. Busii) is recog-
nized for 10 minutes.
Mr. BUSH. Mr. Speaker, it has become
increasingly clear over the past 5 years
that the Job Corps, as presently set up,
Is not providing the best possible service
to disadvantaged American youth.
If we are to achieve our longstanding
goal of equal opportunity for all, it is
west essential that we expand and retool
the Nation's manpower program.
I, therefore, am extremely heartened
by the sound and effective plan that Sec-
retary of Labor George P. Shultz has
devised for integrating the Job Corps
Into a comprehensive manpower effort.
As Secretary Shultz said in House tes-
timony:
We do not anticipate the demise of the
Job Corps, rather we seek to improve its
quality and relevance to the realities of the
labor market.
The need for the restructuring of the
Job 0.,orps, for shifting the program's em-
phasis from conservation training to
training for the large number of indus-
trial jobs, is quite evident.
By keeping the very best conservation
centers and by opening inner-city and
near-city centers, we will take a major
step toward helping reduce today's
alarmingly high youth jobless rate.
I urge every Member of the 91st Con-
gress to support this wise decision to in-
tegrate the Job Corps into the total
manpower effort and to provide better
services to those youths most in need.
0 ?i sk'SA-STATE MYSTERY UNFOLDS
(Mr. RARICK asked and was given
permisSion to extend his remarks at this
Point in the RECORD and to include ex-
traneous matter.)
Mr. RARICK. Mr. Speaker, many
Americans continue to ponder over the
Otepka-State Department affair.
Now that Mr. Otepka has left State
more of the mystery of executive priv-
ilege unfolds.
As if a mysterious manipulator pushed
a button, the American people are being
told that recognition of Red China is
suddenly vital to the peace interests of
the world community,
The usual groups of public opinion
conditioners points up organization and
a well-financed program to attain their
goal of a "new China policy." Reappear-
ing with the new policy is an old identity
tlae Joe McCarthy era?none other
than Aithn Patton Davies a man whose
former role/ttgate is linked to the pres-
ent situation Of two Chinas with 800
million indivietala enslaved under a
mainland Coniraunist dictatorship.
Why the atulden reinterest in John
Patton Davies? Who wants John Patton
Davies rehabilitated? For what purpose?
Approved
OTEPXA WAS MAJOR ROADBLOCK IN TAKE-
OVER BT A "NEW TEAM": NEW YORK
TIMES LINKED TO CIA PLOT ON OFFL
The Central Intelligence Agency's "New
Team," including such "outsiders" as Hard-
ing A. Bancroft, now the Executive Vice
President of The New York Times, played a
critical role in the final decision of Attorney
General Robert F. Kennedy to press Secre-
tary of State Dean Rusk to proceed with the
dismissal of Otto F. Otepka as the State De-
partment's top Security Evaluator, a former
Ambassador associated with CIA Director
Richard Helms informed this newspaper on
April 11.
According to the source, Mr. Bancroft
played a role because of his liaison and co-
ordinating work involving the use of the or-
ganization and facilities of The New York
Times on behalf of the CIA and the "New
Team."
Other persons who had a role included Wil-
liam H. Brubeck who had been the recipient
of the 1960 "leak" of Top Secret information
from the State Department to the campaign
headquarters of John Kennedy which con-
tributed significantly to Mr. Kennedy's nar-
row victory at the election polls. After Mr.
Kennedy's victory, Mr. Brulseck received com-
plete information about Mr. Otepka'e role in
tracing this "leak", the former Ambassador
revealed.
Other members of the "New Team" were
McGeorge Bundy and his brother William
Bundy, who had moved from the Central In-
telligence Agency to become the Assistant
Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific
Affairs, including Vietnam.
"THE NEW TEAM"
The "New Team" at the Central Intelli-
gence Agency was being planned by Attorney
General Robert Kennedy even before the Bay
April 28, 1969
ment, the military services departments, the
United States Information Agency and the
Agency for International Development, the
source added.
"NEW TEAM " MEMBERS
Besides Robert Kennedy and Maxwell Tay-
lor, other members of the "New Team" were
General Marshall S. Darter, who replaced
General Charles B. Cabell as Deputy Director
of the CIA. Very early "-recruits" to the "New
Team" were Richard Helms, today the Direc-
tor of the CIA, and Cr rtha "Deke" Deloach.
the second man in chi/ ge of the Federal Bu-
reau of Investigation. 'rogether with Robert
McNamara and Dean Rusk, the "New Team"
acting under the control of Robert Kennedy
began the "infiltration" of the State Depart-
ment and the Defense Departments with Cen-
tral Intelligence Agency personnel. "Counter-
insurgency" projects sprung up in every
agency dealing with foreign affairs.
OUTSIDE "INSIDERS"
I Besides key persons officially already in the
Government, the "New Team" selected per-
sons in leading banks, law firms and founda-
tions for the penetration of the "non-gov-
ernmental" apparatus of the United States,
the former Ambassador revealed. Because of
the paramount role of The New York Times
In Amercian life and because of the "black"
assignments which it might be asked to per-
form for the CIA, great care was taken to
select a person who had full access to every
office in The New York Times and yet could
conceal his own operations. This was espe-
cially important because "gray" operations,
Involving special background briefings for
such top New York Times representatives as
James Reston and Tom Wicker were already
going on, and top New York Times reporters
were in an especially good position to "un-
cover" the "black" operations.
BA NCRO r's PAST
Harding Bancroft had been originally in-
troduced into the State Department by
Alger Hiss, and, after Mr. Hiss became the
head of the Carnegie Endowment for In-
ternational Peace, Mr. Bancroft served under
Dean Rusk as a member of the Department-,
Office of Special Political Affairs, renamed thi
Office of United Nations Affairs. Subsequent.
ly, he took the post ef General Counsel te
the International Labor Organization ir
Geneva and then went to The New Fort
of Pigs "fiasco" in 1961. In fact, the former Times, eventually to be named Executne
Ambassador said, the Attorney General had a Vice President.
special group Of his own "monitoring"th-e
i During the Eiseellower administratior
Bay of Pigs operation to determine which Harding Bancroft worked closely with Deal
persons, not yet projected for the "New I
scusk, President of the Rockefeller Founda
Team", would "pass the test". I tion, maintaining close liaison with Joh.
