SOLDIERS AND CENSORS
Soldiers and Censors the Senate investigation of alleged "muzzling" of the military was still in progress as this issue of The Progressive was going to press, but developments during the completed...
...Fortunately, Thurmond's revolting conduct has not prevented Senator John Stennis and his other committee colleagues from conducting a fair and objective inquiry into charges that the military is being muzzled...
...Two of Thurmond's committee agents were sent to a nearby barracks where they rounded up thirty-three marines, herded them into a room, locked the door, and submitted them to a questionnaire presumably designed to test their indoctrination against Communism...
...Angered by General Shoup's anti-hate philosophy, Senator Thurmond resorted to shabby reprisal...
...There was not the slightest evidence to confirm the presence of a conspiracy to keep the United States from winning the cold war...
...I don't think you have to hate to be a good fighter," the general testified...
...Young's target, of course, was Thurmond, but Senatorial courtesy required him to aim his fire at the agents rather than the principal...
...The order in which the questions were placed—a question on "front organizations" followed in quick succession by questions on pacifist and civil rights organizations—betrays the true purpose of the questionnaire...
...The role of the military in educating the public," he told Senate investigators, "is very sensitive and could be misused...
...What disturbed him, he said, was the fact that after he had accepted the decision not to give the speech, the whole story was leaked to the press...
...The testimony of military officials during the first fortnight of hearings failed in every way to support Thur-mond's morbid fantasy...
...Thurmond made no effort to obtain the approval of the committee, the chairman, or its director, none of whom knew about the bizarre episode until word leaked out afterward...
...Some technical and procedural improvements in the system of review are indicated, but the committee will be clashing with deeply cherished American tradition—and the mandate of the Constitution—if it proposes any changes that would dilute the supremacy of the civil establishment over the military...
...Consider these lour questions, asked in consecutive order: "Name three front organizations, and describe one...
...Soldiers and Censors the Senate investigation of alleged "muzzling" of the military was still in progress as this issue of The Progressive was going to press, but developments during the completed first phase of the inquiry had all but laughed the accusers out of the court of public opinion...
...Two of the most celebrated cases of alleged "muzzling" involve Major General Edwin A. Walker, former commander of the Twenty-fourth Infantry Division in West Germany, and Admiral Arleigh A. Burke, former Chief of Naval Operations...
...We fight any enemy the President designates...
...What, moreover, can be learned about whether a marine is sufficiently indoctrinated against Communism by asking him if there is a difference between pacifism and subversion and civil rights and subversion...
...Some of the questions clearly represented Thurmond's pet hates and had nothing to do witli an understanding of Communism...
...This, of course, was hardly the kind of testimony that Senator Thurmond expected when he launched the investigation into "muzzling of the military...
...I am not sure I would like it as a member of the public...
...Other witnesses went further in expressing grave doubt whether the military should play any role in "educating" the public about Communism, particularly Communism on the home front...
...This strikes us as a justified grievance, but it did not prevent the admiral from concurring in the need for civilian surveillance of the writings and speeches of military officials in sensitive areas of foreign policy...
...It was Walker's resignation under fire that triggered Thurmond's demand for an investigation, but, curiously, the John Birch general, now ar candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor in Texas, was not called as a witness during the first phase of the inquiry devoted to testimony from the generals and admirals...
...If you set the precedent of the military educating the public about Communism, where do you go from there...
...I am doubtful about the military having that mission...
...And hate is closely associated with fear...
...I have made more than 100 speeches, and I have never mentioned the word Communism...
...Admiral Burke, who attracted national attention a year ago when the incoming Kennedy Administration demanded major revisions of a speech he was about to give, testified he never felt "muzzled" by civilian censorship although he disagreed on occasion with changes made in his speeches...
...The "correct" answers to the questions have not been released, but knowing Thurmond's contempt for pacifism and hatred of civil rights, we don't think it is unfair to assume that marines who replied that there is no difference received credit for the "right" answer...
...A number of Senators expressed shock and revulsion over the unauthorized inquisition...
...Senator Stephen Young, Ohio Democrat who is one of the most decorated war heroes in Congress, exploded with the assertion that the two interrogators "were seeking to play God with other people's patriotism...
...Nor could he cope with the sober judgment of General David M. Shoup, commandant of the Marine Corps, that it was against the best interests of the United States to indoctrinate members of the armed forces with "the poison of hatred...
...Is there a difference between a pacifist organization and a subversive organization...
...As Ros-coe Drummond, Washington columnist for the New York Herald Tribune, assessed what happened: "When a Congressional investigator has exhausted his material, he sometimes can't resist sending out a burst in every direction, hoping to hit something or somebody...
...Shoup's credentials for identifying the qualifications of "a good fighter" were too well established to draw fire from Thurmond...
...Senator Strom Thurmond, South Carolina Democrat and one of the Senate's foremost spokesmen for the far Right, has been the prime architect of the investigation...
...Walker, a member of the John Birch Society, iesigned from the Army after1 he was reprimanded for attempting to influence his troops on how to vote...
...I think fear breeds defeatism, and that is a disease we cannot afford in this country it we are going to maintain our position in the family of freedom-loving people...
...Delicate negotiations were taking place at the time for the release of the RB-47 reconnaissance fliers then being held in Moscow...
...Is there a difference between a civil rights organization and a subversive organization...
...Hate I consider an internal sin...
...The questionnaire itself was a fraud as a test of marine indoctrination against Communism...
...We don't teach our men to hate...
...Thus, General Thomas D. White, retired Air Force Chief of Staff, testified that there are "dangerous implications" in assigning that role to the military establishment...
...Nor was there any testimony that the military had been muzzled in a way designed to achieve that sinister purpose...
...The need for review of speeches by mili-tary men so that national policy will not be misstated and misinterpreted was repeatedly confirmed by distinguished military leaders...
...Convinced that there is a conspiracy to keep the United States "from winning the cold war," Thurmond charged that the civilian conspirators in the Pentagon have censored the speeches of military officials in order to prevent the latter from alerting the country to the dangers of Communism...
...The conduct of these two men was fantastic—reminiscent of Hitler's Gestapo...
...After World War II, the general was decorated with the Congressional Medal of Honor, usually awarded only posthumously, for "inspiring heroism" in battle at the island of Tarawa where he commanded the invasion for more than two hours waist-deep in water under enemy fire...
...Name one pacifist organization and one civil rights organization...
...The questions tell much more about Thurmond than the answers could reveal about the marines...
...We teach [marines] what there is in the country that is worth living for, worth fighting for, worth giving your life for," he told Senate investigators...
...He told Senate investigators that he could well understand that the Kennedy Administration might have had good reason not to approve the strongly anti-Soviet speech that was the subject of so much controversy...
...The preponderant weight of testimony in the first phase of the inquiry has proved the charges groundless...
Vol. 26 • March 1962 • No. 3
