Youth Told of Grim U.S. at Budapest

200 U. S. Delegates Pictured Their Country Like This. .

(The following is an excerpt from the official program distributed at the U. s. cultural presentation.)

"...In a time of developing economic crisis, the few of us lucky enough to land jobs face declining wages, insecure seniority, speed-up and general campaigns of terror and sabotage against our unions. But the greater part of our young people have no jobs at all, and walk the streets in search of employment, unable to secure adequate training facilities, unable to barter trained or untrained muscle and brain for over a pittance, forming a desperate reservoir of reserve labor and an unwitting weapon against the unemployed. Many of us are former servicemen, our meager veterans allotments exhausted, our post-war dreams of full employment smashed. To the ever-louder demands of our youth for jobs, all Wall St. men can answer is "Join the Army..."

"The greater part of American youth have no jobs. America is run by economic royalists and military brass hats. The average American family needs $78 per week to survive it receives $58."

These and similar statements were made last August by one of the few U. S. youth groups to recently penetrate the "Iron Curtain." Similar beliefs are still actively being spread by this group.

Ten thousand delegates to the World Youth and Student Festival at Budapest, August 14 to 28, heard or read these descriptions of American. This was the second such festival, dedicated to "peace, independence, democracy"; it grouped representatives from 82 national groups.

Most of the 200-person U. S. delegation claimed only to represent "people interested in the preservation of peace." The majority of the group held political opinions ranging considerably to the left of the Progressive Party. A fluctuating minority, often no more than half a dozen people, contained members of such organizations as the American Friends Service Committee and the YMCA; a few independent students were included in this minority. Three delegates went to Harvard.

Crime Marked Stay

Marking the delegation's two-week stay in Budapest were incidents of intra-group wrangling and suspicion, during which the majority frequently attempted to silence dissenters from its policy. The delegation also ran into friction with the U. S. Embassy, and one instance of out-and-out crime.

The U. S. delegation was organized last spring by a group called the American Festival Committee, with headquarters in a dingy building on Bleecker St. in downtown Manhattan. People wishing to attend the festival had to make arrangements through this committee; the Hungarian government was unusually willing to approve all visa applications made through the group. Anyone who wished to go to the festival and could play his way was welcome--the only restriction was that no purely "observers" were allowed, all had to be members of the delegation.

When the U. S. group arrived in Budapest on Aug. 14, it found the Hungarian government had turned over large areas of its capital city to the festival. Buses had been commandeered for transportation. The best restaurants in town were used to feed the delegates. The Amusement Park on Margaret Island in the Danube was carmarked for use by Festival people. So were the city's enormous public baths.

All these facilities were packaged and sold to the delegates for forty dollars for the two weeks stay. The U. S. delegates were bedded down in acollege dormitory with newly-in-stalled additional plumbing; they were assigned interpreters by the Hungarian government. They were given periodicals to keep them up on world events. "The Hungarians did a damn good job." and one of the delegates.

First event of the Festival was a mass opening ceremony in Budapest's huge stadium on Aug. 15. All the delegates were impressed by the unquestionably spontaneous reception they received as they drove through the city.

The head of the Hungarian Festival Committee welcomed the U. S. delegates to the ceremony. So did the chiefs of other important groups: a U. S. S. R. Youth Organization, "Free" China, and France. According to one American student who attended the ceremony, "their speeches were standard stuff--the vague, welcome-to-our-fair-city type of thing."

The address given by the girl co-chairman of the U. S. group was considerably more politically-toned. A student told a CRIMSON reporter that "we had no time to work out the speech before she gave it, so we voted to let her write it on her own."

"...monopolists, imperialists..."

According to a transcript of her speech, the chairman stated that "scarcely have the war drums died down...while peace-loving countries are busily planning, working, and rebuilding their social order, there are those who are plotting further exploitation and oppression. Foremost among them are the banks and trusts--the high financiers, monopolists, imperialists of America...Through the Marshall Plan they dump their produce on the needy peoples of the world...through the guise of being champions of world democracy they dictate the political policies of the participating countries." She went on to cite the example of the Soviet Union, the "New People's Democracies," as spurring the masses onward to a goal--the "end of injustice."

One of the Harvard delegates who was present at the Festival was Robert L. Warshaw '46 1L. Warshaw had first heard about the Festival last spring when he had applied for a job as an NSA discussion leader aboard the S. S. VOLENDAM. He had put in a year of graduate work in the Social Relations Dept., had been a part-time research assistant at the Russian Research center, and was interested in Eastern European problems. "I joined the delegation to see what was going on," says Warshaw.

Warshaw was as much of an impartial observer as the Festival Committee rules allowed. He took notes of meetings and speeches, photographed exhibits, gathered material released by various delegations. On the VOLENDAM'S return trip, as a member of the N.S.A. orientation staff, he led a three-day series of discussions about the Festival which packed the pitching Holland-American liner's dining room with more than 600 students. After the discussions were over, one of the delegation's leaders said that "I may disagree with Warshaw, but he is honest as hell."