Although the "Bay of Pigs" was a national Foster Dunes and with Allen Dulles, th.
disaster, the source said, Robert Kennedy
i Director of the Centre I Intelligence Agencs
exploited it within the Government to ac-
celerate building the "New Team."
NEW TEAM GOALS
The "New Team" goals were set by the
"personality" of Robert Kennedy and the
"philosophy" of President John Kennedy and
Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, the
source revealed. The main exponent of this
"philosophy" was Major General Maxwell
Taylor, assisted by McGeorge Bundy and Walt
Whitman Rostow, the former Ambassador
said.
The mission of the "New Team" was to
contest the Soviet penetration of the "Third
World," the so-called nonaligned countries
-through "paramilitary, parapolitical and
paradiplomatie" means. To do this, the "New
Team" was to be a "paragovernment", per-
forming for the United States "the same kind
of functions" which the Central Committee
of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
performed for the Soviet Union, the former One of the major "roadblocks" to the
Ambassador revealed. "infiltration" of the Siete Department by the
Central Intelligence Agency New Team was
Otto F. Otepka, its top Security Evaluator.
Mr. Otepka had already "annoyed" the Cen-
tral Intelligence Agency by his "uncovering"
Team" into key positions. Among these were the activities of the Central Intelligence
Th e Offices of Security of the State Depart- Agency in using "double agents" in the War-
BANCROFT'S COVER
Because Mr. Bancroi t's liaison role at Th
New York Times required meeting with tot
CIA and State Department officials, especiall
on matters of "Perseimel", it was decide
to provide him with -cover" by designatim
him a "member" el tee newly created Stan
Department Advisory Committee on Inter-
national Organization Affairs, whose task we:
to recommend the "best qualified Americans'
for those international organization posi-
tions in which they could make important
contributions.
Although the Advisory Committee eventu-
ally prepared a "Report", which was itself
controversial in its oi _aired draft form, the
basic role of the Committee was to provide a
"cover" for the "Ncw Team," the source
revealed,
"ROADDLOG IC" OTEPKA
This required the "New Team" to pene-
trate every department and agency of the
Executive Branch dealing with foreign policy
by inserting "trusted members" of the "New
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.4pri143, 1969 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD ? HOUSE H 3155
saw "sex and spy" scandals. Subsequently,
Mr. Otepka "annoyed" Robert Kennedy and v
Dean Rusk by insisting, in December 1960,
that Walt Whitman Rostow would need a
"full field FBI investigation" before he could
be "cleared" for employment in the State De-
partment. Mr. Rostow had just completed in
December a "secret" mission in Moscow for
--- President-elect John Kennedy. The mission
was "cleared by CIA Director Allen Dulles.
Previously, Mr. Rostow had established the
CIA channels at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Harvard University professors maintained
their own CIA "black" ties with Washington
through the Institute, the former Ambas-
sador asserted.
[From the Washington (D.C.) Post, Apr. 27,
ic4.991
JOHN PATON DAVIES: THE LONG STRUGGLE
BACH
(By Michael Kernan)
If Tolstoy could have seen the John Paton
Davies family getting its picture taken, com-
plete with dog, he would have nodded sagely
and repeated himself (in the way of novel-
ists) with the comment that all happy
families are alike, and he wguld have been
wrong, wrong, wrong.
While five of the seven children, churned
around the living room of the comfortable red
brick house on Cumberland street, Davies
and his wife and her mother cheerfully ar-
ranged themselves where the photographer
wanted them.
"Tiki just got word that she's been accepted
by the Smithsonian children's theatre festival
for the summer," said Mrs. Davies. Tiki, or
Patricia, a University of Maryland student,
beamed. and, corralled a speeding small girl.
Eventually the girls simmered down, even
10-year-old Jenny, who is the violin-playing
"captain" of what her father calls the junior
varsity. Davies and his mother-in-law, Mrs.
Henry Grady, visiting from San Francisco,
chatted quietly. Mrs. Davies told about the
time Debby was arrested at the ago of 7 at
the zoo for passing out McCarthy buttons
(one would like to know more about the
arresting officer) and discussed the health of
Weinie, the longhair daschund.
"She has to have aspirin all winter because
she gets rheumatism in her paws," she said,
and the children laughed gaily, and Davkes
smiled with hooded eyes, looking?despite the
corduroy jacket and the pipe?vaguely like a
Mandarin.
This is not surprising for Davies was born
in Szechwan, western China, in 1908, and as
a veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service from
1931, the year he graduated from Columbia,
he qualifies as an "old China hand."
, It was his expertise on China and Asia that
brought him in the early 19505, into the
sights of the late Joseph R. McCarthy, the
Senator who made a career out Of innuendo
and rode to power on his claim Of "Com-
munists in Government."
In a State Department memorandum,
Davies had challenged the prevailing notion
that world Communism was an all-powerful
monolith: The "devil theory" in which the
noted psychiatrist Dr. JeroMe Frank was
later to deteet a national case of paranoia.
The possibility that li,ussia and China might
be considered separately, that Chiang Kai-
shek might not be able to clear the Com-
munists out of the Chinese mainland, was
so disturbing to McCarthy and others that
Davies became a target.
Summoned from Lima, Peru, where he had
become counselor and charge d'affaires in
1953, he went through nine security investi-
gations. None produced any evidence of dis-
loyalty, perjury or Communism. The first
eight security boards cleared him of all
charges.
The ninth, late in 1954, discovered some-
thing new, a "lack of judgment, discretion
and reliability," enabling Secretary of State
John Foster Dulles to dismiss him.
Thus he became one of the victims of the
McCarthy era, of whom there were many.
Some are still picking up the pieces of their
lives. Some have long since quit trying. A
few not only have survived but have re-
turned. This takes time, for governments do
not admit to mistakes. It also takes character.
