Operation Youth Festival
SALE, J. KIRK
Independent Service prepares Americans to combat Communist propaganda at Vienna OPERATION YOUTH FESTIVAL By J. Kirk Sale NEXT WEEK, some 20,000 young-people from all over the world will descend...
...And if it's not meeting people, it's writing pamphlets, laying out booklets, organizing papers or running the briefing sessions...
...Independent Service prepares Americans to combat Communist propaganda at Vienna OPERATION YOUTH FESTIVAL By J. Kirk Sale NEXT WEEK, some 20,000 young-people from all over the world will descend on the normally placid city of Vienna...
...A 26-year-old graduate of Cornell, where he majored in government, Bebchick has been the Vice President for International Affairs of the National Student Association, the leading American student group...
...Next week, too, from a small office at 25 Naglergasse, in the heart of Vienna, two young Americans will attempt to counter the Communist effort...
...The occasion is the Seventh World Youth Festival, which will be held from July 26 to August 4. A circus-like amalgam of marches, symposia and exhibitions, the Festival has been organized by two Communist groups, the International Un ion of Students and the World Federation of Democratic Youth...
...The Service also has been conducting "briefing sessions" in its New York office, located in the Carnegie Endowment Building...
...In one very effective session called "Meet the Critic," the co-directors act as hostile critics of the U.S...
...As Bebchick puts it, "All the people who have been exposed to the work of our group come away with the feeling that this is certainly one of the best ways to equip Americans for their role in the world's future...
...some 2,000 students who planned to attend the Festival either as official United States delegates or simply as visitors...
...Since May, the two have been spending 10 and 12 hours a day, seven days a week, in their crowded New York office...
...To aid them, the Service has published and distributed a half-dozen bulletins on the organization of the Vienna meeting, a concise re port on the history of the festivals, and an assortment of pamphlets on nuclear testing and disarmament, higher education in the U.S., the segregation problem, and the role of education in Russia and Eastern Europe...
...They felt that this situation could at least be vastly improved if Americans going to Vienna knew what the festivals were like and had some inkling of how to cope with the Communist distortions that have be come their hallmark...
...To date, the Service has contacted J. KIRK SALE RECENTLY JOINED THE NEW LEADER as an associate editor...
...This was done largely by touring campuses all over the country and looking for articulate, knowledgeable students willing to go to Vienna...
...The idea for this organization originated last September with a group of 15 graduate and under graduate students from the Boston area...
...While neither Bebchick nor Miss Steinem thinks that the Service can single-handedly change the course of the Vienna Festival, they do feel that it is a step in the right direction...
...If it's not collecting articles, it's meeting people," Miss Steinem says...
...many of them have watched the painful perform ances of uninformed Americans at first hand, while attending past festivals...
...Most of them have had responsible positions with American student organizations...
...The two Americans are Leonard Bebchick and Gloria Steinem, co-directors of the Independent Service for Information on the Vienna Youth Festival...
...But at least we have made a start, we have paved the way for other people in other years to com bat the influence of Communism...
...These sessions, Bebchick feels, are one of the most important aspects of the group's work...
...After graduating from Yale Law School last June, he went to work for the Civil Aeronautics Board in Washington...
...A primary objective of these briefings is to prepare Americans for the inevitable queries and criticisms of the young people from the uncommitted nations in Asia and Africa...
...Upon her return last fall, she began working for the Service...
...Moreover, they have been heavily exposed to Communist propaganda, but generally have had little contact with representatives of the free world...
...Miss Steinem, 25, also a government major, graduated from Smith College in 1956 and then traveled for two years in India...
...This is considered especially important, since some of these delegates from the neutralist areas may one day hold major positions in the governments of their countries...
...They examine past festivals, detail the problems of student groups in different parts of the world, and present the most successful ways to combat Communist propaganda...
...But," she says with a smile, "it's all worth it...
...This spring he left his job to take up his duties with the Service...
...I'm not sure how successful we'll be in Vienna...
...Armed with an impressive collection of books, magazines and pamphlets, they hope to provide Festival participants with a true picture of both East and West...
...Both Bebchick and Miss Steinem are well-equipped for their task...
Vol. 42 • July 1959 • No. 28
