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OLLEGE
IBRARY
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us Doc 2.791
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Committee on Un-American Activities
House
87th Congress
Table of Contents
1. Testimony By suad Concerning Paul Corbin ^\Zi
2, The Communist Party's Cold War Against
Congressional Investigation of Subversion 5 ^^
5. Communist and Trotskyist Activity Within ^,^^
the Greater Los Angeles Chapter of the
Fair Play for Cuba Committee
if-5. Communist Outlets for the Distribution of ^t^>
Soviet Propaganda in the United States.
pt.1-2
6. Commxmist Youth Activities ^\i.b
7-8. U.S. Commimist Party Assistance to Foreign :^^z^
Communist Governments, pt.1-2 ^, ->
9. Communist Activities in the Peace Movement "^
^ ^'
THE COMMUNIST PARTY'S COLD WAR
AGAINST CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATION
OF SUBVERSION
REPORT
AND
TESTIMONY OF ROBERT CARRILLO RONSTADT
COMMITTEE ON UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
EIGHTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
OCTOBER 10, 1962
(Including Index)
luavi.to c»iit'ifc LiE"'.!;^
G>.f.«;TE» BY ni
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
86233" WASHINGTON : 1962
COMMITTEE ON UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES
United States House of Representatives
FRANCIS E. WALTER, Pennsylvania, Chairman
MORGAN M. MOULDER, Missouri GORDON H. SCHERER, Ohio
CLYDE DOYLE, California AUGUST E. JOHANSEN, Michigan
EDWIN E. WILLIS, Louisiana DONALD C. BRUCE, Indiana
WILLIAM M. TUCK, Virginia HENRY O. SOnADEBERO, Wiscoiisin
Feancis J. McNamara, Director
Frank S. Tavenner, Jr., General Counsel
Alfred M. Nittle, Counsel
n
CONTENTS
Page
Int roduction 1467
The Communist Party's View of Congressional Investigating Committees
and of Anti-Communism 1469
The Party's Abolition Fronts 1472
The Last Two Years 1478
Support Operations 1479
"Mr. Abolition" 1484
Testimony of Robert Carrillo Ronstadt, April 25, 1962 1494
Appendix 1512
Index i
(This is the first of a series of reports based, in whole or in part, on executive hearings lield by the com-
mittee in Los Angeles April 25-27, 1962. The other reports will be published in the near future.)
nx
Public Law 601, 79th Congress
The legislation under which the House Committee on Un-American
Activities operates is PubUc Law 601, 79th Congress [1946]; 60 Stat.
812, which provides:
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States
of America in Congress assembled, * * *
PART 2— RULES OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Rule X
SEC. 121. STANDING COMMITTEES
*******
17. Committee on Un-American Activities, to consist of nine Members.
Rule XI
POWERS AND DUTIES OF COMMITTEES
*******
(q)(l) Committee on Un-American Activities.
(A) Un-American activities.
(2) The Committee on Un-American Activities, as a whole or by subcommit-
tee, is authorized to make from time to time investigations of (i) the extent,
character, and objects of un-American propaganda activities in the United States,
(ii) tlie diffusion within the United States of subversive and un-American propa-
ganda that is instigated from foreign countries or of a domestic origin and attacks
the principle of the form of government as guaranteed by our Constitution, and
(iii) all other questions in relation thereto that would aid Congress in any necessary
remedial legislation.
The Committee on Un-American Activities shall report to the House (or to the
Clerk of the House if the House is not in session) the results of any such investi-
gation, together with such recommendations as it deems advisable.
For the purpose of any such investigation, the Committee on Un-American
Activities, or any subcommittee thereof, is authorized to sit and act at such
times and places within the United States, whether or not the House is sitting,
has recessed, or has adjourned, to hold such hearings, to require the attendance
of such witnesses and the production of such books, papers, and documents, and
to take such testimony, as it deems necessary. Subpenas may be issued under
the signature of the chairman of the committee or any subcommittee, or by any
member designated by any such chairman, and may be served by any person
designated by an;^' such chairman or member.
Rule XII
LEGISLATIVE OVERSIGHT BY STANDING COMMITTEES
Sec. 136. To assist the Congress in appraising the administration of the laws
and in developing such amendments or related legislation as it may deem neces-
sary, each standing committee of the Senate and the House of Representatives
shall exercise continuous watchfulness of the execution by the administrative
agencies concerned of any laws, the subject matter of which is within the jurisdic-
tion of such committee; and, for that purpose, shall study all pertinent reports
and data submitted to the Congress by the agencies in the executive branch of
the Government.
RULES ADOPTED BY THE 87TH CONGRESS
House Resolution 8, January 3, 1961
)|c ){( sf: :f: ^f: ifc ii<
Rule X
STANDING COMMITTEES
1. There shall be elected by the House, at the commencement of each Congress,
(r) Committee on Un-American Activities, to consist of nine Members.
Rule XI
POWERS AND DUTIES OF COMMITTEES
*******
18. Committee on Un-American Activities.
(a) Un-American activities.
(b) The Committee on Un-American Activities, as a whole or by subcommittee,
is authorized to make from time to time investigations of (1) the extent, char-
acter, and objects of un-American propaganda activities in the United States,
(2) the diffusion within the United States of subversive and un-American prop-
aganda that is instigated from foreign countries or of a domestic origin and
attacks the principle of the form of government as guaranteed by our Constitu-
tion, and (3) all other questions in relation thereto that would aid Congress in
any necessary remedial legislation.
The Committee on Un-American Activities shall report to the House (or to the
Clerk of the House if the House is not in session) the results of any such investi-
gation, together with such recommendations as it deems advisable.
For the purpose of any such investigation, the Committee on Un-American
Activities, or any subcommittee thereof, is authorized to sit and act at such times
and places within the United States, whether or not the House is sitting, has
recessed, or has adjourned, to hold such hearings, to require the attendance
of such witnesses and the production of such books, papers, and documents, and
to take such testimony, as it deems necessary. Subpenas may be issued under
the signature of the chairman of the committee or any subcommittee, or by any
member designated by any such chairman, and may be served by any person
designated by any such chairman or member.
:f: }(£ :Je :{: * * *
27. To assist the House in appraising the administration of the laws and in
developing such amendments or related legislation as it may deem necessary,
each standing committee of the House shall e.xercise continuous watchfulness
of the execution by the administrative agencies concerned of any laws, the subject
matter of which is within the jurisdiction of such committee; and, for that purpose,
shall study all pertinent reports and data submitted to the House by the agencies
in the executive branch of the Government.
VII
THE COMMUNIST PARTY'S COLD WAR AGAINST CONGRES-
SIONAL INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION
REPORT
AND
TESTIMONY OF ROBERT CARRILLO RONSTADT
INTRODUCTION
Before the bank can be robbed, the guards must be disposed of.
Before subversive forces within this country can achieve their goal,
the country's internal security instruments and agencies must be
destroj^ed or rendered powerless.
Laws against subversion, the agencies charged with formulating
such laws, and those charged with investigating violations of them are
integral parts of this country's internal security guard, a guard which
the Communists must destroy before their objective of imposing a
Soviet-style dictatorship on this country can be attained.
It is only logical, therefore, that the tl.S. Communist Party should
do everything in its power to discredit, weaken, and destroy —
(a) the security laws, regulations, and programs of this
country;
(6) congressional committees created to investigate subversive
activities for the purpose of formulating legislation designed
to frustrate its efforts; and
(c) The FBI and State and local police subversive squads which
have the special mission of obtaining evidence of Communist
lawbreaking.
Because the Communist Party knows that, operating under its own
name, it cannot win the support of the overwhelming majority of
Americans for these or any of its objectives, it uses fronts — false
faces — to promote its aims in this as well as in other areas. The fronts,
in turn, use false words to present to the American people a concept,
idea, or picture that is the opposite of the truth.
Thus, for example, the names of the fronts will indicate, and their
propaganda will assert, that they promote and defend civil liberties,
fundamental rights, and the Constitution. Behind this camouflage,
however, their immediate aim is the destruction of a certain agency or
law designed to protect American liberties, rights, and the Constitu-
tion— and their ultimate aim is the imposition of a tyranny which
would tear the Constitution to shreds and strip the American people
of every liberty and right that flows from observance of it. The
party's fronts use lip service to the principles this Government was
created to establish and preserve in order to destroy this Government
and those principles.
1467
86233°— 62 2
1468 COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION
A typical Communist operation of this type was revealed in hearings
held by this committee last year.^ In this case, a concerted, world-
wide Communist campaign to nulhfy the Internal Security Act of
1950, one of this country's major anti-subversive laws, was (as it still
is) being spearheaded by a U.S. Communist front called the Citizens
Committee for Constitutional Liberties. The real aim of this group
was — and still is — the very opposite of that expressed in its title.
This report is designed to bring up to date, for the benefit of the
Congress and the American people, developments on another front in
the Communists' "cold war" against the United States Government.
It deals primarily with the party's efforts to bring to a halt all con-
gressional efforts to investigate subversion, with special emphasis on
its greatly stepped-up drive to have this committee abolished.
Publication of this report, without doubt, will provoke repetition
of the now hoary charge that the committee attempts to link all its
opponents with the Communist Party, stating or implying that they
are Communists, fellow travelers, or dupes of the party. This is
not true. The committee makes no such charge or implication for
the simple reason that this is not the case.
It is an unquestioned fact, however, that the Communist Party
actively solicits, welcomes, and does everything possible to capitalize
on, non-Communist opposition to the committee. It does this regard-
less of the nature of the persons or groups expressing opposition, their
motive in doing so, and their attitude toward the party. For the
committee to recognize what is patently beneficial to the Communist
Party is not the same as to imply that all who take any action helpful
to it, for whatever reason, are its witting or unwitting agents.
It is also an unc^uestioned fact — as this report makes clear — that
abolition of this conunittee is a top priority goal of the Communist
Party, its sympathizers, and supporters.
Abolition of the committee would no doubt bring unmense satis-
faction to certain non-Communist, self-proclaimed defenders of the
Constitution and the "civil liberties" of the American people. It
cannot be denied, however, that it would also be a strategic victory
of the first magnitude for the U.S. Communist Party and its ICi-emlin
manipulators.
Francis E. Walter, Chairman.
1 See "Manipulation of Public Opinion by Organizations Under Concealed Control of the Communist
Tarty," Committee on Un-American Activities (House Report No. 1282, Parts 1 and 2, 87th Congress).
THE COMMUNIST PARTY'S VIEW OF CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATING
COMMITTEES AND OF ANTI-COMMUNISM
The main political resolution adopted by the Communist Party of
the United States at its 17th National Convention in New York City
in December 1959 included the following as one of its major planks:
Abolish the witchhunting House Un-American Activities
Committee and the Senate Internal Security Committee.
These objectives by no means reflected new party policy, but rather
served to reaffirm and emphasize long-standing Communist goals
which had been expressed on numerous occasions through the years.
The provision was also adopted for the purpose of stimulating a well-
organized and continuing Communist campaign that had already
been under way for more than 2 years to fulfill the party's objectives
of having the Committee on Un-American Activities and the Senate
Internal Security Subcommittee abolished and the Federal Bureau of
Investigation greatly reduced in effectiveness.
Communists and Anti-Communism
A militant drive against anti-communism in all forms, including
the party's campaign to abolish this committee, is in keeping with the
current openly proclaimed strategy of the world Communist con-
spiracy. It is based on the knowledge Communists have always
had that they must smash anti-communism if they are to achieve
their final goal.
In the fall of 1960, representatives from most of the world's 87
Communist parties met in Moscow for a period of weeks to analyze the
world situation from their viewpoint and to outline the strategy and
tactics they believed would best serve the most rapid achievement of
their goal of world conquest in the years immediately ahead. On
December 5, 1960, 81^ of these Communist parties issued a 20,000-
word doctrinal and strategy statement which said, in part —
conditions are particularly favorable for expanding the in-
fluence of the Communist Parties, vigorously exposing anti-
communism, a slogan under which the capitalist class wages
its struggle against the proletariat, and winning the broadest
sections of the working masses for Communist ideas.
Anti-communism arose at the dawn of the working-class
movement as the principal ideological weapon of the capitalist
class in its struggle against the proletariat and Marxist ide-
ology. As the class struggle grew in intensity, particularly
with the formation of the world socialist system, anti-com-
munism became more vicious and refined. Anti-communism,
which is indicative of a deep ideological crisis in and extreme
* Representatives of the U.S. Communist Party were In attendance at this gathering but, for tactical
and propaganda reasons, they, lilce some of the other representatives present, did not sign the statement.
1469
1470 COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION
decline of bourgeois ideology, resorts to monstrous distortions
of Marxist doctrine and crude slander against the socialist
social system, presents Communist policies and objectives in
a false light, and carries on a witchhunt against the demo-
cratic peaceful forces and organizations.
To effectively defend the interests of the working people,
maintain peace and realize the socialist ideals of the working
class, it is indispensable to wage a resolute struggle against anti-
communism — that poisoned weapon which the bourgeoisie
uses to fence off the masses from socialism. [Emphasis added.l
This statement was quite obviously intended as a signal for Commu-
nists everywhere to step up their drive against anti-Communist
activity of all kinds, both public and private.
On January 6, 1961, just a month after the adoption of the 81-party
statement in Moscow, Soviet dictator Nikita Klirushchev made a
major address in which he summarized and analyzed the principal
doctrines set forth in the 81-party statement. The text of this ad-
dress was published in international Communist organs, in numerous
languages, so that his message would be conveyed to the party faithful
in all parts of the globe. In this speech, Ivhrushchev made the follow-
ing statement :
Comrades, the greater the successes of the socialist system,
the greater becomes the international army of Communists,
and the more the bourgeoisie rages. In its rage it resorts to
fascist methods of government and to other forms of tyranni-
cal rule. It musters all its means of propaganda in an at-
tempt to whitewash the capitalist system, to besmu'ch social-
ism and our communist ideas. Bourgeois propaganda is be-
coming more insidious and subtle. It is using anti-commun-
ism as its principal weapon in the struggle against the socialist
camp and the Communist parties. We must vigorously expose
this anti-scientific ideology * * *. [Emphasis added.]
On January 20, 1961, Gus Hall, general secretary of the Communist
Party of the U.S., made a report to a meeting of the party's National
Committee in New York City. This report was primarily an analysis
and interpretation, for the party faithful in the United States, of the
81-party statement and KJirushchev's January 6 address. To empha-
size the importance the party attached to it, the full text of it was
subsequently published both as an article in the party organ Political
Affairs and as a separate pamphlet entitled. The United States in Today's
World. In this report, after complaining about the effectiveness of
the Smith Act, the Internal Security Act, and "anti-communism
generally," Hall said:
Spearheading the attack [of anti-communism] are the
un-American Activities Conunittee and its Senate counter-
part, the Internal Security Committee, both of which wage
an increasing assault on the liberties of Communists and all
other Americans. Both are monstrosities which must be
abolished.
The official policy statement issued by the U.S. Communist Party
for May Day, 1961, also placed much emphasis on the need for fight-
ing an ti -communism.
COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION 1471
It is significant that this 1961 May Day statement of the Commu-
nist Party's National Committee and Gus Hall's January 20, 1961,
report to the National Committee stressed abohtion of the Committee
on Un-American Activities as the No. 1 task of the Communists inso-
far as U.S. internal afl'airs were concerned. All tasks assigned to
party members in the above statements as being of greater importance
than the abohtion of the committee involved questions of U.S. foreign
policy relative to the Soviet Union and called for its alteration in such
manner as to serve Soviet interests.
Early Party Demands
The history of the Communist Party's struggle to discredit and
abolish congressional investigations into its affairs dates back to the
earliest days of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities
(Dies Committee), forerunner of this committee. The following is
by no means a complete list of party statements on this subject, but
it is sufficient to demonstrate that abolition of such committees has
always been a party aim and one that the party has never lost sight of.
The September 1938 edition of The Communist, official Communist
Party magazine of that day, denounced the Dies Committee which,
it said, was set "to launch a smearing expedition, branding all oppo-
nents of reaction as 'Reds' * * *."
In a pamphlet published in 1943 under the title The People and the
Congress, Communist Party National Chahman William Z. Foster
charged the Dies Committee with carrying on "subversive activities"
and called upon the American people to demand its "liquidation."
The Rankin Witch Hunt was the title of another pamphlet written
by Foster in 1945. In this publication, he said:
The Red-baiting by the so-caUed House Committee on
un-American Activities * * * signalizes a danger that
should put every worker and progressive in the country on
guard.
This form of political terrorism remains a most sinister
menace and it has to be fought with every means at hand.
Organized labor must especially wake up to the danger
presented by Rankin's ^ Red-baiting and go all-out against
-J J- !(C ^ S(!
The Rankin Committee is a dangerous enemy of everything
that labor is fighting for; it is the agent of all that is reac-
tionary and fascist; it represents the most un-American
forces in our country. It must be abolished. [Emphasis
in original. I
On November 10, 1947, the Neio York-World Telegram exposed a
Communist Party directive signed by Henry Winston, then the party's
organization secretary, calling on all members to work toward obtain-
ing 500,000 signatures in support of a resolution, introduced in the
House, which called for abolition of the Committee on Un-American
Activities. Although it was apparent that the signature-soliciting
' Congressman John E. Rankin (D-Miss.) who Introduced the resolution which made the committee a
standing one in 1945.