John Paton Davies Jr. won his vindication
three months ago.
Walter Sterling Surrey, an attorney whose
firm has handled many Government loyalty
cases, cleared Davies' name by having him
apply for a consultant post (with the Arms
Control and Disarmament Agency) requiring
security checks. He got it just days before
the Johnson Administration broke up.
"Anyone who goes through one of these
cases, even if they win it," said Surrey?"you
have no idea what happens. Any little thing
becomes monstrous, something you did when
you were a kid. You stay awake thinking..
The first thing Surrey has such a client do
is write out a personal dossier recounting
everything he can possibly remember that
makes him feel guilty or that might be con-
strued. in some detrimental way.
"We have them get it all out," he said, "to
clear the air. You'd be amazed at the stuff."
Surrey noted with some irony the ingenu-
ity of an accusation that covered the very
years during which the State Department
gave Davies increasingly responsible posts in
China, Russia and Germany, culminating in
FS0-1, the top rank outside career ambas-
sador and career minister.
"He was due to become an ambassador on
his next assignment," said the lawyer. "He
was supposed to lack judgment all that time?
"Certainly he was hurt, and not only in
his career. But I never heard a word of
bitterness or anything but his usual humor
and pleasant sarcasm. And his wife?I never
heard her question his judgment. Before he
went in to Dulles he was urged to resign,
so he could have had all his retirement bene-
fits and everything, but he said they would
have to fire him or retain him. She never
questioned that decision, though it must
have meant a lot, with her father an am-
bassador. I think It meant a great deal to
her."
Both of them, said Surrey, "had the atti-
tude that it was the other people who had
the problems, and if someone wanted to snub
them, they would keep away, and if some-
one wanted to talk about the case but was
hesitant, they would bring it up themselves.
They would help him.
"A few people called me to ask if it was
okay to see him. You know. If it was safe. I
told them no. I figured he didn't need them."
It is easy to get Davies to talk about "those
days," for as he says, "I'm a very open per-
son." But the story that comes out is not,
perhaps, what one might expect:
"When I was called up from Lima, I had
an idea what it might be. I wasn't the only
one, after all. My friends were falling away
like autumn leaves. In fact, the statement
I read I had prepared beforehand in Lima."
Returning to his wife. Patricia, and their
four small children in Lima, he took stock
for a month or two, living on savings. The
son of a Baptist missionary, he had no busi-
ness background. He decided, finally, on the
advice of a friend at Sears Roebuck, to manu-
facture furniture.
Starting with mass-market items, he grad-
ually shifted to high-quality work in hard
tropical wood. With the help of his wife, who
is an interior-design consultant, he produced
furniture that won awards from the Ameri-
can Institute of Interior Designers.
"We made every mistake known to man,"
said Mrs. Davies, "plus a whole lot we in-
vented ourselves."
Eventually, State began sending him a
fraction of his pension, and life in Lima,
surrounded by cultured Americans and the
pre-Columbian art in which he took a pas-
sionate interest, was comfortable.
"Remember, I didn't feel ostracized," he
added. "We got all kinds of letters of sup-
port. And we have always taken a positive
attitude about things. Of course, it was most
unpleasant, disagreeable, no doubt about
that, but we never sat around holding our
heads."
(What Surrey described as "a terrible au-
tomobile accident that Patricia was in" be-
came in her telling the casual remark that
"I went through a windshield when I hadn't
planned to." Her husband calls that being
stoical; some would call it gallant.)
A few years ago the quality furniture mar-
ket dried up, so Davies brought his family
back to Washington to seek his vindication
and with it some $17,000 in back pay and
pension, withheld because he had refused to
sign a release form.
John Davies sat in the living room letting
the interview happen at its own pace. OIl
the walls were rubbings of steles from the
Han period. A spray of magnolia blossoms
burst from a superb early Chinese apple-
green vase. Two ancient Wei figurines graced
the mantle. Flanking the fireplace were a
pair of tall ladderback chairs that somehow
combined purity and delicacy of line with
an impression of wiry strength.
"We used black palmwood," he said, load-
ing his pipe with latakia tobacco and loung-
ing in a comfortable but light armchair.
"It's fantastically strong.
"These arms"?he stroked the smooth
curve of his chair's arm, less than half an
inch thick?"are made with four laminates.
You put it in a mold for a week, and the
glue holds it to the shape. It could have
been even thinner, but you have the prob-
lem of fitting the legs into it."
To cover the place where the dowel pene-
trated the arm, he used a silver .medallion
with a pre-Columbian Chimu design. The
effect was stunning. Across the room stood
a large coffee table with black leather jack-
eting on the ends and a lyrical Peruvian
design inlaid on the top.
"There's enormous variations in tropical
woods," he observed. "The Indians use this
for arrowheads and for bows, too."
Since his return to. Washington he has
been working daily on a new book, about
China, Russia and America, "I'm only about
a year oyer the deadline," he said drily. He
works in an office (smelling of old books and
wood-smoke) off the living room, sur-
rounded by shelves of volumes on every-
thing from archaeology to politics. There are
also paintings, rubbings and some of his own
large, curiously embossed woodcuts, made
by a process that Davies playfully refuses to
divulge.
The conversation veered around to Walter
Surrey's work in arranging his vindication.
"I won't say reversal because governments
don't reverse themselves?except in the case
of Mr. Otepka," he smiled ironically. "State
began to study it a year ago, and I thought
nothing in the world would happen."
Suddenly he was out of his seat, pacing
restlessly before the fireplace. "But dear Wal-
ter kept after them?he was the conscience
of the Government?until State finally came
up with the all clear . . . largely through
Katzenbach . . . I've been very lucky, had
an extremely able lawyer, and one with some
influence in the Government. You have to, to
get justice."
The people close to John Davies add to
the picture of what he calls his stoicism. His
father, John Davies Sr., of Alexandria, is not
only alive, at 91, but keeps so busy he is a
hard man to catch. His grandchildren think
he is cool.
