Part 9

Unfortunately, this idealistic motivation has given thousands of members, from brilliant scientists like Klaus Fuchs to ordinary laboring men, undaunted zeal and enthusiasm. Members driven on by this idealism have been willing to sacrifice their homes, families, and lives for the cause. They have become inflamed with a passionate, though twisted, courage. This is the motivation of the New York functionary who thought that five or six hours of sleep a night were sufficient for any member and regarded any request for time off as traitorous. “You can get your recreation after the revolution,” she once snapped at an associate.

The Communist Party, in a very true sense, becomes as in the case of Jack a new but bigoted faith.

The FBI has interviewed many hundreds of Party members. A few case histories will illustrate why many joined. By understanding these influences we can do much to defeat the Party’s present recruitment drive.

Let’s take the case of Eric. He is typical of the many who joined the Party during the economic depression. He remembered his youth as days of “deprivation.” He worked at odd jobs, such as helping the milkman and caring for chickens. But everywhere he went he met bitter frustrations. He became more and more dissatisfied with existing economic conditions.

Then one day at a secondhand bookstore he came upon some documents that alleged very unsatisfactory conditions in American economic life. Eric bought and read these documents. “The effect upon me was profound; I don’t believe that anything I have ever read has had the same impact upon me since.” In his own words, he felt a “terrific compulsion ... to do something to help better the conditions brought out in the report.” He was swept up by a desire to wipe out prejudice, to “help bring the underdog of our civilization up to a place of dignity.”

Eric had never talked to a Party member. He had no personal knowledge of communism. Yet somewhere he had formed a false impression of the Communist Party, based on communist propaganda. “I knew that it ... somehow had come to believe that it considered all men equal, that it was fighting for the underdog, that it had no prejudices against color of skin or religion.”

Motivated by these errors, Eric on his own initiative went to a corner drugstore, looked up the Party’s address in the telephone directory, and called headquarters. He told how Party officials seemed “surprised” when he stated his desire to join.

With determination in his heart, Eric went to Party headquarters, climbed the brownstone steps to the front door, and rang the bell. A young lady answered. He asked if this was Party headquarters. She said no but pointed to a basement entrance. There, in the presence of an eighteen-year-old girl and a dark-haired, stooped man, Eric signed an application card for Party membership. His tragic decision had been made with gusto and enthusiasm.

Karl as a young man, like Eric, was deeply affected by the depression. He told how he had seen people eating out of garbage cans. He felt that something had to be done to remedy conditions. Moreover, in his opinion, the incumbent government was not adequate to cope with the problems.

Soon he began to read communist literature and in 1934 joined the Young Communist League. But this was to be only the beginning.

In 1936 came the Spanish Civil War. Karl, because of communist agitation, became deeply interested. He detested Hitler and fascism. Mussolini and his Black Shirts were even more detestable. The more he thought about international developments, the more he had the urge to take a personal hand in the situation. His hatred of fascism was intensified when some of his relatives had to flee from Europe because of Mussolini’s persecution.

Full of youthful vigor, Karl went to Spain as a volunteer in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Here on the front lines he was wounded and to this day bears the effects of the injury. This impetuous decision, taken against the advice of his family, represented a contribution of the Communist Party of the United States to international communism. Karl’s idealistic fervor against fascism and injustice was translated into shot and powder for the furtherance of communist aims.

Many thousands of Americans joined the communist movement during these early days of the fight against fascism. The hardships of depression days contributed to the deceptive appeals of communism. These men and women, seeking solutions, thought incorrectly that the panacea lay in communism. They labored under the illusion that the Party and Soviet Russia represented a better democracy. As one disillusioned member was later to complain, “At this time the Communist apologists stressed idealistic goals, and bragged of a growing democracy in Russia.”

Many individuals have joined the Party in the vain hope of improving social conditions, gaining better housing, or achieving better relations between the races.

Ralph was typical of many. He was a Negro, proud of his race and eager to help better its status in America. While in school he prepared a thesis on this subject. Wanting to secure various opinions, he asked several friends to read his manuscript. One of these, a fellow student, remarked after reading the paper that Ralph’s approach had been very naïve and that further study should be undertaken. Thereupon he furnished Ralph with information about Karl Marx and the communist viewpoint.

The communist position appealed to Ralph. Here was an organization that claimed that it was working zealously for the betterment of the Negro. The propaganda appeals seemed to point the direction that Ralph should take. He succumbed and joined the Communist Party. He was to learn that the Party has no sincere concern for the Negro but was and is using deceptive propaganda appeals to advance the communist cause.