1472 COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION
campaign was a party project, the directive explained that the peti-
tion would be presented to Congress by "a delegation of distinguished
citizens/' acting in behalf of the Civil Rights Congress/ In this way,
the Communist Party would not appear to be the major force behind
the petition and it might, therefore, have a greater impact upon the
lawmakers.
On August 6, 1948, at its 14th National Convention in New York
City, the party adopted an election platform which contained a demand
to—
Abolish the Un-American Committee.
In the May 25, 1950, Daily Worker, official party newspaper, Eliza-
beth Gurley Flynn, a member of the National Committee of the Com-
munist Party of the USA, bylined an article about a meeting of the
Communist Party National Committee on May 22 and 23, 1950. She
wrote:
Joe Brandt, who is now in charge of the defense campaign
of the Party, then reported that the Non-Partisan Committee
for the Defense of the 12 Communist leaders ^ [Smith Act vio-
lators] and the Civil Rights Congress are planning activities
to assure a campaign for the abolition of the Un-American
Committee * * *.
On March 18, 1957, the Daily Worker said editorially that there
should be a public demand for Congress to vote the Committee on
Un-American Activities out of existence.
The Communist Party has concentrated most of its fire on this
committee, but it has not done this to the exclusion of other Federal
agencies. As FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover wrote in his book,
Masters oj Deceit —
any organization which has the duty to investigate or expose
communist activity is singled out for attack. For years the
Party has campaigned against the House Committee on Un-
American Activities, the Senate Internal Security Sub-Com-
mittee, and the Senate Investigating Committee. The De-
partment of Justice and the FBI have not been spared, and
we have come to judge our effectiveness by the intensity of
communist attacks.
THE PARTY'S ABOLITION FRONTS
A number of Communist fronts have played key roles in the Com-
munist Party's drive to bring about the abolition of any congressional
committee established to investigate subversive activities. Following
are brief accounts of those which are today spearheading the party's
drive to abolish congressional investigations of communism:
The Emergency Civil Liberties Committee
The Emergency Civil Liberties Committee was formed in 1951.
Five years later, in a report entitled A Handbook for Americans, the
< Subsequently cited as a Communist front by the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, the Sub-
versive Activities Control Hoard, and the Attorney General of the U.S. (At the time, it had already been
cited as a Communist Party front by this committee.)
' Actual name. National Non-Partisan Committee to Defend the Rights of the 12 Communist Leaders.
COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVEESION 1473
Senate Internal Security Subcommittee made reference to ECLC as
follows:
To defend the cases of Communist lawbreakers, fronts have
been devised making special appeals in behalf of civil liberties
and reaching out far beyond the confines of the Communist
Party itself. Among these organizations are the * * *
Emergency Civil Liberties Committee * * *. When the
Communist Party itself is under fire these fronts offer a
bulwark of protection.®
The early years of ECLC's service to the Communist Party were
primarily of a defensive nature. By 1957, however, the ECLC had
shifted to the attack against congressional committees investigating
communism .
On June 11, 1957, the Philadelphia Council of the Emergency Civil
Liberties Committee ran an "open letter" advertisement in the
Philadelphia Evening Bulletin attacking hearings scheduled to be held
in that city the next day by the Senate Internal Security Subcom-
mittee. The ad falsely charged that the hearings "serve no valid
legislative purpose" and that the subcommittee destroys civil liber-
ties by "unconstitutional inquiries." It asked citizens to write
their Congressmen and Senators "urging an end to these purposeless
inquiries."
ECLC's Philadelphia Council later published and circulated
reprints of this advertisement with a supplementary message calling
for abolition of both the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee and
the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
In the summer of 1957, the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee
drew up plans for a nationwide drive to have the Committee on
Un-x\merican Activities abolished. A short time earlier, on June 17,
1957, the Supreme Court had reversed the contempt of Congress
conviction of John T. Watkins, a witness before the Committee on
Un-American Activities who, declining to invoke the fifth amendment,
had simply refused to answer certain questions asked him by the
committee on April 29, 1954. The Supreme Court held only that the
pertinency of the questions Watkins had refused to answer had not
l3een made sufficiently clear to him. The ECLC, however, tried to
capitalize on this decision by completely distorting the holding of the
Court. In announcing its abolition campaign, it said:
Honor and Up-hold the Recent Decision of the
UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT
(Watldns v. U.S. — June 17, 1957)
ABOLISH THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON
UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES
ECLC's abolition campaign against the committee was formally
launched at a rally in New York City's Carnegie Hall on September
20, 1957. More than half of the 61 persons serving on ECLC's
National Council at that time had records of Communist Party or
Communist front affiliation.
Featured speakers at the Carnegie Hall rally included identified
Communists Harvey O'Connor, ciiairman of ECLC, and Dalton
9 This committee cited ECLC as a Communist Party front In its Annual Report for 1958.
1474 COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION
Trumbo, one of the "Hollywood Ten," who had served prison terms for
contempt of Congress, following appearances before this committee
in 1947.
The immediate objectives of ECLC's campaign were to get indi-
viduals to write to their Congressmen and to editors of newspapers,
saying they supported the abolition drive; to stimulate anti-committee
rallies and petitions and the formation of abolition groups in cities and
towns throughout the country; to stir up resistance to all committee
hearings; and to raise funds for national coordination and direction
of the campaign.
Ten days after the Carnegie Hall rally, ECLC Executive Director
Clark Foreman embarked on a coast-to-coast tour to put the abolition
drive in motion. ECLC also pubhshed a pamphlet prepared by
Harvey O'Connor entitled For Abolition of the Inquisitorial Committees
of Congress.
Among other things, this pamphlet made the flat, all-embracing,
fantastic statement that:
The committees insist that our social structure is honey-
combed with disloyal persons, that public officials are spies,
teachers are subversive, scientists weak links in our security
set-up, the movies tainted with foreign propaganda.
The O'Connor booklet provided a good example of the double talk
and self-contradiction which frequently characterize Communist
propaganda in general, as well as party-inspired charges against this
committee, the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, and the
Federal Bureau of Investigation. One section of the pamphlet was
titled:
"uN-AMERICANISM" N.^RROW, DARK, AND BRUTAL
Yet the first sentence in that section read:
"Who can define the meaning of 'un-American'?" the
U.S. Supreme Court asked in the Watkins decision. [Em-
phasis added.]
Also, in this pamphlet, O'Connor imphed that the ECLC sportingly
accepts and abides by Supreme Court decisions, even while he twisted
completely the meaning of a Court decision. The pamphlet stated:
The United States Supreme Court has spoken! On June
17, 1957, it rendered its historic rebuke to the Committee on
Un-American Activities — The Watkins Decision.
NOW — YOU CAN help! Urge Congress to end appro-
priations and ABOLISH the House Committee on Un-
American Activities.
The Emergency CivU Liberties Committee placed an ad in the
June 1958 issue of the magazine, Monthly Review, announcing a
contest in which a prize was offered to the writer of the best slogan
in support of the abolition campaign. What was the prize? An
original oil painting by identified Communist Party member Rock-
well Kent. (Kent recently paid an extended visit to the Soviet
Union, where he was made an honorary member of the Soviet Acad-
emy of Arts. During his visit, an exhibition of his paintings was held
in Sverdlovsk.)
COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION 1475
Early in 1959, the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee opened
a Washington, D.C., office and started publishing a monthly newsletter
called CONGRESS and your RIGHTS (not to be confused with
Rights, another anti-committee periodical which has been published
by ECLC since 1953).
On June 8, 1959, the Supreme Court rendered its much-pubhcized
Barenblatt decision, in which it upheld the conviction of another wit-
ness for contempt of this committee. In this case, the Supreme Court
also found that "in the domain of 'national security' the House has
clothed the Un-American Activities Committee with pervasive
authority to investigate Communist activities in this country." Sig-
nificantly, there was no subsequent direction by the Emergency Civil
Liberties Committee for its followers to "Honor and Up-hold the
Recent Decision of the LTnited States Supreme Court," as there had
been following the Watkins decision in 1957. Instead, ECLC re-
printed and distributed the texts of the Court's dissenting opinions in
the Barenblatt case and stated that it would continue to work for the
abolition of the Committee on Un-American Activities.
On October 11, 1960, Dr. Linus Pauling appeared before the Senate
Internal Security Subcommittee. He invoked the fifth amendment
when asked to identify the persons who had helped him circulate a
petition to the United Nations calling for cessation of nuclear bomb
tests. (The petition had been circulated not only in the U.S., but
also in foreign countries, where the great majority of its signers were
enlisted. Approximately one-third of the signatures were obtained
from Iron Cm*tain countries. Nearly as many names came from
Rumania as from the United States.) Three days before, the Emer-
gency Civil Liberties Committee had circulated a letter to its fol owers
urging them to attend the hearing so Pauling would "feel the support
of friendly faces in the audience." A follow-up letter by ECLC com-
mended those in the hearing room who "laughed at some of the
committee's questions and applauded Dr. Pauling's answers."
Citizens Committee To Preserve American Freedoms
In January 1952, the Citizens Committee To Preserve American
Freedoms was organized in Los Angeles as the West Coast front for
the Communist Party's abolition operation. The CCPAF boasted
that it was created "with the single purpose of arousing the public
to abohsh all Un-American Committees." It has been extremely
active in pursuing that purpose ever since.
During its first year, the CCPAF pubhshed two editions of a tabloid
newspaper which attacked the House Committee on Un-American
Activities by using all the smear devices in the party's extensive
arsenal of propaganda trickery.
In September 1952, it sponsored a rally to stir up opposition to
hearings of this committee which were scheduled for the next month
in Los Angeles. CCPAF subsequently produced and sold 1,500 copies
of an album featuring recordings of testimony of hostile witnesses who
had attacked the committee during their appearances in those hearings.
During 1953 this same organization published and sold 40,000 copies
of a pamphlet called Courage is Contagious. Its message: Members
of the Committee on Un-American Activities are villains; persons
who attack them are heroes.
86233°— G2 3
1476 COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION
On March 27, 1953, CCPAF sponsored another Los Angeles rally to
promote agitation against the Committee on Un-American Activities.
A handbill advertising the affair listed as one of the featm'ed speakers
John T. Bernard, former Congressman from Minnesota who was later
identified as having been a Communist Party member in sworn testi-
mony before this committee. Bernard was subsequently a witness
before the committee and invoked the fifth amendment when ques-
tioned about party affiliation.
In 1954 the Citizens Committee To Preserve American Freedoms
co-sponsored publication of a pamphlet entitled Smear and Bun.
The title was appropriate. The obvious purpose of the numerous
distortions and outright falsehoods in it was to discredit the committee
and its members, while appearing to cite facts and the truth.
The CCPAF further characterized itself in 1954 by sponsoring a
banquet in honor of the National Lawyers Guild, an organization
which had already been cited as a Communist front by the Committee
on Un-American Activities and was later to be similarly cited by the
Senate Internal Security Subcommittee.
This committee held hearings in Los Angeles in September 1958.
On this occasion the CCPAF pubhshed and distributed a pamphlet
entitled Operation Un-American — which was reminiscent, in a contra-
dictory fashion, of the ECLC's anti-committee propaganda slogan
"Who can define the meaning of 'un-American'?" It urged support
for a "Fight-Back Movement" against the committee when its hear-
ings began.
Still another anti-committee rally staged by the Citizens Committee
To Preserve American Freedoms was held on June 29, 1959, in Los
Angeles. It was addressed by Lloyd Barenblatt, the person whose
contempt of Congress conviction had just been upheld by the Supreme
Court, and by Dr. Willard Uphaus, whose contempt convict on had
also been upheld by the Court on June 8, 1959. Uphaus had refused
to give the Attorney General of New Hampshire a list of the guests
who had attended a "summer camp" he operates in that state.
On April 4, 1960, the Citizens Committee To Preserve Anierican
Freedoms organized a San Francisco chapter for the specific and
immediate purpose of opposing hearings by the committee which
were to be held in that city the following month.
On May 13, 1960, the highly pubhcized riots against the committee
took place in San Francisco. The Communist Party's planning,
direction, and participation in these riots have been reported in detail
by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, the California Senate Fact-Finding
Committee on Un-American Activities, and by this conimittee. In
describing the extensive and varied pre-hearing activity by the
Commimist Party and its fronts which paved the way for the riots,
Mr. Hoover wrote in his report :
Much of the literature that was distributed during the
campaign, for example, emanated in the name of the Citizens
Committee To Preserve American Freedoms * * *,
[and]
The Communist Party furnished funds to the CCPAF to
defray the expense of mailing Uterature during the cam-
paign * * *.
COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION 1477
National Committee To Abolish the Un-American Activities
Committee
An announcement on August 15, 1960, revealed the formation of
a new abolition front. It was called the National Committee To
Abolish the Un-American Activities Committee. The mailing address
of the organization, 617 North Larehmont Boulevard, Los Angeles, 4,
California, was the same as that of the Citizens Committee To Preserve
American Freedoms. Seven of the 13 persons named as leaders of
the new organization had previously been identified as Communist
Party members.
The National Committee To Abolish the Un-American Activities
Committee disclosed that its program would include:
(1) distribution of reprints of an anti-committee speech de-
livered in the House of Representatives by Representative James
Roosevelt on April 25, 1960;
(2) preparation and distribution of special hterature opposing
the committee;
(3) endorsement of a national political action tour by a field
representative designed to elect anti-committee candidates to
Congress and, after the election, to convince newly elected Con-
gressmen that they should support an expected Roosevelt resolu-
tion for the abolition of the committee;
(4) establishment of a Washington office for a month to lobby
for the committee's abolition between January 2 and 4, 1961,
and then to lobby for a reduction of the committee's appropria-
tions.
A New York Council To Abolish the House Committee on Un-
American Activities was formed in October 1960. Its co-chairmen.
Otto Nathan and Russ Nixon — both identified as Communists— were
also national committee members of the National Committee To
Abolish the Un-American Activities Committee.
The relationship between the New York Council To Abolish the
House Committee on Un-American Activities and the National Com-
mittee To AboUsh the Un-American Activities Committee was clearly
established when the New York Council's letterhead appeared with
the names of the National Committee's officers on it.
An organization called Youth To Abolish the House Un-American
Activities Committee, with offices in New York City, was also formed
and, still later, a Washington [D.C.] Area Committee for the Abolition
of the House Committee on Un-American Activities. The New York
Council and Youth To Abolish have since worked as one on numerous
anti-committee ventures, using the name "N.Y. Council and Youth
To Abolish HUAC".
Abolition propaganda and agitation have been a major and special-
ized function of the ECLC, CCPAF, and the NCAUAC. They have
led the party's fight in this field. These organizations, however, by
no means comprise all of the officially cited Communist fronts which
have attempted to undermine Federal investigations into the party's
activities. In 1955, for example, the Labor Research Association,
which had previously been cited, respectively, as an "affiliate" and
as an "auxiliary" of the Communist Party by the Attorney General
and by this committee, attacked both this committee and the Senate
1478 COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION
Internal Security Subcommittee for using "FBI paid informers." It
accused the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee with "specializing
in anti-labor activities" as part of a "smear program."
A few of the many other Federally cited Communist-front groups
which have attacked and propagandized for the abolition of this and
other congressional committees assigned the task of investigating
Communist subversion include the Civil Rights Congress, the Ameri-
can Committee for Protection of Foreign Born, the Methodist Federa-
tion for Social Action, and the National Lawyers Guild.
The attack has not been limited to internal Communist forces.
Foreign Communist parties have frequently assailed U.S. congres-
sional investigating committees and the Soviet Union itself has often
joined in the offensive, maldng this committee a special target. On
April 6, 1961, for example, in an English-language radio broadcast
beamed from Moscow to North America, a Soviet propagandist said
that the Committee on Un-American Activities "has no right to exist
as long as America has a constitution."
THE LAST TWO YEARS
With the words of the December 1960 Moscow 81-party statement,
Khrushchev's speech of January 6, 1961, and Gus Hall's report of
January 20, 1961, ringing in their ears, the U.S. Communists, ever
obedient to the dictates of their bosses, have stepped up their attacks
on anti-communism in all its forms in the last 1^ to 2 years.
On January 2, 1961, the New York Council and Youth To Abolish
HUAC sent four busloads of picketers from New York to Washington
to demonstrate in front of the White House for abolition of the Com-
mittee on Un-American Activities. This operation was planned to
coincide with the opening session of the 87th Congress.
On April 21, 1961, the New York Council and Youth To Abolish
HUAC sponsored an "abolition" rally at St. Nicholas Arena in New
York City.
On September 22, 1961, the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee
sponsored another rally in Carnegie Hall. This one was in support of
the alleged "victims of the Hollywood blacklist." Literature dis-
tributed to the audience asked pledges of money to be used in putting
an end to the Committee on Un-American Activities.
