""The International Position of the Dollar" was the theme of the Spring 1961 Seminar series. Robert Triffin, Professor of Economics at Yale University, spoke on the present balance of payments situation at the opening session. At the second meeting, William Diebold, Jr., Director of Economic Studies at the Council, addressed the group on United States foreign trade policy. The third meeting dealt with foreign investment and the balance of payments. August Maffry, Vice President of the Irving Trust Company, was discussion leader....
"On June 8, George W. Ball, Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, spoke at the annual Corporation Service dinner for presidents and board chairmen of partic.i.p.ating companies....
Secretary Ball [discussed] the foreign economic policy of the new Kennedy Administration."
George W. Ball was, for several years, a registered lobbyist in Washington, representing foreign commercial interests. He is a chief architect of President Kennedy"s 1962 tariff-and-trade proposals--which would internationalize American trade and commerce, as a prelude to amalgamating our economy with that of other nations.
In 1960-61, 84 leading corporations contributed 112,200 tax-exempt dollars to the Council on Foreign Relations for the privilege of having their chief officers exposed to the propaganda of international socialism.
A princ.i.p.al activity of the Council is its meetings, according to the 1958-1959 annual report:
"During 1958-59, the Council"s program of meetings continued to place emphasis on small, roundtable meetings.... Of the 99 meetings held during the year, 58 were roundtables.... The balance of the meetings program was made up of the more traditional large afternoon or dinner sessions for larger groups of Council members.
In the course of the year, the Council convened such meetings for Premier Castro; First Deputy Premier Mikoyan; Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold...."
The Council"s annual report lists all of the meetings and "distinguished" speakers for which it convened the meetings. It is an amazing list. Although the Council has tax-exemption as an organization to study international affairs and, presumably, to help the public arrive at a better understanding of United States foreign policy, not one speaker for any Council meeting represented traditional U. S.
policy. Every one was a known advocate of leftwing internationalism. A surprising number of them were known communists or communist sympathizers or admitted socialists.
Kwame Nkrumah, Prime Minister of Ghana, who is widely believed to be a communist; who is admittedly socialist; and who aligned his nation with the Soviets--spoke to the Council on "Free Africa," with W. Averell Harriman presiding.
Mahmoud Fawzi, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the United Arab Republic, a socialist whose hatred of the United States is rather well known, spoke to the Council on "Middle East."
Herbert L. Matthews, a member of the editorial board of _The New York Times_ (whose articles on Castro as the Robin Hood of Cuba built that communist hoodlum a worldwide reputation and helped him conquer Cuba) spoke to the Council _twice_, once on "A Political Appraisal of Latin American Affairs," and once on "The Castro Regime."
M. C. Chagla, Amba.s.sador of India to the United States, a socialist, spoke to the Council on "Indian Foreign Policy."
Anastas I. Mikoyan, First Deputy Premier, USSR, spoke to the Council on "Issues in Soviet-American Relations," with John J. McCloy (later Kennedy"s Disarmament Administrator) presiding.
Fidel Castro spoke to the Council on "Cuba and the United States."
Here are some other well-known socialists who spoke to the Council on Foreign Relations during the 1958-59 year:
Dag Hammarskjold, Secretary-General of the United Nations; Per Jacobsson, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund; Abba Eban, Amba.s.sador of Israel to the United States; w.i.l.l.y Brandt, Mayor of West Berlin; Stanley de Zoysa, Minister of Finance of Ceylon; Mortarji Desai, Minister of Finance of India; Victor Urquidi, President of Mexican Economic Society; Fritz Erler, Co-Chairman of the Socialist Group in the German Bundestag; Tom Mboya, Member of the Kenya Legislative Council; Sir Grantley H. Adams, Prime Minister of the West Indies Federation; Theodore Kollek, Director-General of the Office of the Prime Minister of Israel; Dr. Gikomyo W. Kiano, member of the Kenya Legislative Council.
Officials of communist governments, in addition to those already listed, who spoke to the Council that year, included Oscar Lange, Vice-President of the State Council of the Polish People"s Republic; and Marko Nikezic, Amba.s.sador of Yugoslavia to the United States.
Throughout this book, I show the close inter-locking connection between the Council on Foreign Relations and many other organizations. The only organizations formally affiliated with the Council, however, are the Committees on Foreign Relations, which the Council created, which it controls, and which exist in 30 cities: Albuquerque, Atlanta, Birmingham, Boise, Boston, Casper, Charlottesville, Denver, Des Moines, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Little Rock, Los Angeles, Louisville, Nashville, Omaha, Philadelphia, Portland (Maine), Portland (Oregon), Providence, St. Louis, St. Paul-Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Seattle, Tucson, Tulsa, Wichita, Worcester.
A booklet ent.i.tled _Committees on Foreign Relations: Directory of Members, January, 1961_, published by the Council on Foreign Relations, contains a roster of members of all the Committees on Foreign Relations, except the one at Casper, Wyoming, which was not organized until later in 1961. The booklet also gives a brief history of the Committees:
"In 1938, with the financial a.s.sistance of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Council began to organize affiliated discussion groups in a few American cities....
"Each Committee is composed of forty or more men who are leaders in the professions and occupations of their area--representatives of business, the law, universities and schools, the press, and so on.
About once a month, from October through May, members come together for dinner and an evening of discussion with a guest speaker of special competence.... Since the beginning in 1938, the Carnegie Corporation of New York has continued to make annual grants in support of the Committee program."
