SUMMARY OF REMARKS BY MR. ALLEN W. DULLES AT THE NATIONAL ALUMNI CONFERENCE OF THE GRADUATE COUNCIL OF PRINCETON UNIVERSITY HOT SPRINGS, VA., ON BRAIN WARFARE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80R01731R001700030015-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 13
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 6, 2003
• Sequence Number: 15
• Publication Date: April 10, 1953
• Content Type: SPEECH

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SUM ARY OF RENiAEK.O BY MR. AI;LEiv W. I?LTI L ES
AT THE NATIONAL ALUMNI CONFERENCE OF TT)
GRAZ.UATE COUNCIL OF PRITICETON UNTVLTtSITY
HOT SPRINGS, VA., APRIL 10, 1953
In the east few years we have become accustomed to hearing mien
about the battle for men's minds -- the war of ideologies -- and inch ed
government has been driven by the internaticnal tension we call t'~ ?ro_.d
war" to take positive steps to recognize psychological w_.rfare urd. to plu',.
an active role in it. I wonder, however, whether we ci.a-Arty perceive 4nt
full magnitude of the probler, w.lether we realize how sinister the battli
for men's minds has beeo:.e in Soviet hands. We might call it, in its ne*.;
fonuu, "brain warfare".
The target of this wa::fe.r` is the minds of men both on a co]-iecti,
and on an individual basis. Its aim is to condition the hind su that it., Zc
longer reacts on a free will or rational basis but respond: to impt?_.s..s
implanted from outside. Ii' we are to counter this kind of warfaic we i;nt :t
understand the techniques the ; >viet is adopting to control bean's ::11nds
'there is an old dEt c: that "everyone is crazy but r;ie ,an4 tre;r. and
sometimes I suspect then". Thera: is more truth than we realize to this
The human mind is the most delicate of all instants. It is se? 'ine_iy
adjusted, ss susceptible to the impact of outside influences that it, is
proving a malleable tc:lcl in the hands of sinister r.een. The Fov:ict3 aru ow
using brain perversion techniquu:h
broadcasting. Even here the Communists are trying to draw the curtal
R->wer?'ul jamming equipment has been installed at strategic points in ,,rde' t~)
produce electronic interference and eliminate the reception of foreiar; ra i _
messages. These measures, so far, are only partially successful. To
rei=lr' ._ .?e
these the sale of radios capable of picking up foreign broadcasts is b inn
curbed. In their place, public loud-speakers controlled from Moscow r.re 1,-
installed in the public squares of towns and villages in the Soviet ?.1k ion..
In this way mass indoctrination can take the place of inilivlduaJ cthoi+r. it
radio reception.
Except for official- use, foreign publications have boon almost wholle
eliminated from the Soviet Union. For a long period, the -fficial pubi.ics-
tion "Amerika" was tolerated on the theory that its circulation was so Li?ritfs3
that it did no harm. TLat has now been stopped. Of coarse nothing is
published in the Soviet Union that is not Government approved.
If, by chance, Soviet artists, scientists, doctors, Cr techniciris
deviate from the official line they are quickly forced to recant or at.,
purged. To be differ girt is a crime. These days it seems a bit danger-)us >v:1
to be a doctor in the S_.v-et Union.
Racial minority groups within the Soviet which once enjoyed the-`r
own individual cultures have been largely eliminated by uass purges or rorcr-M
migrations to "safe" areas. The persecution of the Jews and their nr. beck- _ r
elimination was one of the latest evidences of this phase of the Soviet
campaign.
Religion has been made a State affair. Belief in God has been tie
hardest deviation which the Soviet leveling machine has had to face and this
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has not yet been wholly solved. It is most certainly on their books a t-
final. obstacle to the complete realization of their ideal of the Boish(vis-
State, but neither Lenin nor Stalin has yet been accepted as a s'ibstitte
God by the Russian people.
The program of isolation which has been followed in the Soviet. "nice
with ever increasing intensity since the Revolution of 1917 has approa."hed
its climax during the 14st few years. Within the heartland of Russia, this
program has been carried to near completion.
In the European satellites, the progress has been s'_otirer, differing
from State to State depending upon the length and completeness of Sovi.A
domination, and on the time and attention that the master minds in Moscow
have been able to give to this particular task. In these States, with
centuries of Christian tradition behind them, the leveling task will take
some time -- but is being ruthlessly pressed forward.
All of these facts are well known to us -- it is only when we ,:ut ._~>zt
together and see their cumulative effect that we can appreciate their full.,
meaning. We have, none of us, ever been subjected to conditions wherk. yei '
by year we have been told one thing, read one thing and allowed to t_h.nk on.
thing. It is otherwise in the Soviet Union. There thought is presc:?:bed.
No alternative is offered.