Since October 1961, the New York Council and Youth To Abolish
HUAC have published a periodic newsletter called Abolition. The
first edition reported that Frank Donner '' had addressed a conference
of student representatives from 14 college and university campuses
who met in New York City to map plans for the fall semester's
"abolition activity."
In the fall of 1961, the National Committee To Abolish the Un-
American Activities Committee, along with the New York Council
and Youth to Abolish HUAC and the Chicago Committee To Defend
the Bill of Rights (whose secretary is identified Communist Richard
Criley), announced the sponsorship of a nationwide anti-committee
speaking tour by Burton White, one of the student leaders of the anti-
committee agitations which resulted in the San Francisco riots in
May 1960. Mr. White concentrated his efforts on securing engage-
ments to address college and university groups.
' Sec next vaze.
COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION 1479
The New York Council and Youtli To Abolish HUAC sponsored
another "abohtion" rally at the Manhattan Center in New York City
on December 6, 1961. One of the speakers was Ring Lardner, Jr., an
identified Communist who, as a member of the "Hollywood Ten,"
served a prison sentence in the early 1950's for contempt of Congress.
In April 1962, the Citizens Committee To Preserve American
Freedoms joined with the Fair Play for Cuba Committee and quickly
formed a group called HUAC Reception Committee to organize
picketing demonstrations against executive hearings held by the
committee in Los Angeles beginning on April 24, 1962.
SUPPORT OPERATIONS
The Communist-inspired campaign to abolish this committee is a
many-sided one. Following are examples of a few of the more diversi-
fied methods the party is using in its abolition drive:
Books
In July 1961, Ballantine Books, Inc., published a paperback book
entitled The Un-Americans. The book was written by Frank J.
Donner. It was billed on its front cover as "the first fully documented
account of the notorious House Committee on Un-American Activi-
ties— how their abuse of power is being met by a growing opposition."
Donner acknowledged in the book that it was based, among other
sources, on interviews with identified Communists, literature of the
ECLC, and a number of pro-Communist publications. He also stated
that he was "under heavy obligation" to identified Communist Party
member Bertram Edises for assistance in writing the book and named
other persons (with extensive records of Communist-front activity)
who had been "most helpful."
Donner has been identified as having been a member of the Com-
munist Party by a number of witnesses before the committee. When
he appeared before the committee himself on June 28, 1956, he invoked
the fifth amendment when questioned concerning party membership
and affiliation,
Donner was subpenaed to testify before the committee again for
a March 11, 1959, hearing in Pittsburgh on security procedures in
defense plants and facilities supporting defense industries. He was
then the general counsel for the United Electrical, Radio and Machine
Workers of America, a union expelled from the CIO as Communist
dominated and, at the time of the hearing, having contracts with
various firms in the Pittsburgh area doing important defense work
for the Federal Government.
He was a completely uncooperative witness in this hearing. He
denied having been a member of the Communist Party since his 1956
testimony but refused to answer questions about membership in the
party prior to that earlier hearing.
In a statement released July 17, 1961, Committee Chau'man Francis
E. Walter described Donner's book, The Un-Americans, as —
a volume which most perfectly embraces and epitomizes the
Communist line and technique in the present energetic pro-
gram of the Communist Party to discredit a necessary and
useful Committee of Congress * * *.
1480 COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION
The chairman fui'ther described the book as "an absurd attempt to
link the Committee to anti-Semitic, anti-Negro, anti-Catholic, and
anti-immigrant prejudices."
Songs
The February-March 1961 issue of Sing Out, an alleged folk song
magazine, featured a propaganda song about the I960 Communist-
instigated riots against the committee. Sing Out is edited by Irwin
Silber, who was identified as a member of the Communist Party in
testimony given this committee in 1952. An associate editor of the
magazine, Pete Seeger, has also been identified as a party member.
The magazine frequently features favorite Communist Party songs
and newly composed party-line lyrics.
Following, as one example of Sing Out's numerous anti-committee
melodies, are the lyrics of the San Francisco riot song, written to the
tune of "Billy Boy":
Did they wash you down the stair, Billy Boy, Billy Boy,
Did they wash you down the stair. Charming Billy?
Yes they washed me down the stau-,
Ancl they rearranged my hair
With a club, in the city hall rotunda.
Were there pigeons in the square, Billy Boy, Billy Boy,
Were there pigeons in the square. Charming Billy?
There were pigeons in the square.
And stool pigeons on the air.
And they fouled up the city hall rotunda.
Did they set for you a chair, Billy Boy, Billy Boy,
Did they set for you a chair, Charming Billy?
No the D.A.R. was there.
And there wasn't room to spare,
So we stood in the city hall rotunda.
Was the house committee there, Billy Boy, Billy Boy,
Was the house committee there. Charming Billy?
The committee, it was there.
Throwing slander everywhere,
While we sang in the city hall rotunda.
Did the people think it fair, Billy Bpy, Billy Boy,
Did the people think it fair. Charming Billy?
No they didn't think it fair.
And they notified the Mayor,
And he wept, and he wept,
And he wept, and he wept.
While they mopped up the city hall rotunda.
Cartoons
The Liberty Prometheus Book Club, New York City, has announced
publication in the near future of a book entitled A Quarter Century
oj Un- Americana. The book will be composed of derogatory cartoons
and similar "art" work created over the years by opponents of the
committee.
COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION 1481
Liberty Prometheus Book Club was founded by Angus Cameron
and Carl Marzani. Cameron has been identified as a member of the
Communist Party in testimony before the Senate Internal Security
Subcommittee. Marzani has served a prison term for perjury in
falsely denying, while employed by the State Department, that he was
a Communist Party member.
Films
The great success of "Operation Abolition," the committee-spon-
sored documentary film about the San Francisco riots, has fired the
Communist Party with the idea of producing a counter-film which
will serve as a major weapon in its abohtion drive. Activity on this
project has centered in California. Harvey Richards, a reporter for
the Peoples World, West Coast Communist Party newspaper, and an
identified member of the party, has played a major role in the pro-
duction of a clever, subtle, smear-the-committee film. The party
hopes to be able to release the film in the near future — but not, of
course, under its own name.
The Communist Lexicon
"good guys" and "bad guys"
Communists are careful students of propaganda techniques. All
well-trained Communists are well-trained propagandists. They know
how to fit the many weapons in the arsenal of the propagandist to
the time, the place, and the target. They know that in the United
States, as in other countries, there are certain words that have good,
noble, and wholesome connotations and, therefore, almost automati-
cally evoke support and sympathetic response. They also know that
there are other words which have evil and repulsive connotations and
therefore tend, just as surely, to evoke feelings of hatred, resentment,
and disgust.
"Democracy," "rights," "liberties," "unity," "progressive," and
"the people" are good in their original connotations. The Commu-
nists, therefore, ahvays attach these and similar words and phrases to
thern.selves and what they stand for.
"Fascist," "Nazi," "Hitler," and "police state" are, in the political
sense, the most evil words in the American language. For this reason,
Communists always attach these epithets to their enemies. It is an
old trick. They have been doing it for years. They are still doing
it and too often, to the detriment of the Nation, finding it effective.
It is not surprising, therefore, that the party's greatly intensified
propaganda drive against anti-communism and against congressional
investigating committees is characterized by liberal use of these terms.
References to the party and its camp followers are replete with "good
guy" words. Any manifestation of anti-communism, on the other
hand — wlietlier it be a Federal or State agency or law, a private group
or individual — is, whenever spoken of, engulfed in "bad guy" words.
A few of the many examples of Communist Party use of this device
which could be cited, follow:
1482 COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION
The Communist Party's 1961 May Day statement said:
Unity can be achieved if the people fight the vicious
campaign of "anti-Communism." This is directed not only
against the Communists, who are persecuted because they
are iront-vank fighters for the people. "Anti-Communism" is
a Hitler-like weapon against all progressive fighters, against
democracy itself. The center of this campaign is the House
Un-American Committee, headed by the fascist Congressman
Walter and the Senate Internal Security Committee * * *.
Abohsh the Un-American Committee. [Emphasis added.]
Gus Hall, secretary of the U.S. Communist Party, made a major
speech in early May 1962. Its title, echoing a major Soviet propa-
ganda theme, was "End the Cold War!" Many thousands of copies
of the speech have since been printed and distributed throughout the
Nation. The following are som.e of the propaganda epithets used by
Hall in the course of this speech when he referred to anti-communism:
Like Hitler * * * Hitler-like * * * warped Nazi mentality * * *
Goebbels-like anti-Communism * * * Hitler-like falsehood
* * * Hitlerite weapon * * * Hitlerite anti-Communism * * *
Hitler vii"us of anti-Communism * * * anti-Communism of
the Goebbels variety.
In a speech delivered at Reed College, Portland, Oregon, in February
1962, Gus Hall made the following statement:
The McCarran [Internal Security] Act is a police state,
Jascist enabling Act, * * *
This law not only violates everv Constitutional liberty
and democratic tradition of our lana, but would practically
turn over the government process of this land to the spokes-
men of the Ultra Right and of the fascist gangsters in our
land. [Emphasis added.]
The July 1, 1962, edition of The Worker quoted Communist Party
leader Elizabeth Gurley Flynn as saying that the McCarran [Internal
Security] Act "tries to foist a Hitlerite caricature of the Communist
Party on the American people, and to use this trick to smash the
liberties and rights of the people." [Emphasis added.]
Benjamin Davis, national secretary of the Communist Party, wrote
in the August 28, 1962, issue of The Worker that this conwnittee "is
notorious for its fascist-like violations of civil liberties" and 'fascist
persecution of Negro Americans." He also said the Internal Security
Act was "intended to convert America into a Hitler-like police state."
[Emphasis added.]
An excellent summary of the current phase of the Communist
Party's war against anti-Communist investigations and legislation
appeared in the September 1962 issue of the Veterans of Foreign Wars'
newsletter, American Security Reporter. It is herewith quoted in full:
NEW ATTACKS ON COMMUNIST CONTROL MEASURES DUE THIS
FALL
FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, the House Un-American
Activities Committee, and the Internal Secmity Act of
COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION 1483
1950 (the McCarran Act) will come under increasing attack
from a variety of sources during the next few months.
U.S. Communists are launching a souped-up campaign to
break the back of Government agencies and laws which now
restrict Communists' freedom to deceive and to subvert.
A primary target for this campaign will be the McCarran
Act. It is under this act that the U.S. Communist Party
and certain Communist leaders have been ordered to register
with the Attorney General as agents of a foreign power.
Such registration would destroy U.S. Reds' pretense that
they are a domestic, American political party. Once
registered they would be tagged as agents seeking support
in the United "States for the foreign policy aims of the Soviet
Union.
The campaign — which also will attack the FBI and the
House Un-American Activities Committee — will get its main
steam from three regional mass meetings scheduled for Sep-
tember, October, and November. One will be on the east
coast, one in the Midwest, and one on the w^est coast.
Political Affairs (August 1962) says that the meetings will
be designed to expand local activities aimed at "deluging
the Attorney General and the President with demands to
halt aU the proceedings under the McCarran Act."
Political Affairs fm'ther urges like-minded individuals and
groups to demand that candidates for public office in No-
vember "take a stand against the McCarran Act" and to
step up the distribution of "anti-McCarran Act" bulletins,
leaflets, and pamphlets.
Being a hard-hitting poHtical campaign, its cUmax is
scheduled for early January 1963. Two national conferences
are scheduled for Washington, D.C., then to coincide with
the opening of the new Congress.
One will be composed of some of the civil liberties and
peace groups. The other is being set up by forces in the
"anti-House Un-American Activities Committee movement."
Both are expected to demand the repeal of the McCarran
Act and abolition of the House Un-American Activities
Committee.
The aim of non-Communists who become involved in such
attacks is a matter of debate. Each individual is guided by
his own conscience. But it can be stated without reserva-
tion that the Communist aim is to work through such mass
rallies and conferences to force Congress to repeal the
Internal Secmity Act of 1950 and to deny operating funds
to the House Un-American Activities Committee if not to
abolish it entu'ely.
U.S. Communists want more freedom for their efforts to
win support for Soviet foreign policies, to undermine our free
society, and eventually, to gain political power for Commu-
nist leadership in the United States.
The most effective countermeasure at this time [is] to (a)
make the general public aware of Communists' interest in
abolishing the Internal Security Act of 1950 (McCarran
86233°— 62 4
1484 COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION
Act), and their active support of any and all meetings, con-
ferences, and demonstrations which promote this end, and (b)
make sure that Congress and the administration as well as the
general pubUc are fully aware of your positions in respect to
the Internal Security Act of 1950, the House Un-American
Activities Committee, and the Communist Party, U.S.A.
"MR. ABOLITION"
The name of one man continues to crop up, time and time again,
in any study of the Communist Party's efforts, through fronts, to
discredit and bring about the abolition of this committee.
This man became executive secretary of the Citizens Committee
To Preserve American Freedoms, the party's West Coast abolition
agency, in 1953. He was appointed to the National Council of the
Emergency Civil Liberties Committee shortly thereafter and served
as field director of its 1957 nationwide drive against the Committee
on Un-American Activities.
He was named field representative (chief agitator) of the National
Committee To Abolish the Un-American Activities Committee when
it was formed in 1960. His present activities, like his activities of
recent years, reveal that he is the Communist Party's "]\Ir. Aboli-
tion." He makes his living by anti-committee agitation.
His name is Frank Wilkinson.
Wilkinson first made news in 1952 while employed by the Los
Angeles City Housing Authority. The episode was described as
follows in the 1953 report of the California Senate Fact-Finding
Committee on Un-American Activities:
Early in September, 1952, the Los Angeles City Housing
Authority was engaged in a condemnation proceeding in the
Superior Court of Los Angeles County * * *. One of the
witnesses for the Housing Authority was Mr. Frank Wilkin-
son, its information officer, who was asked to take the wit-
ness stand and testify as an expert on behalf of the Authority.
In the process of cross-examining the witness concerning his
qualifications, opposing counsel asked him about the organ-
izations to which he had been affiliated, and when Wilkinson
showed some hesitancy in giving a full and complete reply,
pressed him to the point that he eventually refused to
answer the question on the advice of his attorney, Mr, Robert
W. Kenny.
The attorneys for the defendants in the case hnmediately
charged that Mr. Wilkinson was a secret member of the
Communist Party of Los Angeles County and had been
affiliated with the Communist Party there during the entire
time that he was employed by the Housing Authority in a
responsible position. In the light of his continued refusal
to answer questions concerning his organizational affiliations,
Mr. Wilkinson was suspended by the Housing Authority
pending a further and more thorough investigation of his
backgi'ound.
The Los Angeles Housing Authority requested the California Senate
Fact-Finding Connnittee on Un-American Activities to investigate
COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION 1485
Wilkinson and any other employees of the organization whose loyalty
was open to question.
Wilkinson appeared before that State committee on October 28,
1952, and invoked the fifth amendment on all questions about Com-
munist Party membership, associations, and affiliations. Immedi-
ately following his testunony he was dismissed by the Housing
Authority.
In its 1953 report, the California Senate Fact-Finding Committee
included the following in its summary of the Housing Authority
investigation:
Basing its conclusions on the information with which
Frank Wilkinson, his wife, Jean, Frances Eisenberg, Sidney
Green, Adma Williamson, Elizabeth Smith and Jack Naiditch
were each confronted, and the refusal of each to answer ques-
tions concerning their Communist affiliations and activities,
the committee finds that each of them was a member of the
Communist Party of Los Angeles County, and associated
together for the purpose of maintaining and expanding Com-
munist units in the Los Angeles City Housing Authority and
in the Los Angeles City School System.
On March 27, 1953, not long after his dismissal from the Los
Angeles City Housing Authority, Wilkinson appeared as a speaker at
a rally against the Committee on Un-American Activities sponsored by
the Citizens Committee To Preserve American Freedoms.
In 1953 and 1954, Wilkinson, as previously mentioned, assumed key
posts with the Citizens Committee To Preserve American Freedoms
and the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee.
Some 2 years later, on December 7, 1956, Frank Wilkinson's name
was mtroduced before the committee by Mrs. Anita Schneider, former
undercover operative for the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the
Communist Party. Following are excerpts from her testimony con-
cernmg the Citizens Committee To Preserve American Freedoms:
Mrs. Schneider. I had some contact with that committee.
Mr. Arens. Was it Communist-controlled?
Mrs. Schneider. Yes.
Mr. Arens. Who was the ringleader in that organization?
Mrs. Schneider. I didn't work in that organization, and
I don't know who the ringleader was. My contact on that
occasion was with Frank Wilkinson, I believe.
Mr. Arens. Do you know him as a Communist?
Mrs. Schneider. Yes.
On the same day Mrs. Schneider testified, Wilkinson appeared
before the Committee on Un-American Activities and, when asked
his occupation, said:
I am answering no questions of this committee because
the House Committee on Un-American Activities stands
in direct violation * * * of the first amendment to the
United States Constitution. This committee should be
abolished, and the question is none of your business.
Wilkinson refused to answer any questions pertaining to Communist
Party affihation.