"It puts iron in your blood, an experience
like that," he. said. "John grew up with Chi-
ese children and servants. Even much later,
he used to send back money to his old Chi-
nese amah [nurse]. In the early days we had
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H 3156 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD ? HOUSE
oil lamps and traveled by ricksha, had a little
garden, and if you wanted milk the cow
would be brought to your door and milked
in your presence. We were comfortable.
"John was the oldest (a brother, Donald,
lives in Washington), a studious boy, very
thoughtful. Self-contained, but he always
attracted friends. We never used physical
force on him?it was a Christian home, a
well-regulated life, and he was not easily
upset."
The frontier life gave young Davies an ap-
petite for adventure, and the first time he
created Asia on the Trans-Siberian railway,
in 1930, he werit hard class, surviving on
black bread and candy bars.
He picked up languages easily in his travels
through Mukden and other volatile spots in
the era of the Sino-Japanese war and in Mos-
cow, where he came to know George Kerman.
"I studied Russian," he said, "and I speak a
passable coolie Spanish, but Chinese is my
language."
Even Mandarin, however, was no help in
1944, when he had to bail out of a C-46 go-
ing over the Hump and landed in the jungle
among Naga headhunters.
"We came by such a miraculous way that it
was okay. If we had come in by foet they
would have taken our heads. There were five
or six of us in our group. We finally hiked
to a village and got out."
Commentator Eric Sevareid was in the
group, too. Ile broadcast a piece about it.
". . .In such circumstances men learn truly
to know one another?who is weak, who is
afraid, who is impetuous and who is strong
and calm and prudent. As the time passed the
GIs and I began to recognize the civilian with
the carefully guarded dispatch ease as one
among us With a calm and natural courage, as
one Who would never panic, who never com-
plained. He was the one we chose, for com-
mon sense and discretion, to deal with the
touchy and dangerous Naga. . . . I have
known a great number of men. . . none who
seemed More the whole man . . . in all that a
man should be?in modesty and thoughtful-
ness, in resourcefulness and steady strength
of character. . ."
Davies won the Medal of Freedom for that
incident.
It was his wife who had the most to say
about the firing and the long struggle
back. She said they never discussed it be-
tween themselves. As she talked he watched
her steadily from across the room.
"It's like standing in Rotterdam being
bombed," she said. "When you are the tar-
get, your problems are tremendously simple.
Like the Jews under the Nazis, the problem
was to survive. It's harder for the people near
you; they have the moral dilemmas about
whether they should resign, should they have
done more, things like that, all kinds of trau-
ma. It was very different for us. Maybe they
should have resigned, but for us the only
Way we could fight was by not resigning.
"But we don't dwell on all that. Our lives
are full. We live very much in the present."
[From the Washington (D.C.) Evening Star,
Apr. 27, 1969]
MRS. OTEPKA RECALLS ORDEAL
(By Vera Glaser)
Mrs. Otto F. Otepka is a quiet-spoken
school teacher who is married to one of the
most controversial figures in public life today.
Her dark hair is turning gray, but her
steely resolve has helped her husband
weather a five-and-a-half year, headline-
studded battle to keep his job as a State
Department security officer.
In an exclusive interview, her voice trem-
bling with emotion, Mrs. Otepka compared
their ordeal to "something that might have
happened in Russia or Nasi Germany. My
husband only told the truth, but we ,were
forced to act like criminals."
VINDICATION
When President Nixon recently named
Otepka to the Subversive Activities Control
Board, some hailed it as complete vindica-
tion. The nomination may run into trouble
in the Senate because, among other things
of a recent news story linking Otepka to the
ultra-right John Birch Society.
Otepka's tough security evaluations of
State employes in the early '60s ran afoul of
the late Robert Kennedy, 'then Attorney
General, and Secretary of State Dean Rusk.
Otepka was charged with passing confiden-
tial documents to a Senate subcommittee.
During that period, Mrs. Otepka recalled,
"We were harassed. Men watched our house
with binoculars. Otto was locked out of his
office. They tapped his phone and we were
afraid to use our home phone for fear that
was bugged, too. I had to go down to the
shopping center when I wanted to talk to
Otto."
Sitting in the living room of their neat-
as-a-pin home in suburban Silver Spring,
Mrs. Otepka stroked her two enormous cats,
Inky and Barney, recalling the highlights of
a case that has made her hushand the sym-
bol of the clash between "liberals" and "con-
servatives" on how the national security
should be protected within the government.
For her, "the Otepka case" began on a
summer evening in 1963 whek her husband
came home and said his superiors had lied to
the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee,
then probing State's security practices.
"Otto couldn't have lived With himself if
he hadn't given those documents to the com-
mittee," she said, describing his action as
necessary to verify his own testimony and re-
fute that of his superiors.
She learned how very serious her husband's
situation was the following September when
she switched on a radio news report to hear,
"State Department security officer charged
with passing documents to the Senate!"
"You expected them to say, 'to Russia,"
she said, noting that 13 charges were leveled
at Otepka at the time. Ten were dropped
after his superiors confessed to tapping
Otepka's phone, scrutinizing his office trash,
and committing perjury before the commit-
tee.
"Otto has never been accused of lying or
being unfair," his wife said.
The former Edith Simon, Mrs. Otepka was
born on a Maryland farm and reared as a
Christian Scientist, but now belongs to Grace
Episcopal Church. She met Otepka, a Chi-
cagoan of Czech extraction, shortly after she
began teaching in the District of Columbia
schools. He held a minor government job
while studying law at night.
THE 91ST PSALM
After their marriage, they lived modestly.
stayed out of debt, and planned for the col-
lege education of their one daughter Joanne,
now 23, in 1957 Mrs. Otepka quit teaching.
In 1965, as her husband's troubles with the
State Department dragged on, she went back
to work and they mortgaged their home.
The couple decided early that keeping busy
would help them weather the storm. He
bought a boat and took up fishing. She
studied art and did church Work.
