It was difficult to forget that while Americans and South Koreans were taking the brunt of the war, Russia and Britain had both violated the U.N. embargo by shipping strategic materials to Red China. On the floor of the U.N., Andrei Vishinsky had thrown down the Russian challenge: "The Soviet Union has never concealed the fact that it sold and continues to sell armaments to its ally, China!"
The end of the Korean War marked the end of an era. During the summer of 1953 the United States served notice on Britain and France that if the Communists broke the cease-fire agreement in Korea we would immediately launch a major war against China. Both Britain and France agreed to support this stand. Many did not realize it at the time, but by this action the United States was passing the death sentence a twenty-year-old policy of Communist appeasement.
The Role of the FBI in the Battle of the Underground
No one could have welcomed the end of appeasement with greater relief than John Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI and the number-one law enforcement personality in the United States. Since 1919 he had struggled to illuminate the minds of government leaders as well as the public generally concerning the conspiratorial nature of Communism. As an assistant to the Attorney General in 1919 he had prepared one of the first legal briefs reflecting the subversive aspects of the worldwide Communist movement.
During the twenty years of appeasement, when many Americans had been lulled into a sense of security by the "sweet talk of Communist United Front propaganda," John Edgar Hoover had struck out with two-listed blows at the Red menace which was gnawing at the vitals of American life:
"The American Communist ... must be placed in the same category as the Ku Klux Klan, the now defunct German-American Bund, and other totalitarian groups.... As common criminals seek the cover of darkness, Communists, behind the protection of false fronts, carry on their sinister and vicious program, intent on swindling and robbing Americans of their heritage of freedom."
John Edgar Hoover was a great disappointment to the Communists. In most countries the Red leaders had been able to completely discredit the agencies handling the police powers of government by blasting them with charges of corruption and violation of civil liberties. However, the Director of the FBI had spent his adult lifetime building the FBI so that the public would know that any such charges would be false and fraudulent.
Over the years the public had learned that FBI agents spent as much time checking out innocent suspects as they spent in ferreting out the guilty. In fact, by careful investigation and humane treatment of the guilty, the FBI had secured confessions in 85 percent of its cases.5
Therefore, the Communists were deeply disappointed with the results of their campaign to portray the FBI as an American Gestapo. The Communists leaders were further embittered by the knowledge that the FBI had trained its personnel to be just what governmental officers in a free nation should be -- alert, intelligent, scientific and hard working. And what particularly frightened the Reds was the quiet methodical way in which Bureau agents went after subversives -- all of which foreshadowed a day of reckoning for Communist strategists.
It came July 20, 1948, when all the top leaders the Communist Party of America were indicted. The "Big Eleven" who stood trial were all convicted. Six of their attorneys were also fined or imprisoned for contemptuous conduct during the trial. Four of the eleven Communists jumped their $20,000 bail bond and the FBI had to launch an international investigation to have them returned.
Shortly afterwards the Government became convinced that Soviet espionage agents had been stealing atomic information and the FBI was given jurisdiction. Within weeks the FBI had gristed through tons of records, interviewed hundreds of "restricted" employees at various atomic energy plants and emerged from the slow elimination process to point the finger of justice at a physicist, Klaus Fuchs, who had spent considerable time at Los Alamos. However, at that moment the German-born, naturalized Britisher was the dignified director of England's atomic energy establishment at Harwell.
Acting on the FBI tip that Klaus Fuchs was the principal suspect in the subversion of the free world's monopoly of the atomic bomb, British Intelligence went to work. Within one month they saw some evidence that the FBI might be right. After another month they had no doubt about it. On February 3, 1949, the British announced that Fuchs had been arrested and had made a full confession.
Fuch's confession sent the FBI on another hunt. Fuchs said he gave packets of information dealing with the atomic bomb to a person known to him only as "Raymond." This person had to be identified and located since he was apparently the courier who delivered the bomb secrets to the Soviet Consulate in New York. Although the FBI had nothing to start with but a physical description, a phony name and the possibility that the courier might be a chemist, agents finally came the right man. It was Harry Gold.
Harry Gold confessed and this enabled the FBI to finally unravel the answer to a question which had puzzled the whole nation: "How did the Russians get hold of information on the ingenious trigger mechanism of the atomic bomb which should have taken the Russians many years to discover?" Harry Gold said they stole it. The FBI once more took up the trail and this time it led to the doorstep of two U.S. citizens, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
The investigation revealed that Julius Rosenberg had pressured his young brother-in-law, David Greenglass, to turn over to Harry Gold and himself all the basic information about the trigger device without which the bomb could not be exploded, David Greenglass worked at the atomic energy laboratory at Los Alamos and had a rather intimate knowledge of the construction of the bomb and the lens apparatus by which it was detonated. Greenglass was finally induced to draw up sketches of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima and to provide detailed drawings of the detonator lens. The Rosenbergs then channeled this information into the regular Russian espionage apparatus.