1486 COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION
The following year, 1957, the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee
borrowed Wilkinson from the Citizens Committee To Preserve Amer-
ican Freedoms (of which he was then executive secretary) to help plan
its Carnegie Hall rally against the committee and to serve as field
director of its campaign to abolish the committee.
In July 1958, ECLC sent Wilkinson to Atlanta, Georgia, to organize
opposition to hearings being conducted there by the committee. The
committee subpenaed Wilkinson to obtain, if possible, horn, one who
was apparently in a position to know, facts on Communist strategy
and techniques in carrying out the conspiracy's subversive activities.
Wilkinson was just as contemptuously defiant of the committee on
this occasion as he had been in 1956. He not only refused to answer
all but a few of the questions asked, but also refused to invoke the
fifth amendment as his reason for not being responsive.
For this performance, Wilkinson was cited for contempt by the
Congress on August 13, 1958, convicted of this charge by a Federal
District Court in Atlanta on January 23, 1959, and sentenced to a
year of imprisonment. He appealed the conviction and was released
on bail pending the outcome of his appeal.
About a month later, on February 24, 1959, the committee held a
series of executive hearings in Los Angeles. Wilkinson was observed
distributing anti-committee literature outside the buildmg in which
the hearings were held.
In his previously mentioned report on the May 1960 San Francisco
riots, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover stated that, after the hearings
had ended, Mickey Lima, chairman of the Northern California
District of the Communist Party, praised Wilkinson "for the role he
had played in organizing the demonstrations."
Subsequent to the formation of the National Committee To Abolish
the Un-American Activities Committee in August 1960 and being
appointed its field representative, Wilkinson, still out of prison on
appeal of his contempt conviction, made the earlier described political
action tour of the country for the new organization.
On January 29, 1961, The Worker reported that Frank Wilkinson
had recently completed his third coast-to-coast tour since the previous
May for the purpose of organizing "action for the abolition" of the
committee.
It was at about this time that Wilkinson prepared a year's program,
covering the period from March 1961 to February 1962, for the Na-
tional Committee To Abolish the Un-American Activities Committee.
In it, in addition to the continued circulation of NCAUAC petitions
for the abolition of the committee, Wilkinson called for petitions in
opposition to:
(a) such new hearings as HUAC may schedule; (b) all forms
of governmental sponsorship of the HUAC-aided film
"Operation Abolition"; (c) HUAC's appropriation; (d) other.
Other proposals in the Wilkinson program were that —
all future hearings called by the HUAC be countered by
every possible, effective public demonstration * * *. Per-
sons subpoenaed to the Capital from distant cities should
be honored by send-off and welcome-home rallies at airports.*
' See appendix, pp. 1512-1514 for entire text of the Wilkinson-drafted program.
COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION 1487
He also urged continued acquisition of all the anti-committee litera-
ture possible and its distribution to a mailing list of between 5,000 and
10,000 key gi'oups and individuals. He proposed the formation of
anti-committee student groups and close coordination of their ac-
tivities.
On February 27, 1961, the Supreme Court upheld the contempt
conviction of Frank Wilkinson and on May 1, 1961, he began serving
his one-year sentence. Ten days before he entered prison, Wilkinson
had been a major speaker at the previously mentioned anti-committee
rally at St. Nicholas Arena in New York City.
Wilkinson was released from prison on February 1, 1962, after
serving 9 months of his sentence, and, on the evening of that same
day, was given a reception in New York City by the New York Coun-
cil To Abohsh the House Un-American Activities Committee. The
affaii' was chaired by Otto Nathan. Identified Communist folk
singer Pete Seeger provided the entertainment.
Wilkinson wasted no time in reestablishing hmiself as the number
one paid anti-committee agitator. He was named executive director
of the National Committee To Abolish the Un-American Activities
Committee at a meeting of that organization in Chicago on March 3,
1962.
In the March 1962 edition of Abolition, a by-lined article by Wilkin-
son outlined NCAUAC's program for the period between then and
the convening of the 88th Congress in January 1963. The text of
Wilkinson's article follows:
NATIONAL ABOLITION PROGRAM OUTLINED
by FRANK WILKINSON
January 3, 1963, will mark the 25th anniversary of the
founding of the House Committee on Un-American Activities
(HUAC) by former Congressman Martin Dies (D. Texas),
and the 18th year since its establishment as a Standing Com-
mittee of the House of Representatives by former Congress-
man John Rankin (D. Mississippi).
January 3, 1963, also marks the opening of the 88th Con-
gress and a new climax in the mounting campaign to abolish
HUAC.
The National Committee to Abolish HUAC in Chicago on
March 3 determined to launch an intensive drive at the
Congressional District level aimed at producing the maxi-
mum number of votes for abolition of the Committee when
its mandate is presented for ratification on the opening day
of the new Congress.
The Congressional Districts selected for this concentrated
effort include not only those Districts whose representatives
voted against HUAC in 1961 but the balance of the 100
Congressional Districts whose incumbent Congressmen have
privately expressed criticism of the Committee's inquisitorial
NCAHUAC's (revised) 125 page "Collection of Edi-
torials & Resolutions in Opposition to the Un-American
Activities Committee" will be presented by Congressional
1488 COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION
District abolition committees to all candidates for Congress
dm-iiig the primary and Congressional elections. In addi-
tion, this remarkable summary of nationwide support of the
abolition campaign will be carried by similar delegations to
the 50 most prominent community leaders within each of the
Congressional Districts. These editors, churchmen, labor
and political leaders will be m"ged to take steps to raise the
question of HUAC's abolition as one of the prime domestic
issues in the 1962 Congressional races.
As additional educational literature the full page ad which
appeared in the New York Times, February 22, 1962, over
the signatm-e of more than 600 nationally distinguished
community leaders will be reprinted.
The reverse side of this re-print will carry Congressman
William Fitts Ryan's coiu-ageous attack on HUAC's 1962
$350,000 appropriation, delivered in the House of Repre-
sentatives on January 24, 1962, a "Box Score on HUAC's
'Legislative Record' " for 1961 and a compilation of the
organizations and newspapers which have opposed or called
for abolition of HUAC. A minimum goal of 5,000 copies of
this new literature will be distributed by each of the Con-
gressional District Abolition Committees at political rallies
within each District prior to the November elections.
In undertaking this national education and political action
work against HUAC, abolition committees will stress the
interconnection between HUAC and the anti-integration
groups, and the rising intolerant right-wing extremists
organizations; and HUAC's responsibility for the McCarran
Law, the only piece of legislation for which it can take credit.
Between September 1st and December 1st, each C. D.
Abolition Committee will be asked to undertake the circula-
tion of petitions to the Congressmen to be elected in Novem-
ber with a minimum goal of 10,000 signatures within each
Congressional District.
On the day prior to the opening of the New Congress,
January 2, 1963, petitions will be delivered in persons by
community leaders coming to Washington for this pm-pose.
Professional agitator Frank Wilkinson has been busy speaking to
any and every group he has been able to collar since his release from
prison. The March 1962 issue of Abolition reported that he had
"spoken at a total of 23 meetings between March 9 and March 23,
in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Nineteen
of these were in New York, including six meetings on New York
college campuses."
The April-May 1962 edition of New Horizons jor Youth, a periodical
identified as an official Communist Party publication by the Federal
Bureau of Investigation in its annual report for the fiscal .year 1961,
quoted Frank Wilkinson extensively on the campaign to abolish this
committee. Referring to the 1962 elections, Wilkinson said:
Our National Committee to abolish HUAC is developing an
intensive program for concentration on the formation of an
intensive program of education and political action beginning
COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION 1489
in the primary elections through the final elections, getting
candidates to declare themselves for abolition. Our com-
mittee is going to establish fifty or seventy committees in
Congressional districts. On my present trip, we are going
to get a good deal of this established in the East Coast, and
then I return to the West Coast to carry on the same pro-
gram in the Western States.
Wilkinson also revealed that in the course of the abolition campaign,
the Communist Party is continuing its age-old tactic of trying to use
American youth to aid its causes. He said:
I met a group of students in the Midwest last week. I
was very pleased to hear that they were working on an inde-
pendent program that the students will formulate and will
carry out and which may include a student petition for aboli-
tion'and a student visitation to Congressmen; student meet-
ings and student discussions. All of these things, I hope,
will parallel the independent part of the national abolition
movement. The National Committee will cooperate in
every way, providing literature and help of any kind.
Wilkinson is now making preparations for the release of a large-
scale anti-committee propaganda barrage at the close of this year and
the beginning of 1963. The objective, of course, is to pressure the 88th
Congress into writing an epitaph to the Committee on Un-American
Activities.
On iSeptember 8, 1962, Wilkinson was the chief agitator at an all-day
conference in New York City sponsored by the New York Council and
Youth To Abolish HUAC. Representatives from 40 Eastern ''aboli-
tion" groups, which have been formed as a result of Wilkinson's paid
organizing performances, were in attendance.
The conference mapped plans for:
(1) stepped-up abolition work on campuses throughout the
East;
(2) fall anti-committee petition campaigns;
(3) an "Elect Anti-HUAC Congressmen" pre-election rally in
New York's Manhattan Center on October 24; and
(4) the sending of anti-committee lobbyists to Washington,
D.C., for the convening of the 88th Congress.
In addition to Wilkinson, conference speakers included previously
mentioned Richard Criley and Burton White.
Inasmuch as Wilkinson has, without a doubt, been the driving force
behind the Communist Party's front campaign to have the committee
abohshed, the committee deems it appropriate to close this report
with additional party background information about him obtained
in an executive hearing in Los Angeles on April 25, 1962. The
witness who testified on that occasion was Robert Ronstadt, an under-
cover FBI operative in the Communist Party from the n.iiddle of 1947
through the end of 1954.
In the course of his testimony, Ronstadt mentioned that in 1949,
after he had been in the Communist Party for about 2 years, he was
assigned by the party in Los Angeles to "the Altgeld group, and this
was strictly a security group." He explained that those put in that
group were people "the Communist Party felt were true and loyal,
1490 COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION
and that they wouldn't break under questioning and things of that
nature." Members of the Altgeld group, the witness stated, normally
concealed the fact that they were Communist from the rank-and-file
members of the party.
Following are excerpts from the transcript of Ronstadt's testimony
beginning immediately after the committee counsel asked the witness
how many persons composed the Altgeld club:
Mr. RoNSTADT. There were about seven or eiglit at the beginning.
Frank Wilkinson was a member.
Mr. Tavenn^r. What position did he hold at that time?
Mr. RoNSTADT. At that time, he was the executive secretary to the
Los Angeles City Housing Authority.
Mr. Tavenner. Very well. How long did you know these par-
ticular individuals you have identified as members of this particular
club? How long did you know them as members of this club?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Well, let's take them one by one.
Frank Wilkinson, from 1949, I'd say, to the end of 1953, and it
might have even gone over a little bit into 1954^ but I am reasonably
sure it was the end of 1953.
As a matter of fact, he and I were the last two members of the
club. They gradually transferred people from this club into smaller
groups or into other activities, they kept Frank and me together.
I think it was in 1952 that he had to appear before the California
Senate Committee on Un-American Activities.^ My specific instruc-
tions at that time were to hold Frank up and to keep him from break-
ing, because he was close to breaking. The hierarchy of the party
at that time felt that there was a possibihty of breaking Frank, and,
as a result, I used to pick him up just about every evening when he
was before the committee or waiting to be heard. Of course, I in-
structed him to plead nothing else but the fifth, and to give his name
and to plead the fifth, and this was it, and this I hammered home
to him.
Mr. ScHERER. As a matter of curiosity, do you know why Frank
Wilkinson was about ready to break, as you have testified?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Well, he had been under considerable pressm-e.
Number one : From the Housing Authority, Mr. Holtzendorff [execu-
tive director], I think, was aware of the fact that Wilkinson used to
receive the People's World and things of this nature. I think that
Holtzendorff really suspected that Frank was a member of the
Communist Party.
As a matter of fact, Frank related to me that Holtzendorff had
recjuested him to make a statement that he was not a Communist.
Frank would never do this.
Mr. ScHERER. Afraid of perjury, you mean?
Mr. RoNSTADT. No, I think witii him at that particular time in
his development it was a matter of principle you might say. If you
want to call it weakness, it can be that from the point of view of a
Conununist Party member.
In other words, he wouldn't deny that he was a Communist to
Holtzendorff, and he was finally placed on leave by the Housing
» Wilkinson appeared before tbe California Senate Fact-Ftading Committee on Un-American Activities
Oetobcr 28, 1952.
COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION 1491
Aiitliority, and so this pressuro liad built up in relation to liim and
his employer. The party was cognizant of the strain that he was
undergoing, and we were at that time afraid — I mean afraid that he
would break. Of course, I had a selfish interest in this respect, that
in all probability, had I been called before the Senate Committee at
that time, I probably would have pleaded the fifth, too, in order to
continue my work that I was doing, and I didn't particularly want to
do that either.
So, as I said before, I kept Frank together.
Mr. ScHERER. Frank Wilkinson didn't have any independent
wealth at that time, did he? Was he dependent upon his job with the
Housing Authority for his security, financial security?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Well, he comes, from what I understand, from a
fairly wealthy family here in Los Angeles, and whether he received
any income from them or not, I don't know.
1 do know though that after he lost his job, that he did receive pay
from the party — he started then to perform various functions for the
party, and did receive pay from the party.
Mr. Tavenner. How do you know that?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Well, because I offered to loan Frank money my-
myself, and to help him, because I knew he had a family — I felt that
under normal circumstances, when you lose your job, and you don't
have an income, you need money, and at the time, of course, I was
working and it v/as only right that I should offer.
Mr. ScHERER. That's what I meant. Wilkinson wasn't thinking
about breaking, as you put it, because of any change in ideology, but
because he was worried about this loss of income, if he should lose
his job?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Well, that was part of it. The other thing is the
actual pressure — that Holtzendorff — and perhaps other people that he
knew and who Holtzendorff knew — were bringing on him to either
come out and admit that he was a Communist or to deny completely
that he was.
This is my understanding of that situation during that period.
Air. Tavenner. What is the interest of the Communist Party in
Frank Wilkinson?
Mr. RoNSTADT, Well, the interest, as I stated before, he is a very
intelligent person. He makes a very good appearance. He's a good
speaker. I think that he was a loyal party member, and he could
carry on the work of the Communist Party. So, this was their chief
interest, and when he lost his job in the Plousing Authority, as I say,
the Communist Party then picked up the tab, and they supplied
money to him, in what amounts, I do not know.
Mr. Tavenner. Do you know what title or function he played in
the Communist Party at the time the party was paying him money?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Well, one of the things I know that he was assigned
to was this — the Citizens Committee for Freedom, the one that's
downstairs — —
Mr, Scherer. — To Preserve American Freedoms, yes. He was
assigned to that position by the Communist Party?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Yes.
Air. Scherer. When was the last time that you knew, of your own
knowledge, that Frank Wilkinson was a member of the Communist
Party?
1492 COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION
Mr. RoNSTADT. In, let's say, about the middle of 1954.
Mr. ScHERER. Was that when you left the party?
Mr. RoNSTADT. No, I left a few months after that.
Mr. ScHERER. But at the tmie you left the party, you knew him
to be a member of the Communist Party, up to that time?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Yes.
Mr. ScHERER. Have you any knowledge as to his present member-
ship in the Communist Party?
Mr. RoNSTADT. No, I do not.
Mr. ScHERER. Do 3''ou have any knowledge as to his membership
in the Communist Party, following the 1954 date?
Mr. RoNSTADT. No, I do not.
Mr. ScHERER. Can you tell the committee just how the arrange-
ments were made for Frank Wilkinson to take over the executive
secretaryship of the Citizens Committee To Preserve American
Freedoms?
Mr. RoNSTADT. I don't know all the details, but the only thing
that I can relate is that in association, you might say, with any of
these groups, there has to be a central organizing figure that will take,
you know, charge of the thing and to do a good job. Of course, he
was not known, you see, as a Communist, and he had refused, of course,
to testify before the California Senate Committee, but this, yer se, as
you probably know, does not make a person a Communist. I have
heard this though, in later years, that he has denied that he was a
member of the Communist Party.
For instance, people that have circulated petitions in relation to
him. I have spoken to people that have heard him speak when he has
stated that he has not been a member of the Communist Party or
never has been.
Mr. Tavenner. Which you know is untrue?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Which I know definitely to be untrue.
Mr. JoHANSEN. But those denials were not made at any time under
oath, the denials of membership that you refer to?
Mr. RoNSTADT. As far as I know, they were not made under oath.
This was at places where he has spoken to various groups and things
like this, where the question has been asked.
Yet, I can truthfully say, I was present with him at these various
party meetings. Not only that, but I delivered instructions to him
on — during the latter part — ^well, part of 1952 and through 1953, and
I was at that time receiving my own instructions from a fellow by
the name of Dave Fibers.
Mr. Tavenner. Spell the last name.
Mr. RoKSTADT. E-l-b-e-r-s.
And Dave had direct contact with the County Central Committee,
and he used to get instructions to me as to what my job would be.
Mr. Tavenner. He was a liaison person between the oxecutive
committee, you, and other persons who wei*e performing the same
services that you were performing?