According to Warshaw the U. S.'s opening speech at the Festival typifies what he calls the "negative approach" of the majority of the U. S. delegation. "Even though most of the Festival was supposed to be non-political, the people who were there from America were not representative of U. S. youth. Neither were the things they had to say."

Warshaw points to the American "cultural presentation" as an example. Most of the youth delegations turned out programs ranging from tumbling to ballet; these various exhibitions ran every night. Some were on what Warshaw calls a "professional level," the Soviet delegation putting on a show complete with soloists from Moscow's Bolshoi theater. The Mongolian Republic brought dances, acrobatics, and a collection of stringed instruments.

Political Stage-Show

The U. S. group program was slightly different. The delegates staged folk-songs, dances, and some original choral work in a pageant that represented the history of America. Their offering was popular; the delegates noted before they left that people were humming folk-songs from the show all over Budapest. "To help explain the thing," says one of the returning delegates, "we got up a program."

Warshaw has a copy of that program. It was mimeographed in two languages and presented to everyone who saw the American presentation: more than 2000 people.

The program's foreword states that "we have turned ourselves into performers today ... to show that our people basically have the same goals as you...we are here to tell you this, though loud and powerful voices which have been raised in our country may have caused you to think otherwise." It continues with a description of America repaying its cultural debt to the rest of the world with "arms and economic plans that cripple your industries"; the foreword conands of translations of the original text have cluded that "like you, we love fun, our people, and our land."

Thousands Saw Exhibit

Other U. S. publicity efforts gave a similar picture. The delegation's exhibit, according to Warshaw, was visited by "some thousands" of people; he and his photographs describe it in detail. It included:

1.) Two large wall panels, one showing a map of the U. S., the other Russia. The U. S. map was adorned with dollar-signed arrows reaching out in various directions. The Soviet map was surrounded with pictures of various weapons, indicating that U. S. money was being used to build up an armed ring around the U. S. S. R.

2.) Smaller displays, stating, among other things, that U. S. business profits were evidence of the Cold War" paying off," that American unemployment was climbing as wages fell, that only one half of one percent of young U. S. farmers own their won farms.

Following the Festival, the exhibit started a two-months tour of Hungary. After the Budapest showing, considering preeure from inside the U. S. delegation toned it down and emphasized other than "negative aspects," but thousbeen circulated.

This alteration of the exhibit was one of the few cases where group pressure was able to change the policy of the delegation for, as Warshaw points out, the U. S. group worked in "an internal atmosphere of fear and suspicion. "The suspicion and mistrust within the group," he states, "worked against democracy and fair play."

There were definite majority attempts to silence dissenting delegates. First example of this "pressure," as Warshaw calls it, came after the opening speech of the delegation. The speech had been dutifully reported in the Hungarian Press, picked up by the U. S. embassy and included in its daily press summaries. These in turn were given to the U. S. delegation for distribution to its members. This was a regular service of the Embassy; it sent the Steering Committee of the delegation 150 such press summaries every day.

On August 23, in a meeting of the entire delegation, Warshaw accused the Steering Committee of withholding the U. S. press summaries. (Another delegate took notes on this meeting: Warshaw now has them in his possession. A third delegate has confirmed their accuracy.) The girl who had made the opening speech admitted that the summaries were not being distributed, and stated that "we are not here as agents of the State Dept., and we are not here to disseminate their propaganda." Shevstated further that the release was "slanted and mistranslated."

According to the notes on the meetings, 'Warshaw cut in and stated that the Steering Committee was wrong in claiming mistranslating. He said that he would like to read the translation along with the official Festival copy and compare them. The chairman said that the committee shouldn't discuss specific differences but principals.' Someone also said 'you have to see the incident in its total context.'

Warshaw Charges

Members of the Steering Committee, as reported in the notes on the meeting, claimed that the translations were radically different, and that anyone who would bring up details like these was trying to "sabotage ... cannot really be here for peace." Warshaw moved that the Steering Committee be censured for "Falsifying facts, distorting facts, suppressing facts, and coveying false impressions to the delegations. The motion was defeated, 13 for, 107 against, 10 abstentions.

Next, the notes said, "A girl arose, and with deep emotion, spoke slowly, forthrightly, and earnestly. 'I work in a trade union. We try to keep people together. There are over 200 of us and we can't stand for any wishy-washy business. People are either for or against. We get rid of those who are against. Here there are a small group of vicious people trying to disrupt our delegation. There is another small group that is native. We came here for peace. Let's make decisions. There are too many disruptive points. Let's prevent it from recurring. Let's slap these people down--verbally, I mean. I'm fighting for peace ... I'm fighting for all of you.' Motion of censure withdrawn. Discussion closed."