"I kept reading the 91st Psalm," Mrs. Ot-
epka recalled, "especially the part about `His
truth shall be thy shield and buckler.' Last
summer I painted the bedrooms and bath-
room. It's healthy to be busy. I can't stand
self-pity."
Otepka spent long hours in his basement
office organizing material on his case which
fills several file cabinets. The walls are hung
with mementos and State Department cita-
tions for outstanding work, one signed by
former Secretary of State Dulles.
Mrs. Otepka maintains her husband's re-
solve never wavered but friends say they both
showed signs of strain. At times the Otepkas
seemed to wonder if it was worth-while to
April 2$,1969
give up years of potentially productive activ-
ity to pursue the fight. Once Mrs. Otepka
wrote her husband a "chin up" note which
he has saved.
Occasionally they laughed about their
troubles. "We'd say 'why watch television?
We've got our own show'," Mrs. Otepka rem-
inisced.
In February 1966, three years after he had
been charged, Otepka crossed the path of
Richard Nixon, who had not yet decided to
run for the Presidency. "Stay in there," he
told Otepka, "and some day the worm will
turn."
"It's true Otto was blocking some Ken-
nedy Administration appointments," Mrs.
Otepka said. His job was to follow the secu-
rity rules laid down by the intelligence agen-
cies. When word came back to us that Bobby
had inquired about the possibility of having
Otto charged with violation of the espionage
act, that did it. We knew then we'd fight it
out."
[From the Manchester (N.H.) Union Leader,
Apr. 24, 1969]
NEW YORK TIMES "DISCLOSURES" ARE Amos-
IMG: LEGAL DEFENSE DIALOG
(By Holmes Alexander)
WASHINGTON.?That was quite an editorial
in the N.Y. Times, April 8, titled "Otepka
and the Birchites," and it deserves some
dialogue.
N.Y. Times: "The disclosure that Otto
Otepka received $22,000 from a fund with
extreme right-wing associations should be
enough to kill his nomination to the Sub-
versive Activities Control Board."
Answer: But Otepka tells me he received
not a penny. Rather it was his attorney,
Roger Robb, now a nominee for the U.S.
Court of Appeals, who got the bundle. Even
when he made personal appearances before
libertarian groups (composed of both politi-
cal conservatives and political liberals),
Otepka refused all except his expefises.
N.Y. Times: ". . . Senators of conscience
cannot vote to confirm Mr. Otepka in a
$36,000 job where his work, if any, will be
to judge the loyalty of American citizens and
organizations."
A: Oh, come on. Otepka will be one of a
five-member board which examines only
those cases sent by the attorney General of
the United States. The "Birchites" aren't
?named in the editorial, but the head of the
Defense Fund which paid Mr. Robb is James
Stewart of Ohio. Otepka never asked Stewart
about a possible membership to the John
Birch Society, but in all the official lists of
subversive organizations which Otepka has
seen in his line of work, the JBS never ap-
peared.
N.Y. Times: ". . . Mr. Otepka's link to the
Birchites is no youthful indiscretion."
A: That's right. Otepka tells me, "I don't
belong to anything except the American
Legion and the Catholic Church."
N.Y. Times: ". . Evidently he violated no
law in accepting money from Birchite sources
to meet the legal costs of his unsuccessful
fight as the State Department's chief secu-
rity evaluator."
A: What do you mean "evidently"? I say
"evidently" the N.Y. Times is not in the pay
of a foreign government, and "evidently some
of Its editors are not bigamists. It's public
policy that poor people in the clutches of
the law are supplied with legal counsel, and
I don't suppose that the murderers of Martin
Luther King add Bob Kennedy are paying
legal fees from their own pockets.
SEGREGATE PA SMA?
If "Birchite sources" are tainted, then we
ought to segregate Birchite blood-plasma to
make sure it doesn't get into the Red Cross
blood banks. If that sort of dollars is had,
that sort of corpuscles must be worse. Not
only the Birch Society, allegedly, came to
Otepka's aid, but so did the American Civil
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CONGRESSIONAL RECORD ? HOUSE
Liberties Union which spent its members'
Money investigating anddeploring the wire-
tap used by the State Department against
Otepka. And a subcommittee of the U.S. Sen-
,ate e0Frided money and man-hours in ex-
poling the violation of Otepka's civil rights.
Are they all tainted?
N.Y. Times: "But his warped concept of
Americanism disqualifies Mr. Otepka from
sitting in judgment on subversion."
A: Well, the "warped concept" isn't de-
scribed, but there were two State Depart-
ment officials caught in lies during the Inter-
nal Security subcommittee's investigation,
and neither of them was named Otepka. He
did not, as insinuated, "spy" on his col-
leagues, but they spied on him. In obedience
to the Senate subcommittee's counsel's re-
quest, Otepka turned over objective docu-
ments which showed that some of his su-
periors were not complying with the laws.
MISSPENT DECADES?
If Otepka isn't qualified for sitting in
judgment on subversion," then he must have
misspent two decades of work as a Civil Serv-
ice investigator. He must have fooled those
superiors who gave him citations for meri-
torious achievement. He must have fooled
President Nixon who nominated him for an
Important post.
N.Y. Times: "The evidence is overwhelm-
ing that the Senate should reject this nomi-
nation,"
A: This statement is the exact opposite of
the truth, but let's defend with our lives the
right to make it.
[From the Washington (D.C.) Star,
Apr. 27, 1969]
RECOGNIZE RED CHINA, VOTERS LEAGUE
PROPOSES
The League of Women Voters of the United
States today called on the U.S. government
to "initiate" policy changes which will lead
to recognition of the Communist Chinese
government and cease opposition to its seat-
ing in the United Nations.
The league's policy position on U.S.-China
relations climaxes a three-year study by the
167,000 member organization.
In announcing the position, Mrs. Bruce B.
Benson of Amherst, Mass., national league
president, emphasized that reports from local
leagues in every part of the country "over-
whelmingly" indicated agreement that "pres-
? ent U.S. policies of isolation and contain-
ment of China are invalid."