Mr. RoNSTADT. That's right.
As a matter of fact, for a long time, every conversation, for instance,
that I had with Wilkinson, I was questioned about this, and I woukl
relate exactly what had transpired in the conversation. In 1952, for
instance, during that period, one of the things that I had to answer
COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION 1493
was the fact that, did I really believe that this guy was a real, dedi-
cated person to the Communist movement?
And this information, of course, I passed on that he was, as far as I
knew. There was nothing in his conversation to indicate that he was
not.
Mr. ScHEREE. Do you know whether Dorothy Marshall knew that
Willdnson was a member of the Communist Party at the time he took
over the directorship of this Citizens Committee To Preserve American
Freedoms?
Mr. RoNSTADT. This, I do not know.
Mr. ScHERER. Do you know Dorothy Marshall?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Yes, I loiow of her, but I don't Imow her as a
party member, as such.
Mr. ScHERER. In other words, you don't know whether she is or
is not a member of the Communist Party?
Mr. RoNSTADT. That's right.
Mr. Tavenner. Will you describe to the committee a little more
in detail the activity of Frank Wilkinson in the Communist Party
during the period of your acquaintanceship with him?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Well, I don't quite
Mr. Tavenner. What actually did Frank Wilkinson do in aid of
the Communist Party?
Mr. Ronstadt. Well, we did several things. I mean, from the
point of view of contributing money, things of this nature. The pro-
fessional people in the party, we had an added tax, you might say.
Roughly a 4 or 5 percent of our gross salary, and I remember it be-
cause there was quite a bit of discussion as to whether it should be
gross salary or net, you loiow, after taxes, and it was finally decided
that it would be gross, before taxes.
Mr. JoHANSEN. In other words, not only take-home pay, but on
base pay?
Mr. Ronstadt. That's right. So we contributed money and the
other thing — whenever we could, we would organize fund-raising
parties; for instance, like Frank would have acquaintances on the
other side of town and might get one of those people to have a fund
raiser — it could be almost any liberal cause — to raise money. Per-
haps, like today we have the Freedom Riders. It might be to raise
money to provide, you know, transportation for these people in the
event they are jailed or something like that, to get them out of jail.
Mr. Tavenner. Did Frank Wilkinson pay his 4 percent?
Mr. Ronstadt. Yes, I'm pretty sure he paid his 4 percent, and
over and above that amount.
Mr. Ronstadt. As far as Frank Wilkinson is concerned, this is
exactly how I felt. Number 1: That his philosophy is completely
contrary to what mine is of course.
I know that he is a dedicated Communist from my past experience,
but not only that, in direct answer to your question, I wouldn't
hesitate to make his name public for this reason, that he is misleading a
lot of good liberals in this country.
In other words, by stating in public that he is not a Communist,
they're helping his cause. If it were known that he was an actual
1494 COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION
Communist I know that the petitions and other things that have been
circuhited in his behalf, would not be.
' Mr. JoHANSEN. Now, I want to go one step further, as to the
threat that he poses to the young people of this country, whether of
liberal tendencies or otherwise, I'd hke to have you comment on that,
because of his activities on campuses.
Mr. RoNSTADT. On this, I think here, too, he represents a real
danger to the young people. As I stated before, he is a man that
makes a good appearance. He has the right vocabulary, you might
say, to appeal to the average college student, and he is very con-
vincing in his approach, or discussions, or things of this nature.
As a matter of fact, he would make a top opponent, let's put it
that way, in a political race.
The following pages contain the complete transcript of the testi-
mony of Robert C. Ronstadt, exclusive of the lengthier quotations
concerning Frank Wilkinson contained in this report.
TESTIMONY OF ROBERT CARRILLO RONSTADT
EXECUTIVE SESSION 10— WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON, APRIL 25. 1962
Mr. Doyle. The committee will reconvene, please.
Let the record show that all members of the subcommittee are pres-
ent, Messrs. Tuck, Scherer, Johansen, and Doyle.
Mr. Tavenner. Mr. Ronstadt, will you be sworn?
Mr. Doyle. Will you please rise and be sworn?
Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to give
before this committee shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth, so help you God?
Mr. Ronstadt. I do.
Mr. Tavenner. You are Mr. Ronstadt?
Mr. Ronstadt. Yes, my full name is Robert Carrillo Ronstadt.
Mr. Tavenner. Where do you reside, Mr. Ronstadt?
Mr. Ronstadt. 5406 Hazeltone Avenue, Van Nuys, California.
Mr. Tavenner. It is noted that you are not accompanied by
counsel.
It is the practice of the committee to advise all witnesses that they
are entitled to have counsel with them if they so desire. Do you
desire counsel?
Mr. Ronstadt. I do not desire a counsel.
Mr. Tavenner. When and where were you born, Mr. Ronstadt?
Mr. Ronstadt. I was born March 18, 1917, if you want the exact
date.
Mr. Tavenner. WTiere?
Mr. Ronstadt. In San Diego, California.
Mr. Tavenner. Will you raise your voice just a little, please?
Mr. Ronstadt. Yes.
Mr. Tavenner. What is your present occupation, Mr. Ronstadt?
Mr. Ronstadt. I am presently one of the directors at the Guidance
Technology Incorporated, located in Santa Monica, Calif.
" Released by the committee and ordered to be printed.
COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION 1495
Mr. Tavenner. Will you advise the committee, please, of your
formal educational training?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Yes; I attended grammar school and high school
here in the Los Angeles area, and the University of Notre Dame
from 1937 to 1941.
I graduated in 1941, and did graduate work in 1941 and 1942.
Mr. Tavenner. In what fields did you take postgraduate work?
Mr. RoNSTADT. In sociology and administration.
Mr. Tavenner. I believe you graduated cmn laude, did you not?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Yes, I did.
Mr. Tavenner. Were you in the Armed Forces of the United
States?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Yes.
Mr. Tavenner. During World War II?
Mr. Ronstadt. Yes, I joined the Marine Corps in 1943 as a
private and was discharged as a Ueutenant in 1946.
There is one thing I might add, that in October 1942 I took the FBI
exams and passed them, and was placed on their waiting list. However,
I decided to enlist about one month later.
Mr. Tavenner. Were you at any time employed by a private
investigative agency?
Mr. Ronstadt. Yes, starting in 1946, roughly I'd say it was about
March 1946 that I was contacted by Mr. Joseph P. McCarthy, who
was a former FBI agent. He at that time was in partnership with
Mr. Joe Dunn — Joseph D-u-n-n, who was formerly chief agent in
charge of the FBI here in Los Angeles.
Mr. Tavenner. This was a private investigative agency?
Mr. Ronstadt. Yes. In 1946 I was contacted by them to go to
work for them. I had several interviews with Mr. McCarthy, and
then he disclosed to me a particular assignment that he had in mind.
The assignment that he had in mind was this :
That he had been contacted by one of the manufacturing companies
here in Los Angeles, which was producing communication material
for the United States Government. The president of the company,
Mr. Broadhead, was quite concerned, because he felt that there was
one or two, or even more. Communists within this particular company,
this manufacturing company, so that he contacted Mr. McCarthy to
find out if Mr. McCarthy could determine who the Communists were
within that plant.
This was part of the assignment. In addition to that, I was assured
by Mr. McCarthy that all information that I might secure in relation
to the Communist Party of the United States would be transferred
and given to the FBI here in Los Angeles.
I did accept the assignment with Mr. McCarthy. I did go to work
for this manufacturing company and finally in about October, I was
approached and given an application to fill out by a member of the
Communist Party at that time.
I filled it out, and for all intents and purposes I associated at that
time, I'd say, from October 1946, to around May or June 1947, with
several Communists.
I delivered and sold the Daily People's World. I spoke off of the
back end of trucks. I spoke at various meetings. I don't know if
you recall that the big hue and cry at that time was to bring the boys
1496 COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION
(the American troops) back from all the overseas bases. It wasn't
until later, when I was actually in the party, that I really found out
the real reason as to why the Communist Party was so anxious to
bring the boys back home.
As we withdrew the troops from the overseas bases, if you will recall,
the Soviet troops, or people who believed in the Soviet system, in the
Communist philosophy, moved in as our troops moved out. I guess
it wasn't until Harry Truman put his foot down that that finally
stopped. He called it his "Police Action" and it marked a turning
point in history.
That was, of course, you know, the Korean situation.
Mr. Tavenner. Do you recall the name of the person who gave you
the application to sign to become a member of the Communist Party?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Yes, perhaps I should go back a bit.
The person, Mr. McCarthy felt was a Communist at that time, was a
lady by the name of Leona Chamberlain, and I was, of course, to
contact her and try to get on her good side. We felt that she would
be the person who would recruit me, but it turned out that the person
who really got interested in me was a fellow by the name of Don
Wheeldin.
Mr. Tavenner. Donald C. Wheeldin, the committee will recall,
was shown in the testimony taken here in 1958, to be a high func-
tionary of the Communist Party in Los Angeles.
Mr. Ronstadt. Well, back in the record, I said he was the fellow
who worked on me to become a member of the party.
Mr. Tavenner. Did you, in the course of your investigation there,
learn that the person you first mentioned, the woman, was a member
of the Communist Party?
Mr. Ronstadt. Yes, after I was in the party, I mean — she was
introduced to me as being a member of the party.
As a matter of fact, I think it was — I attended one meeting, wasn't
an official closed meeting, I don't believe, but there were several
people from the
Mr. Doyle. Off the record.
(Discussion off the record.)
Mr. Doyle. The committee will take a short recess.
(The committee recessed at 3:15.)
(After recess: 3:40 p.m.)
Mr. Doyle. The committee was in recess for 25 minutes in com-
pliance with the order of the United States marshal, who appeared
in person at our committee meeting and notified us that he had
received official communication or a report that a bomb had been
placed in this building where we are holding our hearings. The
witness, the committee, and its staff adjourned to the ground floor,
pursuant to the direction of the United States marshal.
At 3:40, we returned to our hearing room — under the expressed
authority of the United States marshal, who had previously told us
to vacate our hearing room for the reason stated.
The hearing will be resumed.
Proceed, Counsel.
Mr. Tavenner. Mr. Ronstadt, at the time of the recess, you were
telling us about Don Wheeldin having a part in your filing an applica-
tion for membership in the Communist Party.
COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION 1497
Were there other persons that you met during the period of your
employment by this company, whom you afterward found to be
prominent in the Communist Party?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Yes, those people that I met during this period.
One of the persons that used to appear when we were speaking from
the backs of trucks and various meetings, was Hursel Alexander,
who was a very ab e and capable speaker, and did a very good job.
Another person that I met dm'ing the early period was Carl Brant.
He was associated with the United Electrical Workers at the time,
I believe, as business agent.
Mr. Tavenner. Carl Brant, Mr, Chairman, appeared before this
committee on December 6, 1956, at which time he refused to answer
questions relating to his own Communist Party activities, relying on
the fifth amendment.
Mr. RoNSTADT. The other person that I had close association with
at the time was Bill Elconin.
Mr. Tavenner. Is that William Elconin?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Yes.
Mr. Tavenner. Mr. Chairman, William B. Elconin testified before
this committee on June 30, 1955, at which time he likewise refused to
answer questions about his own Communist Party activities, and
relied on the fifth amendment as the grounds for his refusal to answer.
Mr. RoNSTADT. I am trying, you know, to recall some of the
details, the things that we did.
Another thing that we were attempting to do at that time was to
organize the United Negro and Allied Veterans of America. I
understand that this was a nationwide organization, and the real
work here in the Los Angeles area was done by myself and Don
Wlieeldin.
This was one of our prime assignments, to bring veterans into the
organization.
Mr. Tavenner. How long were you employed by the private
investigative agency in this work?
Mr. RoNSTADT. I started, as I related before, roughly around
March of 1946, and remained in their employ until around January
or February of 1947. At that point, the contacts with the Com-
munist Party, of course, were getting heavier and heavier and finally
in May, I believe of 1947, I was accepted, let's put it that way, after
careful screening by the party.
At the time I was accepted into the Communist Party and at that
time, I reported du'ectly to the FBI.
In other words, the FBI didn't want to particularly share informa-
tion with anyone, and although all the reports up until this point had
been accessible to them, they felt that they wanted to have direct
access at all times.
Mr. Tavenner. Did you remain employed from that time on by
the private investigative agency, Dunn & McCarthy?
Mr. RoNSTADT. No.
Mr. Tavenner. Who made the arrangements for you to report
directly to the Bureau?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Actually, it was Mr. McCarthy. It was hi October
of 1946 that I met an FBI agent. Later on, probably January or
February, I was introduced to another FBI agent, who became my
contact from there on in.
1498 COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION
In other words, all the information that we had compiled up to
that point was turned over to the FBI, and then when I started to
report directly, which was about June, I guess, of 1947, I reported
du-ectly to an FBI agent. He was my contact; he also informed me
at the time that he had contacted the FBI office in Washingon, D.C.,
and that I had been given full clearance to go ahead with the work.
Mr. Tavenner. How is Mr. Joe McCarthy employed now, if you
know?
Mr. RoNSTADT. For the past 10 years or so, he was director of
security for Hughes Aircraft, and the last two, well, the last year,
he has been down at Newport Beach. Hughes has a plant down
there. I don't know what his particular function is with the company
today.
Mr. Tavenner. Mr. Chairman, we anticipated having Mr. Mc-
Carthy here as a witness to verify facts so far introduced in evidence,
but Mr. McCarthy's doctor would not permit him to come because of
illness. However, the staff will interrogate him, take an affidavit
from him, and I would like to have it inserted in tlie record as
Ronstadt Exliibit No. 1. (See p. 1499.)
Mr. Doyle. That may be done, without objection.
Mr. Tavenner. Were you at any time mider the employment of
the Federal Bureau of Investigation in doing undercover work within
the Commimist Party?
Mr. Ronstadt. Yes, as I stated before, from Jmie of 1947 to
about the end of 1954, I was directly associated with the FBI.
Mr. Tavenner. Now, the employment that you took in order
to engage in your first work, with the private investigative firm,
was with the Allied Records, was it not?
What did you do after leaving the employment of Alhed Records,
which I believe was in 1947, you say?
Mr. Ronstadt. Yes, in about February of 1947, Don Wlieeldin
secured some — oh, several books on carpentry, and I studied these
books for roughly 4 or 5 weeks, actually.
Then, I went down and I took the examinations at a local union
and qualified as a journeyman carpenter.
This is on a written and a verbal examination. In addition to that,
of course, I practiced with the saw and hammer. I learned how to
use a square and, as a matter of fact, I became, after awhile, a very
good journeyman carpenter, and it's actually developed into my hobby.
At the present time I have a completely equipped cabinet shop.
My wife has designed our furniture, and I have built it. So that is
one of the good things that has come out of this.
Mr. Tavenner. How long did that work continue?
Mr. Ronstadt. That continued on up into, I'd say, roughly
around October or November of 1948.
In 1948, I went back East briefly, to the State of Connecticut, and
was there for about 6, 7, or 8 months. During that course of my
work back there, I worked as a carpenter. I took my tools with me,
and then I returned to California in early 1949.
COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION 1499
RoNSTADT Exhibit No. 1
February 10, 1961
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERM:
During 1946, while engaged In private Investigation In Los Angeles, California,
I first met Robert C. Ron'stadt. At that time, much of my 'Jvork was devoted to
combating internal and external Communism. I had been an F. B. I. agent for
several years; however. Immediately prior to 1946, I had spent six years with
Naval Intelligence and O. S. S. in combating Communism.
In order to Infiltrate the Communist Party of the United States, I located areas
in which known Communists lived and places where they worked. The next project
was In the selection of the right man to Infiltrate the Communist Party.
Experience had proven that too frequently this effort was thwarted by the philosophy
of the Party, causing the undercover man to lean sympathetically toward Communism.
Therefore, extreme care was exercised to find a man of high courage, fine Intelllgencj,
and complete devotion to Democracy.
Robert Ronstadt was that man. He had just returned from the war as an officer In
the Marine Corps. He realized the risk and sacrifice such an assignment would
entail, but he also recognized the enormous contribution he might make to our way
of life. In remarkably short time, he became the object of interest of local Communists.
He was screened and tested by them for months and was finally Invited to become a
Party member.
During all of this time. Bob Ronstadt lived in danger of exposure. It became necessary
for him to change his entire pattern of living. His associates were largely Fellow
Travelers and Party members.
While I was not employed by the F. B. I. at that time, nevertheless, all pertinent
Information gathered by Ronstadt was furnished the Bureau.
At the end of a two-year period, Ronstadt was deeply entrenched In the Communist
Party and had become an extremely valuable source of information. The F.B.I,
requested that he continue his assignment as a counterspy. Ronstadt was destined,
because of his love of country, to lead this double life for an additional eight years.
Subscribed and sworn to before me this
Notary Pvfelic in and for the County of
Orarga State of California.
Mj Commission Expiies Octobet 25, 1964
Mr. Tavenner. Did 3'OU have any connection with the Com-
munist Party in Connecticut?