In our own daily lives, by contrast, we are given choices. We can
make up our minds as between possible alternatives. It is hard for to
conceive how our own minds would operate if, say for the last twenty rears,
we had been given only one choice and heard only one message. I can )nly sure
you of my firm belief that few of us would have withstood such trc atr :nt ?x,d
kept an open mind.
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During the past few years, in particular, the people of the Soviet
Union and of the Satellites have been given one theme song abo3.t the Tes e:
democracies and especially the United States, namely, that we uy?e tl ern
F
of the Soviet people, that we are plotting their downfall and ELttemp-t -ng
their encirclerent. We are portrayed as the protagonists of atomic
nd
bacteriological warfare., and our government is said to be d.or.!iziated t::r tY
magnates of Wall Street -- the oppressors of the working man. It is
most vicious campaign of hatred that any country has ever attoripted
another. It is a campaign intended to condition the hinds of the Ru 3iar
people so that their leaders could embark on any type of aggressive ia.:.tici
against the free world. Unfortunately, it is a campaign that is nal . ng
steady progress under conditions whore no dissenting voice is c _i.lowe to
interrupt the hate tirade, even though the crescendo may be toric:d do r d3.-
`peace offensives".
The second phase of the brain-conditioning program of the Sev> :t if-
directed against the individual, case by case. Here they take select ,d Levi r
beings whom they wish to destroy and turn them into 11.1u siblc ec nf?essor of
crimes they never coxmrItted or make them the mouthpiece for Soviet p 4pa(-nn.IE .
Here new techniques was1 the brain clean of the thoughts and mental a~oc f >
of the past and, possibly through the use of some "lie serum", create nob
brain. processes and new thoughts which the victim, parrot like, repea'..s.
The development of those now techniques has been under vay in Soviet Union for a long time. We first had some inkling of what thee,-'f were
doing during the notE,riou-,.s purge trials of the late 1930's. Then we >aw
hardened old Bolsheviks, veterans of many revolutions, who became liks dcel.i,
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children in the hands of the Soviet prosecutor, Vishiiisky. Wit r adacr i.ty
and seeming enthusiasm they confessed to all manner of extraordinary cr'im
against the Soviet State and hastened to invite the death ;,enteiic .
1-,)w
these confessions were truth and how far they were fiction remains t
.y t-
mystery; but certainly the men who made these confessions had brie tip o zgi_
a mental metaanorphosis when they appeared before the State prosecutor
Maybe the techniques of those days were crude, but they surrk,;d we:i..-
the bosses of the Krenlin and. denonstrated beyond any dot,%t t dac ,nyga-e
the Kremlin rulers d,-c:id,.d to destroy and had put th:croughi the ra,..cessa y P
of indoctrination would state just about what these i.rerLlin r,.~i s's wa=red
him to say. And a toupher, more case-hardened group of m ,n prObabiY, level
appeared. before the bar of "justice".
After the war, Soviet science and ingenuity made rapid ctrideb in
study of mental reactions s,nd in the nefarious art of breaking don t ie
human mind. Possibly the case that most startled the West was that rvo. '.
the confession of Cardinal. Mindszenty, in Hungary. Here a man of pi% veen
courage and outstanding Intellect was brought to a point '*i' pulb.iicly con-
fessing actions which those, who knew this outstandin character cols- rlo"
possibly have attributed to him. More recently, in CzeetIcslovaiaia, :C= haw;
had the trial of Slansky, Ciementis and their associates w1no had fat,-gi=n
disfavor with Moscow. H re, again, we had hardened prod;.tcts of tip ;opt A :;s J
system. The only trouble with Slarisky & Co. was that M{-)scow wanee:d:oora c:
else to have their jobs so they up and confessed to those erizies an wit-
demeanors against the Communist State which would assure their r._:ruok -i1
the scene .
There is one interesting feature about this type of trial it is
length of time between arrest and confession. It is rarely less thin s.",
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months. This is not because "Communist ,justice" cannot move with rah i dit
when it wants to. In fact, few things can be more rapid. I3ut, in ca: ? s
detailed confessions in open court are desired, there must be a cvnskt_rai
period .-- probably a mini.muri of around three months -- to properly ir1c'oct-?` oc.e
the intended victims. Mere written confessions could be much more all- ckl.,
extracted by torture..
What does this indoctrination consist of?
We, in the West, are somewhat handicapp ;d in getting all the - tail ;,
There are few survivo 2s, and we have no human guinea pies, ourselves, on
which to try a~.rt these extraordinary tech.nique:s. The Soviets hLVe the- it
political prisoners, their slave car.ip inmates and finally, and >ir.ost tt? gic
of all, our own countrymen whom they hold as prisonor;.
We now have, h;-wcvcr, some evidence on which to bass.: a . tdezr;_irt
A few have escaped from the -ordeal of brain-washing to tell_ t 0nir stor r. t rE
of the first was Michael Shipkcv, a young Bulgarian