"You can't ignore a country with 800 mil-
lion people," Mrs. Benson told a press briefing
? earlier this week. At the same time, Mrs.
Benson said she saw no conflict between pres-
ent U.S. support of the Taiwan government
. and the league's proposal it recognizes the
mainland China government.
"We liave not said what we think ought to
he, or is, or should be the government of the
Island of Taiwan," she said in answer to a
question challenging' the league's exclusion
from its policy statement of its position on
Taiwan. "Regardless of what the solution to
the Taiwan issue is, we are saying that it is
quite clear that the People's Republic of
China is the government of 'continental
China."
TUESDAY SESSION
The league's policy statement, which will
. be diseussed at the Tuesday afternoon ses-
sion ,of, its Nyeek-long National Council meet-
ing Opening tomorrow at the Mayflower
Hotel, reads' in full:
"The League of Women Voters advOcates
U.S. initiatives which would facilitate par-
ticipation by the People's Republic of China
- ill, the world community and relax tensions
;17/etwnii. the :United States and Mainland
"Fondles should be established which
Would encourage normalization of 'U.S. rela-
tions with the Chinese mainland, including
' travel, cultural exchange, and unrestricted
trade in non-strategic goods.
"The United States should withdraw its
opposition to representation of the Chinese
People's Republic in the United Nations. The
United States should move toward establish-
ing diplomatic relations with the People's
Republic of China."
The league adopted U.S.-China relations
as a major part of its foreign policy program
at its 1966 convention. Since then, members
of the 1,200 local leagues throughout the
country have been involved in extensive
study and discussion as well as conferences
with China experts from universities, gov-
ernment and the press.
Both non-league and league material was
used as background material. More than
100,000 copies of the league's 30-page book-
let, "The China Puzzle," have been sold.
/N DEPTH STUDY
The book, which is an in-depth study of
China's historical and political development
with emphasis on U.S.-China relations from
their inception with the New England clipper
trade in the 18th century, concludes:
"Reexamining attitudes or positions in-
herited from the past is never easy; reevalua-
tion of a foreign policy issue as complex and
controversial as China promises to be no
exception.
"A current complicating factor is the spill-
over of strong feelings aroused by the Viet-
nam war. Communist China's vehement at-
tacks on the United States continue to add
to the already overcharged atmosphere in
this country. Yet for any constructive con-
sideration of the China problem, emotional-
ism is out of order."
Mrs. David G. Bradley, of Durham, N.C.,
chairman of the league's Foreign Policy Com-
mittee, commenting on the China position,
declared:
"The league is now in a position to urge
changes in basic U.S. policies which have cut
this nation off from communication or co-
operation with the People's Republic. We
_want a U.S. policy designed to invite a peace-
ful response from the People's Republic,
welcoming her participation in the family of
nations."
At the Tuesday meeting, league leaders
from 50 states will discuss ways to bring
about changes in U.S. policy on the basis of
the league's China position.
MURDER AT NEW BETHEL
BAPTIST CHURCH
(Mr. RARICK asked and was given
permission to extend his remarks at this
point in the RECORD and to include extra-
neous matter.)
Mr. RARICK. Mr. Speaker, the tragic
murder of a peace officer at the Bethel
Church in Detroit provokes serious in-
quiry.
What were the armed secessionists try-
ing to conceal or who were they shielding
the officers from observing? -
The religious news edition of the
Herald of Freedom, April 18, 1969, and
clippings from the New York Times for
April 21 and the Washington Post of
April 26 point out some very interesting
information and raises the question,
When are the American people going to
cease financing violence in our country?
The material referred to follows:
[From the Herald of Freedom, Apr. 18, 1969]
CLERGY AND COURT HELP BLACK REVOLUTION
The role of clergymen in the ever-increas-
ing tempo of the Black Revolution was never
more evident than in the aftermath of a gun
battle Saturday, March 29, 1969 between
Detroit police and armed black militants.
Police were forced to storm the New Bethel
Baptist Church into which black ambushers
fled after killing one policeman and wound-
113157
ing another when they stopped to question
a dozen Negroes carrying rifles and carbines
outside the church. The church, it developed,
had been used by a black nationalist group,
the Republic of New Africa, which was wind-
ing up a four-day national convention. This
is the group which is plotting to take over
five southern states in a series of well-
planned steps, the first of which is to arm
the black communities of the North and
West. They plan to start their take-over with
Mississippi, shipping in about a million well-
armed blacks to seize the local government
by ballot. They will then move on to Ala-
bama, Louisiana, Georgia and South Caro-
lina and repeat the process.
The incident was described as follows by
the N.Y. Times:
"Reviewing the Saturday incident, Com-
missioner Spreen said that as the black na-
tionalist meeting was breaking up in the
church, the slain policeman and his partner
saw men with rifles next to the church and
stopped their scout car.
"They had not drawn their guns and were
immediately fired upon as they left their
scout car on Linwood Avenue, he said. Patrol-
man Czapski was hit five times, staggered to
the sidewalk next to the church and
collapsed.
"His partner, struck once in the leg and
twice in the back by rifle fire, Commissioner
Spreen said, managed to clamber back into
the scout car and radio for help."
The police reinforcements, who arrived in
response to the call for help, fired "at least
84 rounds into the pews, walls, pulpit and
doors of the church" and arrested 147 per-
sons. The shooting up of the church has
become a central issue in the affair with
Rev. Ralph Abernathy, successor to M. L.
King as head of the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference, being quoted as stat-
ing sanctimoneously: "There should be no
obscuring of the fact that police powers were
misused in trampling, shooting and wreak-
ing havoc in God's holy temple." It might
be suggested that the pastor responsible for
the church should have been a bit more
careful of the type persons allowed to make
use of it.
