BUREACRACY AND FREEDOM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP74-00297R000301040070-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 7, 2013
• Sequence Number: 70
• Publication Date: June 27, 1952
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part- Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/08/07: CIA-RDP74-00297R000301040070-0
Bureacracy I
Arid,Freedom
By Marquis Childs
Case Of Lattimore
FROM THE arbitrary power Weigr Hines Page School of
of the bureaucrat to the knock International Relations at Johns
on the 'door at midnight .by the Hopkins University in Baiti-
secret police is a shorter dis- more, he .is an expert on the
tance than We have been leci1Far East, specializing% in Mon-
to believe. Furthermore, there golia, Sinkiang and other little-
are steps along this way which known parts of Asia. Everything
I, ?
once taken are hard to retrace.
It is a sign of danger when
the bureaucrat entrenches him-
self behind powers ' which are
f not subject to appeal. His natu-
ral tendency is to try to ,enlarge
What he calls administrative law.
Thus he is shielded from the
right of appeal and judicial
{ review.
In the newest development
In the case of Prof. Owen Lat-
timore we 'are seeing how arbi-
trary this power. can be. Lat-
' timore has never been charged
with any crime. He has repeat-
edly under ,oath before ? at least
two congressional committees
< denied the accusations, made
with the privilege of immunity
; on the Senate floor, of being a
Communist agent or 'a pro-Com-
munist.
Yet the bureaucracy in the
State Department oh the basis
of a wholly unevaluated report
put his name on a passport
,"watch list" to prevent his leav-
ing the country. This report,
; gathered by the Central In-
telligence Agency, has now been
established by the thorough,re-
, porting of Alfred Friendly of
The Washington Post to have
been wholly without foundation.
The CIA is, incidentally, re-
quired by law to leave internal
security to the FBI, which has
sole responsibility.
Supposedly, the action against
Lattimore was a routine 'one
taken on a fairly low level. But
since his name has been 'so much
in the news, word of, the action
was bouhd to leak. Jn this fash-
ion, serious harm has been done
to a private citizen already sub-
jected to a prolonged trial and
Senate inquisition.
6-44
AT TIMES Lattimore has
seemed to be the victim of a
plan calculated to bring about
his destruction. Director of the ,
he has written has been.combed
over by the McCarran Commit-
tee in an effort to show a bias
motivated by pro-CommUnism.
Nowt ?Lattirnore's views may
have been muddled, woolly,
naive. Or they may have been
souhd. That, is a matter of
opinion. But nothing has ever
been turned up to show that he
was motivated by anything other
than honest conviction based on
fact plus the inevitable -con-
comitant of prejudices in each
human mind.
If Lattimore ctn be destroyed
for one set of views, then at an-
other time and in another politi-
tical clitnate, those who hold
quite different views can be
brought down for what they
believe. This weakensconsider-
ably the "Core of individual free-
dom, an, ideal despised, scorned,
stamped out under Communist
totalitarianism, which holds that
any means is histified to the eng.
of the theoretically perfect state.
UNFORTUNATELY, among
us are some who seem to have
accepted the same doctrine. Ex-
Communists have carried over
Into anti-Communism their con-
spiratorial technique , with its
disregard for the individual. ,
It is, abovg all, the fate of the
individual?thegoul Of the in-
dividual and its sanctity?that
is directly at stake. Unlesi we'
overcome our fears 'and sus-
picions and divisions to under-
stand this, we shall destroy the
heritage that is central to the
Jiidat-o - Greek -'Christian tradi-
tion. ? ?
While this dwarfs eVery other
consideration, there is another
aspect to this latest development
in, the Lattimore case. When
the matter of, the passport
"watch list" came to light, Pro-
fessor Lattimore, in fienying.he
contemplated any trip t said that
he a considered ar?lo.freriol
gp tof the UniversitP 'of New
4
Delhi in India. to 'lecture ,there
for a ,year. That offer came ,a
year age, prompted, it is under-
stood, 'by Prime Minister Nehru,
who.has a high regard ftir Latti-
More's knowledge. r .
Recently, tentative overtures
were mpde to Nehru, suggesting
thaehe, along with other Asian
neutrals, might be Willing ? to
arbitrate the prisoner, repatria-
tion on which the Korean truce
negotiations have been stuck.
There have been hints from New
Delhi that the Indian Prime
Minister might ,be willing to
undertake such an assignment,
'1 This latest demonstration of the
United States' ? panicky fears,
its arbitrary action against.', a
scholar, is not likely ;to induce
Nehru to attempt such a difficult
arbitration. ? -
One of the good reasons for
the President's veto of the Mc-
Carran-Walter immigratien bill
was that it gave more arbitrary
power to the bureaucrats by ex-
panding the field of administra-
tive law both in the Justice and
State Departments: "Down that
steep course is the end of in-
dividual freedom.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/08/07 : CIA-RDP74-00297R000301040070-0