As soon as the Communist scientists received this data they quickly closed the gap in the atomic race and exploded a Russian bomb. It will be recalled that this came as a great shock to the startled West. The Red leaders capitalized on this temporary advantage by rattling their atomic sabers and telling the Communist leaders in China and North Korea to start casting about for some early military conquest. Eagerly they went to work preparing for the Korean War. In fact, by the time Julius and Ethel Rosenberg had been convicted and were ready for sentence the United States was in the midst of the Korean conflict. Thousands of American lives were being sacrificed to hold back the tide of desolation which the Rosenbergs had helped to turn loose.
Judge Irving Robert Kaufman looked down at this man and woman and said:
"Plain, deliberate contemplated murder is dwarfed in magnitude by comparison with the crime you have committed.... I believe your conduct in putting into the hands of the Russians the A-bomb, years before our best scientists predicted Russia would perfect the bomb has already caused in my opinion, the Communist aggression in Korea, with the resultant casualties exceeding 50,000 and who knows but that millions more of innocent people may pay the price of your treason. Indeed, by your betrayal you undoubtedly have altered the course of history....
"What I am about to say is not easy for me. I have deliberated for hours, days and nights.... I have searched the records -- I have searched my conscience -- to find some reason for mercy -- for it is only human to be merciful and it is natural to try and spare lives. I am convinced, however, that I would violate the solemn and sacred trust that the people of this land have placed in my hands were I to show leniency to the defendants Rosenberg. It is not in my power, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, to forgive you. Only the Lord can find mercy for what you have done ... you are hereby sentenced to the punishment of death."
David Greenglass was sentenced to fifteen years.
It was a tragic chapter in American history, but it verified Mr. Hoover's original assertion that the Red leaders "carry on their sinister and vicious program, intent on swindling and robbing Americans of their heritage of freedom."
But John Edg
ar Hoover knew that the communist revolutionists would never try to strike their final, deadly blow at the United States as long as they were losing the battle of the underground. He also felt that carefully selected and carefully trained young Americans could match stratagems with the Red leaders and win. The history of the FBI during Mr. Hoover's remarkable administration gives ample justification for his feelings of enthusiasm and complete confidence in the ultimate victory of America's underground soldiers of freedom.
The Crack in the Iron Curtain
By 1953 the Kremlin was not only suffering embarrassment abroad but a wide crack in the Iron Curtain revealed that the Communist empire was in desperate straits at home. The myth of Communist strength and unity was uncovered. East Germany riots broke out as the people faced tanks with bricks and bare hands. To make matters worse, insubordinate Russian officers and soldiers had to be executed for refusing to fire into the German crowds. A rash of uprisings also broke out in Czechoslovakia and threatened to break out in Poland, Bulgaria and the Ukraine.
For over forty years the collectivized farms have continually failed
to fulfill the dream of overwhelming abundance expected by
Communist leaders. In 1954 official reports showed that Russia was
producing even less food than it did in 1928 under the NEP.
Economists discovered from admissions of Malenkov in his speeches and official releases that Russians were working 38 hours a week for food that took only 26 hours to earn in 1928. Furthermore, Russia -- with a substantial increase in population -- was producing less food under State Socialism than she had produced under the NEP in 1928. The riots in the satellite countries were the result of the realization that Russia would probably never fulfill her propaganda promise to furnish them food, clothing and machinery. On the contrary, the bankrupt USSR had been feeding like a great parasite on the satellite countries.
In contrast to the Iron Curtain countries the Western European nations were enjoying the greatest period of prosperity in forty years. The American people had donated 50 billion dollars to the post-war recovery of these countries and they were rapidly reaching the point where they could begin to stand alone. There was a healthy resurgence faith in free enterprise capitalism as the United States reached the zenith of its prosperity and demonstrated its capacity to not only produce more wealth than any other nation but to distribute it more equitably among its people.
A leading Socialist in Britain, Professor W. Arthur Lewis, openly acknowledged that Socialism had been a great disappointment in England: "What has been done ... is to transfer property not to the workers but to the Government. Workers continue to be employees, subject to all the frustrations working under orders in large undertakings.... Those who expected nationalization to raise wages have ... been disappointed.... It does not solve the problem of labor relations; it reduces private wealth ... it raises unsolved problems of control; and it raises the issue of how much power we want our Government to have."6
The Communist Conquest in Indo-China
After the Korean Armistice the Chinese Communists did not allow Russia's domestic problems to dull their appetite for further aggression. They marched off to complete the Red conquest of Indo-China. Originally the war in Indo-China had been an attempt by the native population to free itself from French colonialism. However, Red infiltration by Communist Chinese had finally changed the conflict from a war for freedom to a war between France and the Chinese Reds. The compromising influence of the French Communist Party (the largest single party in France) made the fatal outcome of the war dependent only on the passing of time. Defeat to the French came on July 21, 1954. At Geneva the Red Chinese jubilantly agreed to stop fighting in exchange for 12,000,000 people and 61,000 square miles of Indo-China.