The very same communist tactic applies in the field of labor unions. Edward was an active member of his union. In the early 1940’s he was recruited into the Communist Party and assigned to a club in the industrial section of the Party. Why had he joined? “When I joined the Communist Party I believed that I was joining a political party that would benefit the workingman.” Three years later he dropped out of the Party; it was _not_ for the workingman. Rather it aimed at killing individual rights, making unions subservient to Party orders, and using union strength, influence, and finances to further communist goals.

The Party today is still busily at work trying to infiltrate unions. Historically, communists, including Lenin, have taught that communists must infiltrate unions. Every union member must realize that the communist interest in labor organizations is insincere. Past communist appeals have been recognized as false by patriotic union leaders themselves. Today’s communist appeal is no less false or dangerous than those of previous years. Our knowledge of how the Party operated in the past is one of our best weapons in defeating its techniques today.

The list of specific reasons for joining the Party, growing out of a desire to improve our nation, would be long. One woman was interested in social problems, such as slum clearance and better housing. Communists claimed to favor the same things as she. She believed and joined. Another individual, as a young minister, saw many injustices in a Northern state. Still another, arriving home from overseas, felt that the war had not accomplished any semblance of peace; he was displeased with American policy. He walked into Party headquarters on his own initiative and signed up.

Over the years thousands of Americans have entered the doors of communism. The turnover of Party membership has been great. Besides those motivated from idealistic reasons, there have been curiosity- and adventure-seekers, opportunists, disgruntled misfits, and power-hungry personalities. Some of these have consciously sought out the Party; others have just drifted into it. Many were youngsters, wanting to dance and sing. Some wanted social companionship. In others, sexual appeal played a role.

The Party, falsely representing itself as the final answer to _all_ of society’s problems, economic, social, political, and religious, makes ready use of the various hopes, fears, and aspirations of recruits. This dynamic deceit of communist action provides an immediate channel for energy and enthusiasm. Within hours a recruit will be handing out leaflets or running errands. He gets the feeling of being in action _now_ and not having to wait to participate in the fight for what he conceives to be a better world. Many recruits to the Party, when asked later why they didn’t offer their talents to legitimate organizations concerned with reform, said such groups were “too slow.” In the Party they found that “immediacy” which so satisfied them.

Then, in working in the Party, the recruit is promised a “belongingness,” a feeling of comradeship that can be won only in day-to-day battles for the greatest of causes. The member is told that he is part of a world-wide movement based on the most “enlightened,” “advanced,” and “scientific” principles. Unfortunately the Party has been able to generate great enthusiasm through this teaching. One member told the FBI that the slogan, “vanguard of the working class,” had appealed to him. He felt that not only was he contributing his own talents to the cause but he was “leading,” “educating,” and “guiding” others. “I think this activity was satisfying something in me,” another stated. Such an approach often deceives recruits, especially those of an egotistical nature, who appreciate the prospect of achieving personal “power” inside the Party structure where the chief qualification for advancement is not ability, education, or talent but loyalty to the Party. One high Party leader whose authority over Party disciplinary matters extended across half a continent was in ordinary life a day laborer. The flattering of his ego from his Party position can well be imagined.

In particular the communists have made an appeal to the so-called intellectual. The seduction of many intellectuals over the years by the Party stands as a disgrace. Thinking men and women, trained to analyze critically, all too often have been duped.

Our experience has shown that members joining the Party for idealistic reasons are more likely to stay in the movement than those not so motivated. Of course, this is not always true. Though joining the Party in a sincere attempt to better society, a member may quickly become disillusioned. However, time after time members who join for curiosity, for social reasons, or for sexual pleasure soon drift out. They are usually not the material from which hard-core communists are made. Here is an example:

Gladys was a college girl, rather gay, not too serious, with a great deal of leisure. She attended some Marxist study groups. Here Russia and communism were painted in rosy colors. After several meetings she was invited to join the Party. She accepted, 80 per cent, she said, out of curiosity and partly because she felt that if the communists could achieve a “peaceful” world about which they talked, it would be a “nice thing.” Other reasons Gladys gave for joining: to have something to do and to alleviate “boredom.” She described Party literature as more amusing than educational. Needless to say, she did not stay in the movement. Even Party officials, in her opinion, never seemed to trust her.

A sad group of recruits are simply the twisted, mixed-up neurotics. Perhaps as sons and daughters of well-to-do parents they harbor a “guilt complex” about the very privileges that America has given them. Or, because of some setback in life, they are angry at society and turn to communism as a way to “get even.”

Let’s look at Larry, a communist in a Midwestern state. Ever since youth, he had felt a “persecution complex.” Everywhere he looked he seemed to see despair and strife. The whole of society, he concluded, was strictly a dog-eat-dog affair, with life being divided between the have’s and the have-not’s. Such an attitude was intensified by an “artistic” and “sensitive” temperament. Seeing these “injustices,” he felt compelled to help the “persecuted.” At first he became just a “reformer”; then, after reading Marxist literature, he joined the Party. Twisted, distorted, and maladjusted, he is today even more confused. He found that the Party only exploited his neurotic condition to make use of his services.

