The Art of Losing Friends
THOMAS, NORMAN
How a State Department visa investigator was denied a visa to this country The Art of Losing Friends By Norman Thomas Perhaps no single activity of our Government has a more direct effect on...
...One of the most shocking cases is that of Chris A. Jecchinis, a Greek student who has been denied a visa on undisclosed security grounds despite a distinguished and well-documented record of pro-Americanism and anti-Communism throughout his career...
...At this time, the mission officially thanked him for his work in a letter describing him as "an inspiration to the Greek employes...
...He was born in Greece of a Greek mother and British father, and hence originally had dual nationality...
...How a State Department visa investigator was denied a visa to this country The Art of Losing Friends By Norman Thomas Perhaps no single activity of our Government has a more direct effect on the way other peoples feel toward the United States than our treatment of applicants for American visas...
...Later in the same year, he resigned his position with the mission to study labor relations at Roosevelt University in Chicago under a Fulbright grant...
...In the war, he served with the British Military Mission in Occupied Greece and played an important part in the rescue of a number of American airmen...
...Vice President Burnette, Dean Balduf, and other faculty members of Roosevelt...
...But when in February 1955 he ap plied for a visa to return to the United States in order to complete his studies, it was refused on undisclosed security grounds...
...In his senior year he was elected president of the Student Council...
...In 1951, Jecchinis visited the United States as a member of a tradeunion technical-assistance team...
...In recent years, the effect has not been a good one...
...until his demobilization in 1947, he served in a British field security unit doing anti-Communist work...
...As a soldier in the British Army, he fought against the Communist rebels who tried to seize control of Greece in December 1944...
...Joseph Heath, who served with the Labor Division of the Athens mission in 1950-51 and headed the Labor Division of ECA-MSA's European office from 1951 to 1953...
...Later, he was on the staff of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, helping to resettle and rehabilitate refugees from Iron Curtain countries...
...he was constantly trying to convert students with Communistic leanings to the democratic point of view...
...For this appointment he required security clearance both in Athens and in Washington...
...Americans may well ask themselves how long this country will keep its friends abroad if it gives them the sort of shabby treatment Mr...
...Neither then nor at any previous time has the State Department ever specified the charges against Jecchinis, much less the evidence on which they are based...
...Jecchinis has received...
...Again, he received an official letter of commendation for his outstanding work...
...Yet in May 1956, after almost a year's delay, the visa was again refused—still without any specification of charges...
...Both in connection with his work (although often far beyond the requirements of his official duties) and as President of the Association of Greek Employes of the American Mission, he fought against Communist influence in the Greek labor movement and helped to explain American policy to his countrymen—not always an easy job...
...Embassy's security section, in the Refugee Relief Program under the direction of R. W. Scott McLeod...
...Later, he went to work for the Labor Division of the American Economic Mission in Athens...
...But the courts seem to have no authority to intervene to remedy injustices in the denial of visas...
...That such injustices are frequent we can be sure from the occasional cases that come to view...
...And they have a right to ask Scott McLeod, under whose jurisdiction the Visa Division falls, how it happens that a man who is good enough to investigate visa applicants for the State Department is not good enough to receive a visa for himself...
...Even the Secretary of State, replying to a letter of mine on the case, merely cites the sections of the Immigration Act under which action was taken...
...Pressure from the courts and public opinion has at last eliminated some of the worst abuses in the Federal loyalty-security program and the State Department's passport procedures...
...After his return to Greece in 1954, Jecchinis was employed as an investigator for the U.S...
...These statements, covering every stage of his career, came from such persons as Christopher M. Woodhouse, Chief of the British Military Mission in Occupied Greece during the war...
...While at Roosevelt, in the words of Dean Emery W. Balduf, Jecchinis "was in every respect outstanding and had the full confidence of faculty and student body...
...After the conclusion of his services with the British Army, Jecchinis opted for Greek citizenship...
...In an effort to secure reconsideration, a number of distinguished persons submitted statements to the State Department, based on their close personal acquaintance with Jecchinis...
Vol. 39 • August 1956 • No. 32