Mr. Ronstadt. The only connection that I had, I met Don
Wheeldin's sister and his brother-in-law back there, and if I recall
correctly, they lived in a small town just outside of either Bridgeport
or New Haven, in that area. To my knowledge they were not in
the party.
Mr. Tavenner. When you returned to California, what did 30U
do?
1500 COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION
Mr. RoNSTADT. When I returned to California, I picked up my
contact again with Don Wheeldin. There was a slowdown at that
point in the building trades, and I secured a job as a social worker here
with the city of Los Angeles, which, after a few months, was turned
over to the State, so that I ended up working both for the city and the
State as a social worker; this covered roughly the period 1949 to
1950, although I took a leave in 1950 to return to school and attended
graduate school at UCLA. At the end of the year, in 1951, I had
my job waiting for me, actually with the State here in California,
but I left it to go to work with Air. McCarthy at Hughes.
Mr. Tavenner. Hughes Aircraft?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Yes, and I joined their personnel department.
Mr. Tavenner. What was your next employment?
Mr. RoNSTADT. I worked at Hughes from 1951 to 1955, and then
in August of 1955, I went to work as a consultant for Daniel, Mann,
Johnson & Mendenhall. They are architects and engineers here in
the city. I accepted the assignment from them to set up an industrial
relations or personnel division for them.
Their turnover at the time was very great, and they needed a great
deal of help. I set their industrial department or division up, hired a
new director of industrial relations for them, and then in April of 1956,
1 received an offer — actually, I received the offer in January — from
the Rand Corporation to join them in Santa Monica. The Rand
Corporation is one of the top corporations from the point of pure
research, and a very fine company.
So I accepted their offer and went to work for them actually in
April. I was with Rand, and also with System Development Corpora-
tion, which was formerly a division of Rand — broke off into a
separate corporation. I was requested to join them to set up an
industrial relations division.
We recruited scientists from all over the country to set up SDC.
The System Development Corporation is engaged at the present
time, and was also at that time, consultants to the Au' Force from
the point of view of training and defense of this Nation. The last
2 years that I was with them, I was assigned to the entu-e southern
part of the United States, and I acted in an advisory capacity on
training to the generals of that region.
Mr. Tavenner. Did that require any type of classified clearance
or security clearance?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Yes.
Mr. Tavenner. On your part?
Mr. RoNSTADT. It carried a top-secret clearance.
Mr. Tavenner. Were you granted a top-secret clearance?
Mr. RoNSTADT. I was granted the top-secret clearance.
Mr. Tavenner. Now, I would like to go back to the time when .you
returned to California and took your employment within State
government.
What work did you do within the Communist Party during that
period?
Air. RoNSTADT. At that time, in early 1949, I was assigned to —
well, first of all, when I came back and with Don Wheeldin, I was
assigned at that time to an industrial club here in the Los Angeles
area, and if I recall it correctly, the name was McNamara Club. We
COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION 1501
operated out of the — I am trying to think of that particular area. It's
Echo Park area, and most of the people that belong to this club were
people that worked in industry throughout the area.
Mr. Tavenner. I would like for you to describe that club a little
more fully, as to the character of the people that made up that unit
of the Communist Party.
Mr. Doyle. And about how many in it.
Mr. Tavenner. How many were in it and the names of any of
them that you can recall.
Mr. RoNSTADT. In that particular club, I'd say there were roughly
25 to 30 members.
There may have been more, but I attended one or two or three
meetings, that's all I attended in that particular club. There were
25 to 30 people at each meeting.
I didn't become particularly well acquainted with the people in
the group. Right at that time, right around 1949, 1950, I guess, the
party was starting to feel kind of nervous as to names and last names.
If you will recall, I think that right around 1950, the Smith Act
came into action. The Government had this big trial back in New
York of the top leaders of the party, so they were starting to get
security conscious. I'd say, in 1949, that fu'st names were generally
used, and I didn't inquire too much of last names at this particular
period.
I'd get the person's first name, and give a complete description to
the FBI, and then they would do the identification work that was
necessary.
Mr. Tavenner. When were you transferred out of the industrial
club?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Roughl}^, I'd say around May of 1949, and I was
transferred to the Altgeld group, and this was strictly a security
group.
Mr. Tavenxer. What do you mean by "a security group"?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Well, the persons that were in the security group
were people that the Communist Party felt were true and loyal, and
that they wouldn't break under questioning and things of that natiu-e.
In other words, it was the type of people that they felt that they
could depend on to continue in the Communist movement. There
were interviews and things of that nature to determine loyalty.
For instance, I was asked about other people that I had come in
contact with, as to whether they had ever said anything that might
indicate that they were working for the FBI or something of that
nature. So that we went through this careful screening before we
were assigned into the club.
Mr. Tavenner. And was the identity of the persons m the security
clubs kept secret from the rank and file of the Communist Party?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Yes.
As a matter of fact, in the security clubs we weren't to engage in
any outside activities that might create notice. In other words, for
instance, on speaking — if we went out and spoke perhaps to little
groups or something like this, w^e would not identify ourselves as
being members of the Communist Party. As a matter of fact, if it
came up, we were to deny it.
1502 COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION
Mr. Tavenner. Will you tell the committee, please, whether the
selection of individuals to be members of these security groups was
based in part upon the individual's evident position of leadership in
the community or importance in the community?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Yes, I think that to some degree, that was very
true. The people that we had, or the people that I contacted or got
to know after a while in the security clubs, were certainly people that
had fairly responsible positions, either in the city or State government.
So this was the nature of the people, at least, that I came into contact
with.
Mr. Tavenner. Let us begin first with the security group to which
you were first assigned.
I believe you called it the A.ltgeld?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Altgeld.
Mr. Tavenner. Spell it, please.
Mr. RoNSTADT. A-1-t-g-e-l-d.
Mr. JoHANSEN. Former Governor of Illinois connected with the
Haymarket riot episode.
Mr. RoNSTADT. That is true.
I'll just jump ahead for a second; come back.
After I was in this club I found though that it was a group of clubs,
rather than one particular club. We all carried the same name.
Mr. Tavenner. Oh, yes.
Mr. RoNSTADT. You see?
Mr. Tavenner. Yes.
Mr. Ronstadt. But in the club, for instance, that I belonged to,
there were about six or seven people.
In other words, in the security clubs, the number of people in each
one was cut down drastically.
As a matter of fact, I understand that they ranged maybe from
four to eight people, nine people at the most.
Mr. Tavenner. So this group that you were a member of was one
of a series of groups?
Mr. Ronstadt. Yes.
Mr. Tavenner. Did you have personal contact with the members
of the Altgeld clubs of which you were not a member?
Mr. Ronstadt. Yes; after awhile I was given an assignment of
Haison work to some of the other clubs, and I did have this contact
with other clubs in the particular group, the individual clubs.
Mr. Tavenner. All right, let us begin with the club of which
you were a member.
How many composed that club?
IVIr. Ronstadt. There were about seven or eight at the beginning.
Frank Wilkinson was a member.
Mr. Tavenner. What position did he hold at that time?
Mr. Ronstadt. At that time, he was the executive secretary to the
Los Angeles City Housing Authority.
Mr. Tavenner. Very well, can you give us the names of any others,
and positions they held that were in that group with you, that is, the
seven or eight members?
Mr. Ronstadt. Yes.
The other members of the club were Oliver Haskell, and he was
also with the Los Angeles City Housing Authority, He was director
COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVEESION ] 503
of one of the projects. There was another person from the Housing
Authority, Sidney — or Sid — no, Sid Green, and he also was one of
the directors of one of the housing projects here.
And then \vg had a fellow by the name of Bryant — his last name
was Bryant; first name was Drayton.
Mr. Tavenner. Spell the name, please.
Mr. RoNSTADT. I imagine, B-r-y-a-n-t.
Mr. Tavenner. And the first name?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Drayton, I imagine that's spelled D-r-a-y-t-o-n.
Peculiar first name.
He was with, us a relatively short period, and by this I mean, oh,
several months, when he accepted a job to direct a housing project-
back East, either m Philadelphia or New York, so that he left the
immediate area.
Mr, Tavenner. Do you know about wlien he left?
Mr. RoNSTADT. This was roughly the beginning of 1950 when
he left.
Mr. Tavenner. Do you have any knowledge of his present occu-
pation?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Well, as far as I know— I mean, he is still in the
Housing Authority. I have lost contact with him. His wife, inci-
dentally, Adaya, was also a member of the group, but I say this in
respect to her, that I don't think that she was as a person very sympa-
thetic with our work. I sort of gathered this from — well, short
discussions that I had with her. One time I recall she said that the
best thing to do was to get out of the party. She felt that she had been,
I think, misled, and was quite upset about what her husband was
doing.
And I might say this about Bryant, that he was probably one of the
most brilliant individuals that I have met, and this includes some very
top people that we could compare, like Wilkinson, or people like
Don Wlieeldin, within the party.
I think that his IQ was probably 140 or above. Mr. Bryant, I felt was
one of the top people, no question about it — very able and capable.
Mr. Tavenner. Now, you mentioned Frank Wilkinson. Do you
know his wife's name?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Yes, his wife is Jean Wilkinson. She was not a
member of our particular club.
Mr. Tavenner. You mentioned Oliver Haskell. I am not sm-e
whether you said he was a member of this group.
Mr. RoNSTADT. He was a member of the group and, of course, I
attended meetings with him from, well, 1949 to 1952.
Mr. Tavenner. And he was also a member of this security group?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Yes.
Mr. Tavenner. What position did he hold in the community while
he was a member of this security group?
Mr. RoNSTADT. As I stated before, he was one of the directors of
one of the housing projects here.
Mr. Doyle. When you say you attended meetings with him, you
mean closed Communist Party meetings?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Yes, I do.
Mr. Tavenner. What was his wife's name?
1504 COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION
Mr. RoNSTADT. Rosemary, Rosemary Haskell.
Mr. Tavenner. Was she a member of this group?
Mr. RoNSTADT. At the beginning she was. She was with us in
1949, and then she left the group at about the end of 1949. The
reason that she left, she and Oliver were having some marital diffi-
culties.
Mr. Tavenner. Do you know whether she is the same person as
Rosemary Lusher?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Yes, that is one and the same person.
Mr. Tavenner. Mr. Chairman, the committee will probably recall
that Rosemary Haskell Lusher testified before the committee in 1958,
at which time she invoked the fifth amendment and refused to answer
material questions regarding her membership in the Communist
Party, and at that time she was the executive secretary of the Ameri-
can-Russian Institute.
Now, were there others in this original group, the group that you
were a member of, whose names you can recall?
Mr. RoNSTADT. No, that's about it right there.
Mr. Tavenner. Do you recall a person by the name of Fay?
Mr. Ronstadt. Yes, excuse me, Fay Kovner.
Mr. Tavenner. K-o-v-n-e-r?
Mr. Ronstadt. Yes, she was a member of the group also.
Mr. Tavenner. What was her occupation, if you know?
Mr. Ronstadt. I wasn't sm-e. I think at one time she worked
with the Housing Authority, but I don't believe that she was employed
with them at the time.
Mr. Tavenner. Was Carole Andre?
Mr. Ronstadt. No; Carole, I believe was a member of the Altgeld
group, but I think she belonged to another club.
****** *ii
Mr. Tavenner. Would that money go for the pm-poses for which
it was raised?
Mr. Ronstadt. This is hard to say, except that the total amount
never would, because for instance, there was a great amount of litera-
tm-e and things like that that we used to purchase. I know this
because one of my jobs was to pick up the literature, various books
and things of this nature.
Mr. Johansen. This was party literature?
Mr. Ronstadt. Yes.
Mr. Johansen. Not related to the project for which the funds
were raised?
Mr, Ronstadt. True.
Mr. ScHERER. Did Wilkinson do any recruiting for the party,
membership recruiting?
Mr. Ronstadt. Well, we did recruiting in this manner:
We were very careful in our approach, and for instance, if we felt
that a person was fairly close to being recruited — in other words, to
take the next step, then we would pass the word on upward and some-
body else would get in touch with these people from some other club,
or some other group, and would carry on from there.
n Asterisks In dicate deletions of testimony concerning Franlc Wilkinson which have been quoted In tho
foregoing report.
COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION 1505
Mr. ScHERER. That was done in order not to reveal your identities?
Mr. KoNSTADT. That's right.
Mr. Tavenner. Over how long a period did you pay the 4 percent
tax on your salary?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Until I got out. It wasn't only the 4 percent. It
was expected that if we had any sui-plus of money, that as a good party
member we would, you know, donate this money to the party.
Mr. Doyle. What would determine whether or not it was a
surplus?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Well, you have this Idnd of a pressure. In other
words, you have people that belong in a small group, and for instance,
if you are drawing $8,000 or $10,000 a year, and if you can get by on
$6,000 or $7,000, you are expected, as a good party member, to con-
tribute. And, of course, as a good party member, I always con-
tributed.
Mr. Scherer. You mean over and above your 4 percent?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Over and above what was expected.
Mr. Doyle. How much more money did you contribute than your
4 percent? How much more than your expected contribution?
Mr. RoNSTADT. I'd say anywhere from $40 to $50, that's what I
was contributing.
Mr. JoHANSEN. Above the 4 percent?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Above the 4 percent. Because the party at that
time, you Icnow, was running the Peoph^s World. That particular
function has never paid off.
In other words, they always needed additional money, because they
give a great number of newspapers away. In other words, the
People's World becomes not only a newspaper to sell, but also a news-
paper to give to friends, or distribute, or pass around, wherever you
think that they might be taken, you know, or accepted.
For instance, I will give you an example of this. I know that when
I was trying to get subscriptions for the People's World, we'd go house
to house, and we would talk to the occupant to see if they would take
the paper. We would also leave a copy there, and would come back
maybe two or three times, you know, and leave copies free of charge,
so that the people could get acquainted with the newspaper. We
would sell it on the basis that it was the only independent newspaper
in Los Angeles. You know, we don't have any real independent
newspapers here.
Mr. Tavenner. Did Frank Wilkinson pay his 4 percent?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Yes, I'm pretty sure he paid his 4 percent, and
over and above that amount.
Mr. Doyle. Let me ask this, was this payment of more than the
4 percent an established requirement of other members of 3'our
particular club?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Everyone in the club paid, with the exception to
some degree of Fay Kovner. I'd say probably she was the one that
had the lowest income, you might say, but just about everybody
contributed more than requested.
Mr. Doyle. Did you pay that excess to the same person, all of you?
Mr. RoNSTADT. In most cases, yes. For a period of time, yes.
Fay Kovner picked up the money and turned it over to whatever
contact she had in the party.
1506 COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION
Mr. Doyle. Never got receipts for it?
Mr. RoNSTADT. No, no, they stopped writing receipts and all those
thino's, you laiow. They were real security-conscious in the group.
]\4i-. JoHANSEN. Do you have reason to believe that the money
actually went where it was supposed to go?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Yes.
Mr. JoHANSEN. All of it?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Yes.
In other words, it was passed on up to headquarters.
Mr. Tavenner. What do you mean by "headquarters"?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Well, I would imagine in this particular case it
would be the Central Committee here.
Mr. Tavenner. Now, tell us what your association was with other
security groups in Altgeld?
Mr. RoNSTADT. The other group that I had direct contact with
was where I met Carole Andre. That's A-n-d-r-e. She was in a club
that used to meet over around Melrose and Vine, over in that area
of the city.
Mr. Tavenner. Do you know how she was employed?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Here again, I think she was with the State in some
capacity, but I don't know for what branch of the State she worked.
As the liaison, I would give her various instructions and things of this
nature, which she in turn would pass on to the club.
Now, the other person that was also a member of that Altgeld Club,
in another group was Dave Elbers.
He was a member of a particular group, and he was, as I pointed
out before, the latest contact that I had.
Mr. Tavenner. Have you told us how he was employed? *
Mr. RoNSTADT. He was employed by the State. I believe he was
with the State Employment Service at the time. I don't know his
exact capacity, what it was.
In other words, when you meet these people, you couldn't ask too
many direct questions. You know, we couldn't take a chance of
creating suspicion.
Mr. Doyle. Did you ever sit in a closed Communist meeting with
this fellow, Dave Elbers?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Well, closed meeting in this respect. I would go
to him and we would spend maybe 2 or 3 hours discussing various
things or information he had received and that he was passing on to
me, to pass on to Frank.
Mr. Doyle, As a fellow Communist?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Yes.
Mr. Doyle. In other words, you talked with Elbers as a fellow
comrade?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Yes.
Mr. Doyle. On many occasions?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Yes.
Mr. JoHANSEN. Dealing with party business?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Dealing strictly with party business.
Mr. Tavenner. It would seem then that with so many of these
people in the security section, being State and city employed, that
really the State and city were substantially supporting the Communist
Party, without knowing it.
COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION 1507
Mr. RoNSTADT. Well, I mean, this is a conclusion I imagine you
could draw.
The other people that were in the other clubs, I met once or twice.
Now the actual employment or where these other people worked,
this I don't know.
Mr. Doyle. Was your assignment ever for you to try to get into
the party any one or more top public officials at any government level,
either Federal, State, county, or city in California?