Less than an hour after this meeting, one of the girls who had voted for the motion of censure found her passport ripped apart. She had returned to her room after going out for a cup of coffee, and discovered her passport lying outside of her suitcase. The pages stamped with her Hungarian Visa, her U. S. Military Permit, and her identification photograph and been torn out.

The girl rushed downstairs and tried to phone the embassy. She was prevented from doing so the said in a public statement of which Warshaw has a copy, "by the interpreter on duty, who forcibly held the phone. I threatened to go outside and scream for help, and he then permitted me to use the phone," Embassy officials rushed over and emphasized that this was a criminal act; the girl wired the organization she was representing and they ordered her to by home from Budapest immediately.

Before the girl left, the delegation held a meeting at which the incident was discussed. She stated at this time, that "I have continually been in the minority of this delegation. After the meeting yesterday in which I voiced sentiment against those of the majority I observed my suitcase and passport in good condition. Twenty minutes later my suitcase was opened and the passport tern up."

Discussion

Warshaw's notes are marked "discussion" at this point. One delegate arose and said he believed "it must have been a member of the minority who had done it, because the incident provided an excuse to make an official statement and call unfavorable attention to the delegation." Warshaw parenthetically remarks that the girl promised without qualification that the required statement would be given only to the State Department. The notes continue "other people expressed the view that the incident was provoked for the purpose of giving the embassy a pretext for entering the delegation and investigating its activities. Others claimed the incident was caused in order generally to disrupt the delegation and create dissension. The Steering Committee finally moved that 'We condemn this action as a criminal act. We regard it as part of a plot, and if we discover the perpetrator we shall expel him. This is but another crude attempt to disrupt the unity of this delegation and out work for peace, but we shall not be disrupted. We shall go on in militant solidarity." The motion was approved, 94, 5 and 5.

The leader of the Committee explained to Warshaw what he had meant by "plot." He told Warshaw that the incident was probably done by a "disruptive element, to place the blame on the majority group of the delegation. This same thing is systematically done at all congresses." According to warshaw the leader spoke in terms of a "master plot." "Each piece is part of the puzzle, and must be made to fit in," said the leader.

There were similar incidents of intense majority "pressure tactics" against the minority. One meeting was called in which the Steering Committee demanded the power to investigate "rumor-mongers." Warshaw notes that rumors were circulating throughout Budapest when the Americans arrived; rumors of secret police raids, of Russian troop movements, of the torture of political prisoners of widespread poverty in Hungary. The meeting was called by the chairman of the Steering Committee to discuss the fact that "these rumors are dangerous to the delegation."

The meeting was held in a park, and to "preserve security," the speaker asked for "last initials only" and shooed away passers-by. The speaker stated, according to Warshaw's notes, that the "rumors are being spread to defame the present regime ... to disrupt the delegation." He went on to say that a girl within the group had admitted the night before that she was guilty of spreading rumors.

According to the speaker, the girl had admitted "that her purpose in coming to the festival had not been to work for peace but to see 'what Hungary was like,' and to study art." In view of this incident, the Steering Committee asked the power to investigate similar people whose purposes were "disruptive" in closed hearings, and to recommend their expulsion.

Warshaw's notes detail the remainder of the meeting. "The accused girl was given the right to defend herself publicly. She broke down in tears, but made the following points. She had been questioned at length, by the Steering Committee the evening before. She had been charged with making anti Negro statements. She said she had freely discussed her reasons for going to the Festival with an official of the delegation, and challenged the person she had told them to to corroborate this. The person did not speak up. At one point, the accused girl had to stop, she was crying so much."

According to Warshaw, the same type of incident punctuated the delegation's entire stay. For a week there were persistent rumors within the group that a Time-and-Life photographer was surreptitiously preparing a photo essay on the Festival. Other rumors claimed that FBI and State Department agents and enrolled as delegates and were filing reports on the members.

Embassy Questions

Warshaw notes that there was some basis for these rumors. "The press coverage of the Festival was biased and one sided; one U.S. newspaper, for instance, ran a story claiming Americans were parading through the streets singing the 'Internationale' and forcing Hungarians to join them. It was not true." He also notes that the U.S. Embassy took a strong interest in the leaders and the political affiliations of the members, and that embassy officials frequently attempted to question delegates as to the composition and leadership of their group. But Warshaw and other returning delegates note that the head of the delegation often used fear of the embassy as an "emotional tool" in running their meetings, and that at least one delegate admittedly falsified a report in which he claimed he had been pressured into "turning over names to Foreign Service officials."

Another delegate to the Festival, Thomas Wheeler '50, also a member of the minority, points out that "there was nothing surprising about these tactics. These people believed they were there to promote peace and they didn't want to be hindered in their job. By their own standards, they were doing the only thing they could."