The pastor of the New Bethel Baptist
Church used by the Negro militants is Rev,
C. L. Franklin, associated with the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference. A two-hour
conference was held between Rev. Abernathy
and other clergymen, police officials and the
mayor of Detroit, Jerome P. Cavanagh. The
mayor stated that the police "conclusively
believe and know" that members of the
black nationalists' armed "Black Legion" had
fired from inside the building at entering
police officers. Rev. C. L. Franklin, however,
"defied" the police commissioner to show any
evidence that bullets had been fired from
within the church. City Councilman Nich-
olas Hood, Jr. toured the church and came
to the conclusion that the police had "over-
reacted." The fact remains that a policeman
is dead and a shot from somewhere killed
him.
The most amazing result of the shooting
was the treatment of those arrested by what
passed for a "court." All but two of the 147
arrested were freed promptly by a Negro
judge who obviously got up in the middle
of the night to do so, setting up an im-
promptu "court" in a sideroom of the police
station. When the county prosecutor at-
tempted to hang on to one of his prisoners,
the judge ordered him held in contempt of
court.
The judge is an expert on "contempt of
court" from the contempt side, that is?as
he himself was sent to Federal prison after
having been found guilty of contempt of
court when he represented the Communist
side in the trial of the top Communists in
the United States before Judge Harold
Medina who suffered almost unbelievable
harassment from the Communists and their
lawyers.
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H 3158 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD ? HOUSE
The judge in question is George William
CroOkett, Jr., judge of Detroit's Recorders
(Criminal) COurt. The N.t. Times, calling
him a "Centrovimial Judge,'' stated: "At 5:30
Sunday Morning the judge marched into
pollee headquarters in downtown Detroit and
asked for a list of the 14'7 Negroes arrested
hours earlier after a gun battle with `black
separatists in which one patrolman was
killed. He could not get it, and within an
hour . . . Crockett . . . had turned a sta-
tionhouse room into an impromptu court and
he began releasing prisoners. When the
county prosecutor ordered one man held any-
way the judge charged the prosecutor with
contempt of court.
"A few hours later he rejected the prosecu-
tor's requeet to keep eight men jailed for an-
other 24 hours despite indications that some
might have fired weapons during the battle."
Crockett was born in Jacksonville, Fla.,
fifty-nine years ago and graduated from the
University of Michigan Law school. Re worked
for the U.S. Department of Labor in an ex-
ecutive position arid then went to work for
the United Automobile Workers in Detroit.
He left the union to set up private practice
and is a partner in the law firm of Goodman,
Crockett, Robb & Philo of Detroit. He has
been married for thirty-five years to Dr.
Ethelene Jones Crockett, who received her
medical degree after the birth of their three
children: Mrs. Richard Hicks, a Los Angeles
school-teacher; George W. Crockett 3rd, a
lawyer, and Mrs. John Jones, a doctor . . no
underprivileged people in this Negro family,
The Congressional Record has contained
much information on George W. Crockett, Jr.
On Page 16039, July 22, 1964, we read:
"Recently the National Lawyers Guild (a
cited Communist-front?Ed.) sent repre-
sentatives into Mississippi to open offices
there, quite openly for the purpose of med-
dling into the problems of the State of Mis-
sissippi.
"One of those involved in this effort is
George Crockett.
"Those people are directing the agitators
in the State. Many of the people involved are
young people, but most of them are old
hands, with long Communist affiliations.
"And who is George Crockett? He is a
Nergo lawyer from Detroit, a member of the
National Lawyers Guild, and the attorney
who represented the chairman of the Mich-
igan Communist Party in the New York City
Smith Act trial. He was one of those placed
in contempt of court by Judge Medina at the
conclusion of that famous trial of Commu-
nist leaders, for his arrogant, provocative,
and flagrantly contumacious conduct during
the course of the trial.
"Crockett was accompanied, in setting up
his Mississippi headquarters for the legal de-
fense of the invaders, by Mr. Benjamin Smith
of New Orleans. This Benjamin Smith has
long been associated with the Southern Con-
ference Educational Fund, with Mr. James
Dombrowski and with Carl and Anne Braden,
whose associations and activities are well
known. (The Bradens and Dombrowski are
identified Communists?Ed.) This Benjamin
Smith, like Victor Rabinowitz, is registered
under the Foreign Agents Registration Act
as an agent of Fidel Castro."
Also in the Congressional Record, we find
the following from a statement by Sen. James
Eastland concerning "Communist Forces Be-
hind Negro Revolution in This country:"
"Let me name some of the other well-
known nonresidents of the State of Missis-
sippi who have been publicly identified with
the organization of the so-called Freedom
Democratic Party, and tell something about
them.
"One of these individuals is George Wil-
liam Crockett, Jr., a Negro, long active in the
Detroit chapter of the National Lawyers
Guild, and who has been on its advisory
board. Crocket wa,s designated as co-chairman
of a committee of lawyers who would spend
a period of 12 weeks in Mississippi after the
Guild in 1964 inaugurated a lawyers peace call
program involving the recruiting of attorneys
to devote their time for defense of individ-
uals involved in Mississippi civil rights cases.
"George William Crockett, Jr. is a partner
In the law firm of Goodman, Crockett, Robb
& 'Philo, of Detroit, Mich. He has defended
Communists in various Smith Act cases. . .
Judge Medina held in contempt of court and
sentenced him to 4 months' imprisonment on
each of nine specific contempt charges.
Crockett sought relief from a higher court,
but the U.S. Supreme Court denied his peti-
tion for certiorari, and Crockett and other
attorneys similarly sentenced in the same
proceeding served their sentences in 1952.
"In 1962 Crockett went to Mexico, where
he associated with individu,als -known as
among the more active members of the
American Communist group there. In 1964
Crockett was registered under the Foreign
Agents Registration Act as an agent of the
Cuban Communist Government of Fidel
Castro,"
In U.S. Hearings on "Communist Political
Subversion," an identified Communist took
the Fifth Amendment concerning his asso-
ciation with George W. Crockett, Jr. On
Page 6530 we read the testimony of Stanley
Nowak (accompanied by counsel, George W.
Crockett, Jr.) who had been identified as a
member of the Communist conspiracy by
Stephen J. Schemanske:
"Mr. ARENS. Mr. Nowak, do you know your
counsel in any capacity other than the ca-
pacity of attorney and client?