Mao Tse-tung was now intoxicated with double success. Even Russia felt it necessary to make concessions to Mao and his Chinese Communists in order to insure their continued loyalty to the Communist Motherland. In October, 1954, Russian officials trekked to Peiping and flattered Mao with the following promises:
1. To evacuate Port Arthur which Russia was authorized to lease at Yalta.
2. To sell to China (on easy terms) the railroads and other industries which Russia had been operating since the war as a "Partner."
3. To loan China 130,000,000 dollars.
4. To help build two railroads across China.
5. To help China build 15 new heavy industrial projects.
6. To campaign for the seizure of Formosa.
7. To campaign for the inclusion of Japan in the Communist orbit.
It was apparent that even though Russia was talking "peaceful coexistence" the free world would have little relief from the war-making plans of Red China.
The Task of Isolating a World Aggressor
From the point of view of the United States, the Indo-China fiasco was a dismal political tragedy. The 100 Communists in the French Parliament (who even refused to stand in tribute to the French war dead) engineered the collapse of the seven-year war. As the U.S. Secretary of State addressed the armistice meeting at Geneva he lashed out at the cowardice and subversion which had sacrificed 12,000,000 more human beings to Red aggression: "Peace," he said, "is always easy to achieve -- by surrender. Unity is also easy to achieve -- by surrender. The hard task, the task that confronts us, is to combine peace and unity with Freedom!"
Secretary Dulles left Geneva to carry out a feverish, round-the-world campaign to get all free nations to make an "agonizing reappraisal" of the ridiculous concessions which were being made to Communist imperialism. In 20 months he covered over 152,000 miles and when he was through the United States had become a party to (or strengthened its position in) a chain of regional compacts specifically designed to reinforce Communist containment. To the dismay of the Soviet strategists, Article 52 of the U.N. Charter contained a loophole which permitted this procedure. Therefore, the United States openly began to use NATO, SEATO and similar regional organizations as collective agencies for mutual security. To a large extent this nullified the paralyzing choke-hold which the Soviets had previously held on the West through its abusive use of the veto power in the U.N. Security Council.
The United States also announced that she did not intend to sit back and watch Russia construct its armada of long-range bombers which Communist press releases described as capable of dropping H-bombs on American cities. The U.S. answer to this was the rapid construction of a ring of U.S. defense bases on the fringe of the Iron Curtain. Immediately the roar of an injured bear came thundering out of Russia: "We are being threatened with annihilation!"
Secretary Dulles soberly reaffirmed a truth which he was well aware the Communists already knew -- namely, that no nation need fear these bases except an aggressor. Then he expounded in clear-cut, hard-hitting terminology the new doctrine of "massive retaliation" which he warned would be triggered instantly in case the Soviet Empire dared fulfill its oft repeated threat of a surprise attack on the free world.
For awhile there was an ominous silence in Moscow.
Russia Tests the New U.S. "Get Tough" Policy
Toward the latter part of 1954 it became apparent that serious political adjustments were going on inside Russia. A bellicose, bullet-headed personality named Nikita S. Khrushchev and a punctilious party politician named Nikolai Bulganin began to appear more frequently in the news. An ex-Soviet official (Nikolai E. Khokhlov) declared this to be a bad sign. He described Khrushchev and Bulganin as promoters of world Communism, in contrast to Malenkov and Beria who wanted first to improve living conditions for Russians.
In the fall of 1954, Khrushchev and Bulganin led a delegation to Peiping. There the Chinese were given instructions to prepare for an assault on Formosa. From this, it became apparent that completely new lines of power had been drawn in Russia. Eventually it came out that Malenkov had deserted his partner, Beria, and joined forces with the new Khrushchev-Bulganin forces. In the latter part of December, Beria and three of his aides wer
e shot. Malenkov was summarily demoted but he had switched sides in time to save his life. Bulganin took his place and Khrushchev hovered in the background setting policy and announcing the new slogans, "return to heavy industry -- armaments" and "the growing of food by decree."
Meanwhile the Chinese Communists had also caught the spirit of the new leadership and began fronting for Moscow by tantalizing the democracies with the shocking announcement that they had deliberately held back U.S. officers and men in violation of the prisoner-exchange agreement at the close of the Korean War.
The armistice agreement at Panmunjom had specifically provided that all U.N. prisoners who desired repatriation would be returned even though some of them might be charged with some crime. Now, however, the Chinese Communists were defiantly announcing that they had secretly held back a number of American prisoners because they were charged with espionage or some other type of crime. U.S. indignation reached a white heat as many Americans began to realize for the first time how completely impossible it is to depend on a Communist pledge.