The following information about the Committees on Foreign Relations is from the 1960-61 Annual Report of the Council on Foreign Relations:
"During the past season the Foreign Relations Committees carried on their customary programs of private dinner meetings. In all, 206 meetings were held....
"The Council arranged or figured in the arrangement of about three-quarters of the meetings held, the other sessions being undertaken upon the initiative of the Committees. Attendance at the discussions averaged 28 persons, slightly more than in previous years and about the maximum number for good discussion. There was little change in membership--the total being just under 1800. It will be recalled that this membership consists of men who are leaders in the various professions and occupations....
"On June 2 and 3, the 23rd annual conference of Committee representatives was held at the Harold Pratt House. Mounting pressures throughout the year ... made it advisable to plan a conference program that would facilitate re-examination of the strategic uses of the United Nations for American Policy in the years ahead. Accordingly, the conference theme was designated as _United States Policy and the United Nations_. Emphasis was upon re-appraisal of the United States national interest in the United Nations--and the cost of sustaining that interest....
"In the course of the year, officers and members of the Council and of the staff visited most of the Committees for the purpose of leading discussions at meetings, supervising Committee procedures and seeking the strengthening of Committee relations with the Council."
Chapter 2
WORLD WAR II AND TRAGIC CONSEQUENCES
Although the Council on Foreign Relations had almost gained controlling influence on the government of the United States as early as 1941, it had failed to indoctrinate the American people for acceptance of what Colonel House had called a "positive" foreign policy.
In 1940, Franklin D. Roosevelt (although eager to get the United States into the Second World War and already making preparations for that tragedy) had to campaign for re-election with the same promise that Wilson had made in 1916--to keep us out of the European war. Even as late as the day before the j.a.panese attack on Pearl Harbor in December, 1941, the American people were still overwhelmingly "isolationist"--a word which internationalists use as a term of contempt but which means merely that the American people were still devoted to their nation"s traditional foreign policy.
It was necessary for Roosevelt to take steps which the public would not notice or understand but which would inescapably involve the nation in the foreign war. When enough such sly involvement had been manipulated, there would come, eventually, some incident to push us over the brink into open partic.i.p.ation. Then, any American who continued to advocate our traditional foreign policy of benign neutrality would be an object of public hatred, would be investigated and condemned by officialdom as a "pro-n.a.z.i," and possibly prosecuted for sedition.
The Council on Foreign Relations has heavy responsibility for the maneuvering which thus dragged America into World War II. One major step which Roosevelt took toward war (at precisely the time when he was campaigning for his third-term re-election on a platform of peace and neutrality to keep America out of war) was his radical alteration of traditional concepts of United States policy in order to declare Greenland under the protection of our Monroe Doctrine. The Council on Foreign Relations officially boasts full responsibility for this fateful step toward war.
On pages 13 and 14 of a book ent.i.tled _The Council on Foreign Relations: A Record of Twenty-Five Years, 1921-1946_ (written by officials of the Council and published by the Council on January 1, 1947) are these pa.s.sages:
"One further example may be cited of the way in which ideas and recommendations originating at Council meetings have entered into the stream of official discussion and action.
"On March 17, 1940, a Council group completed a confidential report which pointed out the strategic importance of Greenland for transatlantic aviation and for meteorological observations. The report stated:
""The possibility must be considered that Denmark might be overrun by Germany. In such case, Greenland might be transferred by treaty to German sovereignty."
"It also pointed out the possible danger to the United States in such an eventuality, and mentioned that Greenland lies within the geographical sphere "within which the Monroe Doctrine is presumed to apply."
"Shortly after this, one of the members of the group which had prepared the report was summoned to the White House. President Roosevelt had a copy of the memorandum in his hand and said that he had turned to his visitor for advice because of his part in raising the question of Greenland"s strategic importance.
"Germany invaded Denmark on April 9, 1940. At his press conference three days later, the President stated that he was satisfied that Greenland was a part of the American continent. After a visit to the White House on the same day, the Danish Minister said that he agreed with the President.
"On April 9, 1941, an agreement was signed between the United States and Denmark which provided for a.s.sistance by the United States to Greenland in the maintenance of its status, and granted to the United States the right to locate and construct such airplane landing-fields, seaplane facilities, and radio and meteorological installations as might be necessary for the defense of Greenland, and for the defense of the American continent. This was eight months before Germany declared war on the United States.
"The Council"s report on Greenland was only one item in an extensive research project which offered an unusual instance of wartime collaboration between Government agencies and a private inst.i.tution.... The project ... exhibited the kind of contribution which the Council has been uniquely equipped to provide...."
The Danish colony of Greenland--a huge island covered by polar ice--lies in the Arctic Ocean, 1325 miles off the coast of Denmark. It is 200 miles from Canada, 650 miles from the British Isles. The extreme southwestern tip of Greenland is 1315 miles from the most extreme northeastern tip of the United States (Maine). In other words, Canada and England, which were at war with Germany when we undertook to protect Greenland from Germany, are both much closer to Greenland than the United States is.
But history gives better proof than geography does, that the learned Council members who put Greenland in the Western Hemisphere, within the meaning of the Monroe Doctrine, were either ignorant or dishonest. The Monroe Doctrine, closing the Western Hemisphere to further European colonization, was proclaimed in 1823. Denmark, a European nation, colonized Greenland, proclaiming sole sovereignty in 1921, without any hint of protest from the United States that this European colonization infringed upon the Monroe Doctrine.