The techniques of actual recruitment vary. In most instances indoctrination comes slowly. A fellow union member, worker, or associate who is a Party member will “work” on the prospect. First come conversations about mutual interests such as union activities. Deftly the communist slant will be emphasized. Perhaps then will come communist literature or an invitation to a “study group.” Step by step the recruit becomes enmeshed in the Party’s efficient recruitment apparatus.

A former member told how she first became acquainted with communism, which she was later to reject. She was living a lonely life in a boardinghouse. She noticed that some of her neighbors had many friends who laughed and chattered gaily. Apparently they had common interests that drew them together. One night she heard the muffled overtones of what sounded like a meeting next door: “Overcome by my growing curiosity about them, I snooped as no lady should. I sat on the bed and pressed my ear against the plaster wall. As their subdued voices rose and fell, I caught words and snatches. I don’t know now what I heard, or what could have convinced me in my great ignorance of that time. But before the meeting adjourned, I believed my jolly neighbors were Communists, and that I was listening to a secret meeting of a Communist cell of Government workers! They did not look as Communists were pictured, and they were not plotting bomb-throwing or assassination, but some much duller discussion with long words.” In her loneliness this woman joined the Communist Party but found neither “happiness” nor a “sense of direction”—only bitter disappointments.

Party fronts offer excellent means of recruitment. Be assured that every noncommunist who actively participates in a front is under the Party’s close scrutiny. Sometimes, of course, as we have seen, an individual is more useful to the Party by remaining a nonmember, a sympathizer, or a fellow traveler. At other times, if the prospect seems to offer a fertile field of recruitment, pressure is applied. Thousands of Party members were recruited through the many fronts operating in the 1930’s and 1940’s.

Of special interest to the Party are young people. The Party’s youth organizations, such as the Young Communist League and its successors, are largely recruiters of young people for communism. Many Party-sponsored activities—dances, parties, and picnics—are aimed to win the allegiance of boys and girls. Time after time members join as teen-agers—the age at which the Party would like to capture minds.

Many Party members have been recruited from communist homes, the children of Party members. In America today many hundreds of children, growing up in communist homes, are captives of this alien ideology. These youngsters are taught from the earliest years that God does not exist. One communist mother in a Northern state taught her children that God was not real. She said that it was fun to watch Superman on TV but that a person must recognize that he doesn’t actually exist. It’s the same way, she said, with God. In another city a communist father noticed a religious program on the family television set. He uttered a derogatory remark and turned off the program with the exclamation, “I’m a Marxist.”

Party parents provide special Marxist instruction for their children. One father would sit down with his youngsters and discuss items appearing in the _Daily Worker_; another gave regular quizzes on Marxist literature; still another lectured on Marxist economics every morning at the breakfast table. When the child grows up, he is given Party tasks: distributing literature, taking up collections at rallies, walking in picket lines. He begins to get the “feel” of Party life. In one instance a communist family gathered around a table and spent an hour or two in Party self-criticism and promising to do better. Party morality is constantly being inculcated in these youthful minds, a belief that whatever helps the Party is good, whatever hinders it is immoral. In one instance a communist father denounced a federal law that restricted the activities of the Party. His teen-age son, confused by the statement, pointed out that the Act was part of the law of the land. “Son,” the father replied, “if a law is bad, you do not have to obey it.”

No wonder many hundreds of recruits spring from communist homes as devotees of Marxism-Leninism.

Our experience has shown that reasons for joining the Party are many, varied, and complicated. Each individual has his own personal problems, hopes, and aspirations. Any attempt to apply generalized, ready-made stereotypes is to leave the problem unsolved. Moreover, we must try to see the _total man_; that is, all the forces, events, ideas, and motivations that brought about his tragic decision. For that reason each member deserves careful study. In the next chapter I shall discuss the reasons why members leave the Party. Here again we must understand each member as a human being, as an individual, always remembering that even though still a bigoted devotee he is convertible. Any thinking Party member will soon recognize the basic contradictions of communism.

We should be alert to help any communist back on the road to good American citizenship as soon as he shows the slightest indication that he is disillusioned with what he has found inside Party circles.

What lesson can we as a society learn from the Party’s methods of recruitment? Most important, I think, is to realize that the Communist Party is attempting to exploit the rise of materialism, irreligion, and lack of faith in our society. In an era when moral standards have been lowered, when family life has been disrupted, when crime and juvenile delinquency rates are high, communists have tried to set forth a goal—dressed in attractive phrases—that would captivate the longings and hopes of men and women. They have, in truth, tried to “steal” the nobility, the fervor, the enthusiasm of a free government under God.