Mr. RoNSTADT. For awhile there, in 1952, I was given a particular
assignment, for instance, to bring back to the Communist Party people
that had been given a leave from the party due to the Taft-Hartley Act.
If you will recall, when that was passed, part of it states that you
can't be a Communist. So what the party did was to give these
people a leave. In other words, cut them off, but the party found
out that these people who had been cut off were drifting away from
the Communist Party. I was given the assignment to contact these
people and to bring them back into the party.
One of them was Sidney Moore. He was associated with one of the
unions. My job was to talk to him and to bring him back into the
Communist movement. However, I wasn't very successful.
After several meetings with him, he got the impression across to me
that he was functioning just as well, and that he didn't need the organ-
ization of the Communist Party to help him in the labor movement.
Mr. Doyle. Do you know of any other assignment that was given
to any fellow comrade, to get into your club or any club, or into the
party, any of the top or leading citizens in this area, who were public
officials in State, county, or local government?
That's what I'm getting at, Frank Wilkinson, for instance, in the
Housing Authority. He was there and then one other you mentioned
being with the State, this man Fibers.
Mr. RoNSTADT. No, our assignment never was, as such. In other
words, our assignment was always if you find a person that is perhaps —
that tends to be, let's say, sympathetic to the Communist philosophy —
is to meet with him, develop his friendship, and to give him more and
more information about the Communist philosophy of life and things
of this nature. As I related before, when you get a person to a certain
point, then you would turn this person over to somebody else.
Mr. JoHANSEN. Well, you made the remark, I believe you stated
that Moore felt he was functioning just as well without being a
member of the party.
Do you mean functioning with respect to the Communist cause or
functioning with respect to the labor movement?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Well, actually both.
In other words, he was functioning just as well in the labor move-
ment, and I think he felt that he didn't need the Communist Party
to help him or to guide him or to direct him. As a matter of fact, I
would say that actually from the point of view of the philosophical
discussions that we had during this period he felt that the party was
a hindrance. My job was to determine if it was possible to bring
him back; in addition, to determine if we could trust this man if we
brought him in. My final report was that we could not trust him if we
brought him in.
1508 COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION
He had had a change — in other words, he was away from the party
too long and he had had a change of heart in relation to the philosophy
of the party.
Mr. JoHANSEN. That clarifies the point.
;Mr. Tavenner. Now, have you stated to the committee why this
particular man, Sidney Tvloore, got out of the Communist Party?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Yes, I stated that as a result of the Taft-Hartley
Act, people who were in responsible positions within the labor move-
ment were given this leave from the Communist Party.
In other words, officially they didn't have to attend any meetings
or anything of that nature. The party found out that to cut a person
off completely was a mistake. The party started losing some of them,
and what they finally decided was that it was better to have them
back in the party and to take their chances in that respect.
Mr. Tavenner. But the understanding under which these persons
left the party, as I construed your testimony, was that this was merely
an organizational severance of membership?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Yes.
Mr. Tavenner. And that the individual was expected still to
continue as an affiUated member of the party, though not an actual
member?
Mr. RoNSTADT. That's right.
Well, no, I think no — in other words, when you say actual member, '
I'd put it this way:
That he was still an actual member, but not a participating member
since he would not meet with anyone else to carry on any activity.
As a matter of fact, Moore had had no contact that I know of,
officially, until I contacted him, and as I say, I spent several weeks
over a period of time, talking to him and trying to get him back in.
Mr. Tavenner. Do you have personal knowledge of any other
instances where members left the party under similar circumstances?
On account of the Taft-Hartley Act?
Mr. RoNSTADT. All of the people, like Elconin and Brant were all
placed on a similar type of leave. The other one that was contacted
was Eleanor Grennard, and here again
Mr. JoHANSEN. How do you spell that name?
Mr. RoNSTADT. G-r-e-n-n-a-r-d. And here, my discussions with"
her were going on when Frank was called before the Senate Committee
here in Los Angeles. At that particular time my principal assignment
was to keep Frank Wilkinson together, so that I was pulled off of
other assignments. I was getting much the same feedback from
Eleanor as I was getting from Mr. Moore.
It's a funny thing — 3'^ou break them loose and it's pretty tough to
get them back.
Mr. Doyle. Well, this self-work or group-work on your part as a
Communist member, must have taken a vast amount of your time
away from your home, so that it must have consumed most of j^our
time outside of your actual employment hours, did it not?
Mr. RoNSTADT. It consumed a great deal of my time. I might
add that durmg part of the period, of course, I wasn't married. I met
my present wife actually in late 1951. About the middle of 1953,
Marlene was getting kind of suspicious and she popped the $64
question one evening as to whether or not I was a member of the
COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION 1509
party, or whether I was a Communist. I told her at that time that
I was, and I didn't see her for several days.
After consultation with the contact that I had, I made the decision
to reveal my true identity to her, namely; that I was not a Com-
munist; that I was one perhaps only in name only; I told her about
my past work; brought her up to date on my present standing.
Mr. Doyle. That didn't break up your home then?
Mr. RoNSTADT. No, not only that, I acquired a wife and two
additional children.
Mr. Tavenner. Wliat were the circumstances under which you
terminated your work in the Communist Party?
Mr. Tuck. That is exactly what I have been wondering.
Mr. RoNSTADT. WeU, the circumstances are these: starting around
1953, I had been approached by the party as to whether I wanted to
accept an assignment to go completely underground. By this I mean,
moving from this city to some other city in the United States, assuming
another name, and going completely underground.
Now, one of the reasons, and several reasons why I was approached
on this, was the fact of my so-called working-class background.
During the course of my life, I have worked as a truck driver; I have
worked in the auto industry; I have worked, of course, as a carpenter,
as I revealed here; I worked in the record industry and I worked as a
laborer. I have had a vast amount of experience. It would not be
difficult for me to lose my identity. I could go into a city and start
making a living.
In that respect, for instance, I will give you a good example. A
carpenter's journeyman's card is something that could be very easily
forged.
When I went back to Connecticut and started working back there
as a carpenter, I stated I was a member of the local here in Los
Angeles and they just started to pick up my dues there. There was
never any clearance as far as I know from the Connecticut local to
the Pasadena local.
I was under pressure from the party to go completely underground.
On the other hand, I w^as also being pressured by the FBI. They
w^anted me to continue my work and to accept, if possible, the under-
ground assignment. The third element that I mentioned, of course,
was the fact that I was engaged at that time. Marlene knew of my
past activity since I had told her. I was really faced with 3 groups,
you might say, or 2 groups and one individual, and, of course, Marlene
voted against it. She didn't want this and the FBI was very under-
standing about it.
Mr. JoHANSEN. Was there any indication, in the feelers that were
put out by the party about your going underground as to what 3'our
subsequent assignments would be?
Mr. RoNSTADT. No, there wasn't any particular discussion on that.
The discussion went along this line, namely; that due to the build-up
of pressure against the Communist Party in the United States, that
we had to face the possibility of going underground, and that this
would be really the beginning, or part of that movement.
I remember Seattle was mentioned, namely, that I would go to
Seattle and that I would go underground there. Whether I would
be sent from there to some other city, I do not know.
1510 COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION
Mr. JoHANSEN. When you spoke of it being partly because of your
working-class background, did that indicate or intimate to you that
your assignment might be in the union field?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Well, it could have been, but not necessarily in
the union field. It would have been, I think, in any area where I
could get a job without attracting any undue attention, and probably
holding that job for a year or two.
Mr. Doyle. You mentioned pressures put on you to go under-
ground. From what level, what pressures— what do you mean by
pressures?
Mr. RoNSTADT. Well, by pressure — actually I received this from
Dave Elbers, and it was a proposition that had been made to him to
pass on to me. I was to think about it, and to make a decision.
They wanted a decision within 3 or 4 weeks.
Mr. Doyle. Well, from what level did that invitation come to
Elbers for you?
Mr. RoNSTADT. As far as I know, he had direct contact with the
Central Committee.
Mr. Doyle. Of the county or the State?
Mr. RoNSTADT. I am not sure whether it was the county here or
the State, or even if the county organization was aware of it.
Mr. Doyle. Governor Tuck asked you what terminated your work.
What did?
How did he get out entirely, is that what you mean?
Mr. Tuck. I was wondering whether or not these conflicting
circumstances, which have been related, triggered your separation
from the Communist Party.
Mr. RoNSTADT. Well, part of it was the fact that:
First, I refused this assignment; that was part of it. Second, was
the fact that I was working in a defense industry and that I might be
subject to imprisonment. I kept bringing this up and, of course,
one of the things was for me to leave that work and go some place else.
Mr. Doyle. When did they discover that you were a phony
Communist?
Mr. RoNSTADT. I don't think that they ever really discovered that
until probably January of this year when I started campaigning for
Congress — I am running for Congress in the 27th Congressional Dis-
trict, and I felt that in order to let the people there know, and in order
to avert, for instance, a last-minute accusation that I was a Com-
munist, I felt that it would be wise to tell the various Democratic
groups where I spoke some of my background. This I did, and one
of the newspapers, unfortunately picked it up, and got the thing
twisted.
In other words, they came out with a statement that Robert C.
Ronstadt, former Communist, turned FBI informer — was running
for Congress. Well, this created kind of a bad impression, so I
turned around and I sued them.
So, as a result of this, I imagine that by now the party is well
aware of my past activities; not only that, but a couple of days ago
liere, as a matter of fact, I guess it was, Monday or Tuesday — I
beUeve, Tuesday afternoon, between 4:30 and 4:45, for instance, I
received a threatening call, telling me not to appear down here as a
v\'itness.
COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION 1511
Not only that, my brother at the campaign headquarters, received
one yesterday, and when he told them that he wasn't Bob Ronstadt,
evidently the person on the other side either didn't beheve that he
was not Bob Ronstadt, but at any rate, the person went on to tell
him that they weren't fooling about the fact and for me not to appear
down here.
Mr. Doyle. That call was from a man or w^oman, did your brother
say?
Mr. Ronstadt. The one that my brother received was from a man,
and the one I received was also from a man.
Mr. Tavenner. Mr. Chairman, this is all that I desire to ask, but
I do think the witness should be kept under subpena for his own
protection.
Mr. Doyle. Any objection to that by any member of the com-
mittee?
Mr. JoHANSEN. I certainly concur.
Mr. Tuck. I do, too.
Mr. Doyle. Without objection, that will be the order.
Have you any questions, Mr. Johansen?
Mr. Johansen. Let me say — off the record.
(Discussion off the record.)
Mr. Johansen. On the record.
Would you care to make any comment on the basis of your expe-
rience, actually your acquaintance with such a man as Frank Wilkin-
son, as to the
* * * * * * *12
Mr. Johansen. I'd like to have the record show that in my judg-
ment, the service that you've rendered and the service of the type
that you and others have rendered is of the greatest importance and the
country is in your debt in my judgment.
Mr. Ronstadt. Thank you.
Mr. Doyle. Governor Tuck, have you any questions?
Mr. Tuck. I have no questions.
Mr. Doyle. I have no further questions.
You have heard Mr. Johansen on behalf of the committee, I want
to thank you.
(Witness excused.)
'2 Asterisks Indicate deletions of testimony concerning Frank Wilkinson quoted in foregoing report.
APPENDIX
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE May S 1961
pp. 6770, 6771
National ABounoK Campaign Pbogeam
March 1961-Febeuart 1962 — Preliminart
Recommendations (Draft)
(Prepared by Frank Wilkinson, field repre-
sentative. National Committee To Abolish
the Un-American Activities Committee)
PETITIONS TO CONGRESS
Previous petitions: It la proposed that the
petition which appeared In the Washington
Post, January 2, 1961, and New Yorfe Times,
February 9, 1961, und» the sponsorship of
the Princeton Ad Hoc Committee, and which
is now being printed by this committee as
an 8V2 by 11-lnch booklet In newsprint, be
distributed nationally in the greatest possible
quantity. The ad hoc cormhlttee estimates
that this can be purchased for $2 or less per
1,000, plus freight.
Circulation of new petitions : It Ls proposed
that as many new petitions as possible be
circularized throughout the country.
Content: In addition to petitions which
call upon Congress to abolish the HUAC, it
Is proposed that the following petltlonable
proposals be considered: (a) Opposition to
such new hearings as the HUAC may sched-
ule; (b) opposition to all forms of govern-
mental sponsorship of the HUAC-alded film
"Operatl6n Abolition"; (c\ cxirbs on JJXJAC'a
appropriation; (d) other.
To whom : Depending upon subject matter
of petition and geographical ar^as covered.
It Is proposed that petitions be directed to:
(a) An Individual congressman from the
constituents of his congressional district;
(b) all congressmen within a section, metro-
politan area or State; (c) a general petition
to the House of Representatives, addressed to
the Speaker.
From whom : All possible g;roups of citizens
should be urged to petition Congress, In-
cluding: (a) Ministers and rabbis; (b) facul-
ties; (c) student bodies; (d) union mem-
berships; (e) political councils and clubs;
(f) a cross section of prominent citizens In
the community; (g) general public petitions,
PUBLIC hearings
Educational meeting offense: It Is pro-
posed that abolition committees In all com-
munities organize "town hall" types of
public meetings where discussion and debate
win stimulate Interest In specific action
projects U) abolish the HUAC. Meetings of
all kinds should be encouraged. Including:
(a) Neighborhood-home meetings; (b) con-
gressional district meetings; (c) area-wide
meetings; (d) church, synagogue, union,
fraternal clubs; (e) other.
First amendment cases : There are approxi-
mately 45 persons In the country today
who have varloiis legal challenges of the
authority of the HUAC and other Inquisi-
torial committees of government pending
1.512
before the courts. As these cases are proo-
cessed through the coiu-ts, they become valu-
able focus points In the abolition campaign,
providing an excellent opportunity for edu-
cational-protest meetings. Examples: (a>
Dr. Wlllard Uphaus who has already served
a year In prison rather than cooperate with
a witch-hunting New Hampshire committee,
has volunteered to speak across the coun-
try In behalf of campaigns to abolish all
such committees; (b) Peter Seeger, na-
tionally recognized and beloved folk artist.
Is scheduled to go on trial for his contempt
of the HUAC sometime In March; he has
agreed to accept Invitations for public meet-
ings In support of the abolition campaign
during April and May — after his trial, and
depending on his schedule openings (for
further information, telephone Mrs. Toshl
Seeger: Beacon, N.Y. — Beacon 2652). (c)
For further Information on other cases,
write William Price, Coordinator, Commit-
tee of First Amendment Defendants, P.O.
Box 564, Radio City Station, New York 19,
N.Y.
EDUCATIONAL MEETINGS-DHyENSE
HUAC hearings — protest meetings: It Is
proposed that all future hearings called by
the HUAC be countered by every possible,
effective -public demonstration, Including
public meetings. The newly formed Greater
Washington (D.C.) Committee to Abolish
the HUAC has offered to provide both hous-
ing accomodations and, where desirable, to
OTganlze public protest meetings and stimu-
late public attendance at hearings which
the HUAC may schedule In Washington.
Persons subpenaed to the Capital from dis-
tant cities should be honored by send-off
and .welcome-home rallies at airports. Those
subpenaed from areas closer to Washing-
ton should be accompanied (by chartered
bus, etc.) by those supporting the abolition
of the HUAC.
Pro-HUAC meetings: Meetings called In
support of the HUAC should be oppose^ by
every effective means. The HUAC should bfl
countered by public protest agalnsrt each afc-
tlvlty It Initiates to perpetuate Itself.
Due to the fact that the committee has Is-
sued such false. Inflammatory llterat\u"e,
speeches and films to discredit Its critics and,
has- repeatedly warned and forecast "vio-
lence" from, its critics. It is extremely Im-
portant that all aspects of the abolition
campaign be planned with special care to
achieve models of peaceful assembly; such
plannlng'should Include written Instructions
on the best techniques and discipline for
such demonstrations, advance notification
of plans and fullest cooperation with pollcA
authorities, etc.
LTTEBATUBK
Previously prepared literature available:
(a) Washington Post-New York Times pe-
COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION 1513
tltions to CongresB bf Princeton Ad Hoc
Committee: $2 per 1,000 or less, plus freight.
(b) "In Search o£ Truth," a student anal-
ysis of San Francisco demonstrations of May
1960: $2 per 1,000, plus freight.
(c) "Collection of Editorials and Resolu-
tions In Opposition to the Un-American
Activities Committee," now expanded by 25
additional pages, and to be increased and
Indexed as new materials become available:
25 cents each, plus postage. It Is urged that
a maximum number of copies be secured by
every^bolltlon committee for personal deliv-
ery to key community leadership.
(d) "Sovmds of Protest" — 12-lnch, long-
playing records of the San Francisco student
demonstrations — ^prepared by and available
wirough SLATE at the University of Cali-
fornia at Berkeley: $2 each, plxis postage.
(e) Summary of San Francisco student
demonstrations. Congressman Roosevelt's
historic April 25, 1960 speech, and supi>ort-
Ing editorials, prepared by the United Elec-
trical Workers (11 East 51st Street, New York
City) : $^ for tape recording; $3.50 for '12-
lnch, long playing.