"Mr. NOWAK. Yes. . . .
"Mr. ARENS. Did you ever serve in the Com-
munist Party with him? (The witness con-
fers with his counsel.)
"Mr. Nowalt. First of all, this is an im-
proper question.
"Mr. ARENS. Mr. Chairman, I respectfully
suggest that the witness be ordered and di-
rected, to answer the question,
"MT: FRAZIER. YOU are directed to answer
the question.
"Mr. Nowalt. Mr. Chairman, may I again
say this is an improper question and that is
why I refuse to answer improper questions on
the grounds of the fifth amendment."
In the index of the appendix to these hear-
ings, which is practically a '"Who's Who" of
members of the American Communist Party,
George W. Crockett, Jr. is listed as appearing
on thirteen separate pages. On page 7102 is an
article concerning Crockett appearing in the
Lamp (publication of the American Com-
mittee for Protection of the Foreign Born?a
cited Communist-front) : "Crockett Joins
Legal Defense in the Case of Claudia Jones":
"George W. Crockett, Jr., noted Negro at-
torney of Detroit, has joined Carol King
(identified Communist-Ed.), general coun-
sel of the ACPVB, in serving as co-counsel in
the case of Claudia Jones. Crockett, one
of the defense attorneys in the trial of the
11 leaders of the Communist Party, is a grad-
uate of the University of Michigan. In 1939,
he served in Washington with the Depart-
ment of Labor and later with the President's
Committee on Fair Employment Practices. In
1944 he founded the CIO Auto Workers Fair
Employment Practices Committee and served
as its executive director for two years. Since
1948, he has served as local counsel for the
ACPFB in Detroit. Claudia Jones, 35, a native
of the British West Indies, is secretary of the
Women's Committee of the Communist
Party."
On page 7117 of the Hearings on Commu-
nist Political Subversion is another item
concerning Crockett appearing in the Lamp
(under "Organizational Activities") :
"The Hungarian American Defense Com-
mittee has translated and published in
pamphlet form the ACPFB folder, 'The
Rights of Foreign Born Americans,' by
George W. Crockett, Jr., of Detroit."
On page 7119 was another mention of
April 28, 1949
Crockett in the Lamp; on page '7157 was a
summary of proceedings of a conference held
October 27, 1951, at Ford Local 600 Audi-
torium, under auspices of Michigan Commit-
tee for Protection of Foreign Born, and De-
troit Chapter, National Women's Appeal for
the Rights of Foreign Born Americans, in
which we read:
"George W. Crockett, Jr., noted Detroit at-
torney, reviewed the history of the fight for
bail and pointed to the victory won locally
when the Federal Courts agreed to accept
bail money from the Civil Rights Bail Fund
when the Immigration Dept. tried to cancel
bail. He called for a struggle by all to defend
the rights of the American people."
On page 7222 is a summary of the proceed-
ings of the Michigan Conference To Repeal
the Walter-McCarran Law and Defend the
Rights of Foreign-Born Americans, held in
the Hotel Taller, (Detroit) , Sunday, Novem-
ber 22, 1953, which read in part:
"The morning session, chaired by Mrs. Mar-
garett Nowalk, heard a report on the work
and accomplishments of the Michigan Com-
mittee for Protection of Foreign Born, by the
Executive Secretary, Mr. Saul Grossman. At-
torney George Crockett gave a comprehensive
analysis of some of the current legal prob-
lems facing those under attack by the Wal-
ter-McCarran Law."
On page 7640 was Exhibit No. 312A, a press
release of the Michigan Committee for Pro-
tection of Foreign Born, 920 Charlevoix
Building, Detroit 26, Michigan, Saul Gross-
man, Executive Secretary, concerning the
above conference. Referring to Crockett:
"Speakers at the Conference included
George W. Crockett, Jr? who is defending
many of the 68 local victims of the Walter-
McGarran Law; Saul Grossman, Executive
Secretary of the Michigan Committee for
Protection of Foreign Born, sponsors of the
Conference; and Carl Marzani, author and
film producer, who received a standing ova-
tion at the end of his fighting speech which
hailed the tremendous scope of the anti-
McCarthy movement."
On page 7672 was a Special Bulletin of the
Michigan Committee for Protection of For-
eign Born, 142 Griswold Street, Detroit 26,
Michigan, announcing, among other things,
"New Folders: We have just received 5,000
copies of George Crockett's excellent new
booklet: 'Rights of Foreign Born Ameri-
cans.'" Page 7691 contains Exhibit No.
331A, an invitation to a "Gala Banquet
Saturday" from the Michigan Committee for
Protection of Foreign Born, stating:
"Honor the 21 who refused to sign the
fascist-like bail conditions demanded by the
Justice Department! Valiant fighter for the
rights of the people, Stanley Nowak, facing
loss of his citizenship!
"Hear noted speakers: Prof. John F. Shep-
ard, nationally-known educator and psychol-
ogist; and George W. Crockett, Jr., leading
i civil rights attorney....
1 "Bring your families and friends! Satur-
1day, April 25, 7:00 p.m., Jewish Cultural Can-
!ter, 2705 Joy Road...."
, On page 7692 was a letter concerning the
)banquet, mentioning the fact that Crockett
was to be a speaker and stating that at the
banquet a drive was being launched to raise
ie necessary funds to continue with the
ht against the Walter-McCarran Law;
"Obviously, this fight against the Walter-
1VIcCarran Law is the responsibility of every
American and needs the support of all. Thou-
sands of dollars are needed every month,
juslk for defense activities."
Page 7709 lists a "Partial List of Confer-
ence Sponsors" of the Michigan Conference
to Repeal the Walter-McCarran Law and
Defend the Rights of Foreign Born Ameri-
cans. In the list is the name of George W.
Crockett, Jr. along with the usual quota of
clergy; Rev. Paul J. Allured, Rev. Charles A.
Hill, Rev. Henry Lewis, Rev. C. M. Metcalf,
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