9.

_Why People Break with Communism_

Just as important as knowing why people join the Communist Party is understanding why they leave. Here again, by recognizing the influences that cause them to reject this alien doctrine, we can do much to defeat the communist conspiracy.

Always we must keep in mind that communists, even hard-core members, potentially can be converted. To the individual who asserts, “Once a communist, always a communist,” I say: “No. Every communist can be made to see the errors of his way. He must not be despised, belittled, or rejected as hopelessly lost. He can redeem himself by actively taking a stand for freedom. Every patriotic American must do what he can to bring these persons to see the truth. The ex-communist is today one of our most potent weapons against communism.”

On September 9, 1957, the _Daily Worker_ published a story which stated: “Joseph Clark has resigned from the Daily Worker, of which he was foreign editor, and from membership in the Communist Party.”

Clark was a Party member for twenty-eight years, always known as an ardent one. When Stalin died, Clark was his paper’s correspondent in Moscow. Yet, by his own current processes of thinking he saw the futility of the Party.

Howard Fast, well-known communist author, was mentioned in the last chapter. After years of Party membership and thousands of words of communist propaganda, he quit. The revelations of Khrushchev about Stalin’s murderous regime were too much. “The dimensions of this horror were not only beyond anything we could have dreamed of ... I was filled with loathing and disgust.”

On the West Coast Barbara Hartle, because of her fiery energy and zeal, was recognized in Party circles as the outstanding woman communist in the Pacific Northwest. So active was she in Party circles that she was indicted, tried, and convicted under the Smith Act. But she, too, became disillusioned. Like Louis Budenz, Bella Dodd, Howard Fast, and Joseph Clark, she added her name to the growing list of communists who have said, “We’ve had enough. We’re quitting.”

To understand why members break with the Party, let’s examine the case of Barbara Hartle, who exemplifies the anguish of a Party official desperately seeking her way to freedom. Her experiences may enable members still in the Party to look into their own hearts. Are they being beset by the same doubts? Why have these doubts arisen? What is working to increase or to quell them?

On the other hand, Barbara Hartle’s story will give the patriotic citizen an appreciation of the anguish experienced by Party members on their journey to freedom. He can learn to be understanding, patient, and helpful. He will see, for instance, how a sympathetic citizen helped Barbara free herself from communist entanglement.

On March 12, 1954, Barbara Hartle walked into the Seattle office of the FBI. She didn’t need to identify herself. The previous October she, along with four other top Party leaders, had been convicted in Seattle under the Smith Act.

Barbara Hartle told her story: She had been graduated in 1929, Phi Beta Kappa, from Washington State College, majoring in English; then she went to Spokane, trying to find a job. Those were depression days and her story is all too typical. Hoping for a “better world,” she began to read Karl Marx. Deeply impressed, she joined the Socialist, then the Communist, Party. Her rise was rapid. Later she was transferred to Seattle where she occupied some of the highest Party positions in the Washington State organization. “I’ll go to jail if I must,” she once declared, “but I’ll remain a communist.”

One day in 1945 Barbara Hartle sat writing an article for the communist press. Earl Browder was on his way out as head of the communist movement. By force of habit she defended him. But Party experience taught otherwise. Foster was now the “boss.” Confused by the sudden Party shift, she tore up the article.

Later, back on the Party line, she wrote another article supporting Foster. But something had happened. Out of this confusion, this “great surprise,” as she termed it, of the Party switch, she seemed suddenly to have seen something new—that the Party was not what it claimed to be, but a fraudulent deception. To Barbara Hartle, as to many communists, doubt had come, an indication that the breath of freedom was still alive in her.

As in many such cases, this confusion and doubt quickly disappeared, swallowed up in the rush of Party life. In 1939 she had become disturbed by the Party’s position on the Hitler-Stalin pact, but this also had passed. She soon became the same fanatical Barbara Hartle, attending meetings, issuing orders, making speeches.

Yet these doubts were to be followed by other doubts. Now she began, as she later explained, to become conscious of certain features of Party life that she had not previously noticed. She listed some of them:

1. The constant factional struggle for leadership.

2. The hand-picking of leaders from the top.

3. The arbitrary handling of funds by some of the top officials.

4. Finding the “self-criticism” of leaders to be mere “empty promises.”

5. The “furious resistance” of Party leaders to criticism or guidance offered by rank-and-file members.

6. The expulsion of members by “rigged trials.”

Like a searchlight, these doubts began to search out other doubts, inconsistencies, and contradictions. The fissure of doubt was widening.