NEW LrrEEATcmE proposed for preparation
AND/OR NOW AVAILABLE
(a) Summary of analyses and criticisms of
HUAC-sponsored fiinj "Operation Abolition,"
Including Herblock cartoons; San Francisco
News-Call Bulletin article, "The Truth About
the San Francisco Riots"; the resolutloa erf
February 23, 1961, by the National Council of
Churches of Christ of the United States, cau-
tioning against film Showing without presen-
tation of factual data regarding the films
admitted and alleged distortions; and, a
montage of editorial criticisms' from the fol-
lowing: The Christian Century; the Metho-
dises Concern, Marquis Chllds; Paul Jacobs,
the Washington Post, l^e Northern California
Council of Churches, and otheir bay area
critiques, etc. Price not det«rmlned; esti-
mated at 3 cents to 5 cents each, plus post-
age (offset; 8 '/a by 11 inch three-fold book-
let) .
(b) National Council of Chiirches of
Christ's February 23, 1961. resolution and
"Some Facts and Some Comments" regard-
ing "Operation Abolition," (37 pp.) avail-
able tlirough NCCUSA, 476 Riverside Drive,
New York City.
(c) "Curb the HUAC's Appropriations." the
carefully doc-omented, hard-hitting attack
upon the HUAC's lack of legislative purpose
or product, presented by Congressmen
James Roosevelt and William Fitts Ryan
before the House Administration Committee
on February 21, 1961. Price not determined;
estimated at $3 to $4 per 1,000. plus freight.
(d) "The Truth About the San Francisco
Riots," a series of eight articles in the San
Francisco _ News Call-Bulletin, available
without charge by writing to the paper, San
Francisco, Calif.
(e) "Collection of Cartoons In Opposition
to the HUAC," proposed offset collection,
similar to those presented In the "CoUectloU
of Editorials and Resolutions In Opposition to
the HUAC" (see above). Price not deter-
mined; estimated 10 cents to 20 cents each,
plus postage.
(1) "Facts Regarding the HUAC" proposed
short history of the HUAC; s summary of
the legal arguments supporting the un-
constitutionality of the HUAC (Supreme
Court decisions and dissents); and other
critical facts regarding the mandate and
practices of the HUAC. This type of litera-
ture has been requested by many student
groups and others; a draft Is being prepared
for possible publication by the students and
lawyers committees of the New York Council
To Abolish the HUAC. Price undetermined,
(g) A new 12-lnch LP recording of a sum-
mary of all materials now available In oppo-
sition to HUAC, presented in recorded form.
This material has been tentatively suggested
by a committee within the New York Coun-
oU To Abolish HUAC,
(h) "A Collection of Editorials and Reso-
lutions From Religious Leaders and Organi-
zations in Opposition to the HCTAC." pro-
posed literature being considered by the Re-
ligious Freedom Committee, Inc. for dis-
tribution to churches and synagogue leaders.
Frlcie not determined.
Other program recommendations:
Student abolition committees: There are
now abolition committees on a score or more
college and university camp\ises. The
NCAUAC will continue to provide literature,
speakers and. every other possible assistance
requested by the various student groups.
While the spontaneous natiu-e of this stu^
^ent concern In the abolition of the HUAC
is undoubtedly Its most significant and valu-
able characteristic, it Is Important tiiat the
various atudent ahoUtloii. .soups fluii tbus
means to coordinate their activities, exchan^
Information of their experience, etc. . "
In this regard, student groups In Wash-
ington. D.C. have considered a national stu-
dent conference on abolition of the HUAC;
the New York Youth To Abolish the HUAC
Committee Is preparing a summary of known
information regarding student activity In
this field — for national distribution to stu-
dent groups and editors; the National Stu-
dent Association has conducted a 6-reglon,
100 college-university conference-discussion,
which Included a study of the HUAC; etc.
The NCAUAC will continue to Include edi-
torials and resolutions from student groups
In the. "Collection of Editorials and Resolu-
tions in Opposition to the HUAC."
Conventions: At all forthcoming conven-
tions, conferences, seminars, etc. of church,
labor and other organizations, special atten-
tion should be given by the abolition com-
mittees located In the areas where such
meetings are scheduled to see that — (a)
llterattire is made, available; (b) speakers
are made available If reqtiested; and (c)
resolutions In opposition to the HUAC are
solicited.
The 1962 campaign to curb HUAC appro-
priations: Long-range plans should be borne
In mind by all abolition committees to seek
the maximum congressional vote in opposi-
tion to the HUAC appropriations for 1962.
It Is proposed that the NCAUAC should
again establish a temporary Washington,
D.C. office for this purpose In late Decem-
ber-1961 to February 1962.
National coordination, NCAUAC relations
1514 COLD WAR AGAINST INVESTIGATION OF SUBVERSION
to abolition committees:
Iiocal abolition committees : It Is proposed
that as many local abolition committees
as possible be established throughout the
country — undertaking aa much as possible
of the above prt^ram recommendations.
These committees may identify and coordi-
nate their efforts as closely as they desire
with the NCAUAC, still maintaining their
autonomy for as flexible and independent a
program as possible.
Regional coordination: To insure maxi-
mum efficiency and economy, it Is proposed
that the national abolition campaign un-
dertake self -coordination by regions, as fol-
lows:
Atlantic coast: coordinating organiza-
tion— New York Council to Abolish the
HUAC, No. 442, 150 West 34th Street, New
York City 1, PE 6-3228.
Mid West: coordinating organization — Chi-
cago. Comnaittee To Defend the Bill of Rights,
No. 811, 189 West Madison Street, Chicago 2,
"in., DE 2-7142.
Pacific coast: coordinating organization —
Los Angeles Citizens Committee to Preserve
American Freedoms, 617 N. Larchmont Blvd.,
Los Angeles 4, Calif., HO 2-1329.
NCAUAC activities:
The NCAUAC shall assist the national abo-
lition campaign by providing the following:
(a) General coordination. In liaison with
regional coordinating organizations, through
correspondence, telephone (where essential)
and travel. If manpower Is available, two to
tovtx national coordinating trips should be
undertaken. In addition, coordinating as-
sistance should be encouraged from others
In connection with their business and vaca-
tion travel throughout the year.
(b) Literature preparation: As Indicated
above, the NCAUAC should be responsible
for the preparation or procurement of all
literature needs of the national campaign.
Local literature preparation to service local
campaigns with local Information Is to be
encouraged at all times; the Chicago and
San Francisco committees have made out-
standing contributions of this kind.
(c) National mailings : It is proposed that
the NCAUAC maintain a national mailing
list of 5,000 to 10,000, covering key na-
tional leaders and organizations — as well as
key personnel in the various abolition com-
mittees. As circumstances require and ma-
terial Is available. It is proposed that
NCAUAC undertake national mailings five or
more times during the year to this list.
NCAUAC budget
PROPOSED EXPENSES
Item
Minimum
Maximum
Salaries
None
$1,000
1,000
2,000
None
National trips, at $500 each
5 national mailings of 5,000
each:
$1,600
1,000
Printing -..
2,000
Special mailings (collections of
2,000
Long-distance phone calls, at
.. 600
300
500
600
Washington, D.C., office 1962
appropriations:
Rent, etc. (1 month, plus).
Travel and food (1 month.
300
500
Stenographic services (part
time)
2,000
Stationery, postage, etc., at
600
600
Total
6,000
10,500
PROPOSED SOtraCE OF INCOME
Area
Minimum
budget
Maximum
budget
Year
Month
Year
Month
$2,500
600
600
600
600
1,100
(=)
$205
50
50
60
50
90
$4,000
1,500
1,600
1,200
1,200
1,100
(»}
$330
125
Washington, D.C....
Philadelphia . . ..
125
100
San FranciSQQ «..
Miscellaneous '
100
90
Total
6,000
10,500
1 Massachusetts, New Jersey^ Maryland,
Indiana, Wisconsin, Missouri, Michigan, etc.
> Los Angeles pays salary of field representative.
Ohio,
INDEX
Individuals
A
Page
Alexander, Hursel William , 1497
Andre, Carole 1504, 1506
B
Barenblatt, Lloyd L 1475, 1476
Bernard, John Toussaint 1476
Block, Herbert 1513
Brandt, Joseph (Joe) 1472
Brant, Carl 1497, 1508
Broadhead 1495
Bryant, Adaya (Mrs. Drayton Bryant) 1503
Bryant, Dra j'ton 1 503
C
Cameron, Angus 1481
Cervantes, Shirley Jane 1499
Chamberlain, Leona 1496
Childs, Marquis 1513
Criley, Richard L. (Dick) 1478, 1489
D
Davis, Benjamin J., Jr 1482
Dies, Martin 1487
Donner, Frank J 1478, 1479
Dunn, Joseph 1495
E
Edises, Bertram 1 479
Eisenberg, Frances 1485
Elbers, Dave 1492, 1506, 1507, 1510
Elconin, William B. (Bill) 1497, 1508
F
Flynn, Ehzabeth Gurley 1472, 1482
Foreman, Clark Howell 1474
Foster, William Z 1471
G
Green, Sidney (Sid) 1485, 1503
Grennard, Eleanor 1 508
H
Hall, Gus (alias for Arva Halberg) 1470, 1471, 1478, 1482
Haskell, Oliver 1502-1504
Haskell, Rosemary. {See Lusher, Rosemary Haskell.)
Herblock. {See Block, Herbert.)
Holtzendorff, (Howard) 1490, 1491
Hoover, J. Edgar (John Edgar) 1472, 1476, 1482, 1486
J
Jacobs, Paul 1513
i
il INDEX
K
Kenny, Robert W 1484
Kent, Rockwell 1474
Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeevich 1470, 1478
Kovner, Fay. (See Makes, Fay.)
L
Larclner, Ring, Jr 1479
Lima, Albert (J.) (Mickie or Mickey) 1486
Lima, Mickie. {See Lima, Albert J.)
Lusher, Rosemary Haskell (nee Wylde; Mrs. Bernard Lusher) 1504
M
Marshall, Dorothy N 1493
Marzani, Carl Aklo 1481
McCarthy, Joseph P 1495-1500
Moore, Sidney 1507, 1508
Makes, Fay (Mrs. Richard Makes; nee Kovner) 1504, 1505
N
Naiditch, Jack 1485
Nathan, Otto 1477, 1487
Nixon, Russell Arthur (Russ) 1477
0
O'Connor, Harvey 1473, 1474
P
Pauling, Linus (Carl) 1475
Price, William 1512
R
Rankin, John E 1471, 1487
Richards, Harvey 1481
Ronstadt, Marlene (Mrs. Robert Carrillo Ronstadt) 1508, 1509
Ronstadt, Robert Carrillo 1467, 1489, 1490-1511 (testimony)
Roosevelt, James 1477, 1513
Ryan, William Fitts 1488, 1513
Schneider, Anita Bell (Mrs. Virgil A. Schneider; alias Seeta) 1485
Seegcr, Peter (Pete) 1480, 1487, 1512
Seeger, Toshi 1512
Silber, Irwin 1480
Smith, Elizabeth (L.) 1485
T
Truman, Harry S 1496
Trumbo, Dalton 1473, 1474
U
Uphaus, Willard 1476, 1512
W
Watkins, John T 1473, 1475
Whecldin, Donald C 1496, 1498-1500, 1503
White, Burton. 1478, 1489
Wilkinson, Frank 1484-1494, 1502-1508, 1511, 1512
Wilkinson, Jean Benson (Mrs. Frank Wilkinson) 1485, 1503
Williamson, Adina 1 485
Winston, Henry 1471
INDEX iii
Organizations
A
Page
Allied Record Manufacturing Co. (Las Palmas, Calif.) 1498
American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born 1478
American Russian Institute (for Cultural Relations with the Soviet
Union)-. 1504
B
Ballantine Books, Inc 1479
C
California Senate Fact-Finding Committee on Un-American Activities 1476,
1484, 1485, 1490-1492, 1508
California State Employment Service 1506
Chicago Committee To Defend the Bill of Rights 1478, 1514
Citizens Committee for Constitutional Liberties 1468
Citizens Committee To Preserve American Freedoms (CCPAF) (Los
Angeles) 1475-1477, 1479, 1484-1486, 1491-1493, 1514
San Francisco Chapter 1476
Civil Rights Congress 1472, 1478
Committee of First Amendment Defendants (New York) 1512
Communist Party of the United States of America 1467,
1470-1472, 1482, 1483
National Structure:
National Committee 1470-1472
National Conventions and Conferences:
Fourteenth Convention, August 2-6, 1948 (New York City) 1472
Seventeenth Convention, December 10-13, 1959 (New York
City) 1469
Districts:
Northern Cahfornia District 1486
States and Territories:
California:
Los Angeles County 1484, 1485
Altgeld Clubs 1489, 1490, 1501, 1502, 1504, 1506
Echo Park Section (within the city of Los Angeles) 1501
McNamara Club 1500
E
Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America, United (UE)__ 1479, 1497, 1513
Emergency Civil Liberties Committee (ECLC) 1472-
1475, 1477-1479, 1485, 1486
National Council 1473, 1484
Philadelphia Council 1473
F
Fair Play for Cuba Committee 1479
H
Hughes Aircraft (Cahfornia) 1498, 1500
L
Labor Research Association 1477
Liberty Prometheus Book Club (New York City) 1480, 1481
Los Angeles City Housing Authority 1484, 1485, 1490, 1491, 1502-1504, 1507
Los Angeles City School System 1485
M
Methodist Federation for Social Action 1478
iv INDEX
N
National Committee To Abolish the Un-American Activities Committee
(NCAUAC) (see also New York Council To Abolish the House Commit-
tee on Un-American Activities; Washington (D.C.) Area Committee
for the Abolition of the House Committee on Un-American Activities; Paee
Youth To Abolish the House Un-American Activities Committee) 1477,
1478, 1484, 1486-1489, 1512-1514
National Council of Churches of Christ in America 1513
Northern California 1513
National Lawyers Guild 1476, 1478
National Non-Partisan Committee to Defend the Rights of the 12 Com-
munist Leaders 1 472
National Student Association. {See United States National Student As-
sociation.)
New York Council To Abolish the House Committee on Un-American
Activities {see also National Committee To Abolish the Un-American
Activities Committee; Washington (D.C.) Area Committee for the
Abolition of the House Committee on Un-American Activities; Youth
To Abolish the House Un-American Activities Committee 1477-
1479, 1487, 1489, 1513, 1514
P
Philadelphia Council of the Emergency Civil Libefties Committee. {See
Emergency Civil Liberties Committee; Philadelphia Council.)
Princeton Ad Hoc Committee 1512, 1513
R
Reed College (Portland, Oreg.) 1482
Religious Freedom Committee, Inc 1513
S
SLATE 1513
U
United Negro and Allied Veterans of America 1497
U.S. Government:
Justice Department:
Federal Bureau of Investigation 1488,
1489, 1495, 1497-1499, 1501, 1509, 1510
United States National Student Association.. 1513
University of CaHfornia (Berkeley) 1513
V
Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) 1482
W
Washington (D.C.) Area Committee for the Abolition of the House Com-
mittee on Un-American Activities (also referred to as Greater Washington
(D.C.) Committee to Abolish the HUAC) {see also National Committee
To Abolish the Un-American Activities Committee; New York Council
To Abolish the House Committee on Un-American Activities; Youth
To Abolish the House Un-American Activities Committee) 1477, 1512
Y
Youth To Abolish the House Un-American Activities Committee (see also
National Committee To Abolish the Un-American Activities Com-
mittee; New York Coi ncil to Abolish the House Committee on Un-
American Activities; Washington (D.C.) Area Committee for the Aboli-
tion of the House Committee on Un-American Activities) 1477-
1479, 1489, 1513
INDEX V
Publications
A Page
A Quarter Century of Un-Americana 1480
Abolition (Newsletter) 1478, 1487, 1488
American Security Reporter (VFW Newsletter) 1482
C
Christian Century, The 151:5
Collection of Editorials and Resolutions in Opposition to the Un-American
Activities Committee 1487, 151:5
Communist, The 1471
Congress and Your Rights (bulletin) 1475
Courage is Contagious (pamphlet) 1475
D
Daily People's World 1481, 1495, 1505
■p
End the Cold War (speech) 1482
F
Facts Regarding the HUAC 15i:i
For Abolition of the Inquisitorial Committees of Congress (pamphlet) 1471
I
In Search of Truth 1513
M
Masters of Deceit (book) 1472
Methodist's Concern 1513
Monthly Review 1474
N
New Horizons for Youth 1488
0
Operation Un-American (pamphlet) 1476
P
People and the Congress, The (pamphlet) 1471
R
Rankin Witch Hunt, The (pamphlet) 1471
Rights 1475
S
San Francisco News-Call Bulletin 1513
Sing Out (magazine) 1480
Smear and Run (pamphlet) 1476
Sounds of Protest (records) 1513
Statement issued by the Conference of Representatives of 81 Communist
Parties, Moscow, December 1960 1469, 1470, 1478
Truth About the San Francisco Riots, The 1513
U
Un-Americans, The (book).. 1479
United States in Today's World, The (pamphlet) 1470
o
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