(tod-for20-10094) rs 4 a* BUILDING FROM: - seeages OG 7 Zea TO: armen TRANSMITTAL BUILDING REMARKS: FoRM SEP ‘1986 EXTENSION 6 36-8
14-00000 a . . « ° ¥} INTE Be wes . CE arGesg ne | . SECURITY INFORHATION - 1 Apri 1953 MEMORANDUM FOR: Chief, Security Control staff SUBJECT : Publication Clearance - HUNT, Everette Howard, JPe 1. Mr.Hunt is Deputy Chief of a Field Station of the Western ; Hemisphere Division and he has been operating under a State Department _ cover. 2. Mr. Hunt has been granted security clearances for several novels during his employment with this Agency. In 199, just prior to employment with CIA, he published Day of the Serpent, a fictional work on OSS in China. He has achieved considerable Rational prom inence as an author of World War IT stories. 3e His full nate is Everette Howard Hunt, Jr. The manuscript just submitted carries the name Howard Hunt on the title page. His PHS includes the nickname *Howie® with the explanation that this is his nom de plume, On the last page of his PHS he stated that an estimated one million pocket edition copies of two of his books are in circulation, His present publisher, Fawcett Publications, Inc., New York, publishes the 25 and 35 cent books which are sold in drugstores, newstands, hotels, std@tions, etc., throughout the United States. It seems quite probable that Mr. Hunt would be known as 4. writer by persons in the Latin American country where he is now “ stationed and that his work will be read by some Latin Americans even though it is in English. It is not know whether or not the pocket y book publishing companies have exported their publications in , Spanish editions to Latin America, he Darkness on the Land is the title of ‘the novel for which security clearance. “Ls now requested, There appear to be several objectionable aspects in the novel when it~is considered in com bination with the fact. that the author is ostensibly a State Department employee stationed in Latin America, e* = 5. For instance, the theme of the book seems to be that the’ ‘ mythical country which is the locale of the story is representative __CoHFOETAL 7 as highlighted ECuRITy IWFOREATION. AINSTRUCTION NOT fpr.
14-00000 LO or GuariceN Ah oy .  geguaity INFOR - of Latin America, It is the impression of the undersigned, as a reader, that the author speaking through his characters regards the Latin Americans as ignorant, corrupt, homicidal savages, Some passages which tend to support this inference appear below, deine Metemenny ewes ME ee p. 16 f and also p. 125 f, The American Consul - “Any particular reason for a revolution now? xox Does there have to be a particular reason in South America? sox p. 1 f, Sr. Pedro Icaza - “xxx In terms of your North American armies, Latin armies are laughable, xxx That is the rule in this part of the world, xxx An army has no patriotic loyalty that holds it to the side of the government, x00®% p. 58 f, Sr. Beltran - "Los Indios xxx they provide a stolid background before which the five percent struggles and fails or wins. xxx We have mestizos xxx the mixed blood gives an unbelievable shrewdness, a barbaric ruthlessness t its possessors.* a It would seem that the author's fixation in regard to the superiority of the Nordic to the Latin and Indian races, which permeates the entire novel, would be most offensive to Latin Americans. The Latin Americans might well argue that Mr, Hunt, like Erskine Caldwell, has taken a sample of the illiterate, amoral minority in Latin : America and used it to depict a whole culture, - 6, In a soliloquy on p. 149, Mr. Hunt's North American hero, Selden, describes Latin American males as though they are suffering from a racial or southern continental satyriasis. His play upon the expressions “michos huevos* and "cajones® conveys the impression ” that the author suffers from a fixation that the Latin American males as a whole are a race of bravos, The description of this characteristic, which he appears to attribute to them, is belabored through the mouth of Fedder, a Nazi refugee on p. 100. "It is the . curse of this continent, Always the men mst wear pistols. They mist wear spurs and carry small whips around their wrists and have half-a dg¥en mistresses of whom they boast..so that no man can question their machismo xo® Again, on p. 163 f, Carlitos, who is a character of sufficient importance to be intended as a local "type", is made to say, "In this country of mine complete vengeance is held to be the killing of an enemy and the savage rape of his wife or | ' - daughter. When one has achieved such vengeance, one realizes that life can offer no greater triumph, It is then that death becomes unimportant xxx, It is the nature of our blood.* This sort of writing might be said by Latin Americans to indicate that the author's thinking is rooted in the discredited theories of Racism. If, as a* -2- — BONFIRENTIAL SECURITY INFORMATION re |
14-00000 4% brutal passages of stark, sexual realism and sadism involving ‘a * : eourpegak. = of SECURITY INFORMATION . UNESCO officials have stated, books are ambassadors, this novel, if - if comes to the attention of Latin Americans,will have an equivalent effect to a Commmist novel depicting Amertea as a gangster. cultures: Te The women of Latin America are not ignored, Aside “from: superstitious religious attitude of the pregnant mistress of the © os President who betrays him-(p. 297) ~ the description of the latter. a incident might offend persons of thé dominant religion in South’: °*: - America - Mr, Hunt has Seldon, his North American hepp, observe on: p. 18h, "Find a woman who will ‘not allow you to- ‘sleep = xxx From what I have seen of your women, there should be many such,.® b Be Mr. Hunt also indulges through his characters in some . sophisticated, political philosophizing, which if attributed to4 ees State Department or CIA empleyee might be argued to be a deterministic philosophy of Defeatism, The following passages seem to support. ‘this - taference; prostitute (p. 148, 155) "and a pinpoint study of the confused,. -semd— Pes o p. 18, the American Consul - "f'm not trying to sell the thing we call Democracy dow here, I tried it for 6 months ~ five years ago ~ and haven't bothered since, They thought I was crazy.@ . . a _Ppe 82, Seldon, the American hero, - *xxxthe world has been deceived by propagandists into believing that peace is mankind's . - i goal, when the contrary has been displayed in the nature of —. , man sox" < pe 8-86, Selden comments cynically on the change of propaganda once the Germans and Japanese were defeated; and on our need to put our own house in order before exporting "international wisdom or devotion to principles.® 9. At present, there is a committee of Congress investigating pocket book publications sold on newstands and in drugstores which include pgrnographic or sadistic passages. Congressional objection is not to this school of literature but tothe fact that Fawcett Publishing Company and others profit from its sale to adolescents in 25 cent editions, Artistically, Mr. Hunt might be said to be a stark realist. Some passages which might be criticized as salacious or vulgar are indicated below: p. 5h, (in the middle of the page) ~ The rejoinder ‘of Ines when she is rejected, ; ine BECURITY AoMion
14-0000 gy . gin the description of the nevipplat German, Pedder. ght be exbarrassing to both the State ‘Departzent and CIA if the fact that Mr, Hunt is writing euch novels, ‘while he is a Government exployee, cam to the attention of the current Congressional comm thee with resultant newspaper publicity. 10, On Pe 10k z there Pry a description of an Argentine movie actress, who became the mistress of the local dictator and who is described as a rival of Eva Peron, Mr. Hunt's cover might result in errr ie-pacarsccd if this passages came to the attention of Argentine «LL In brief, to be several factors which indicate that the best interests ‘of would not be served, if security ~ clearence is granted fer this ‘novel while Mr, Hunt. is employed by » tals Agency elally, while. be ie under State Department and, espe cover, It might be that the use of &@ peoudonym combined vith en agreement with his publisher not to disclose his identity or delayed publication a reasonable tine after Mr. Hunt has left Latin America . would eliminate any cbjections on this basis, - However, even if Mr, Hunt were not an employee of the WD in Latin America, there is a potter at Shits tins of pul Congressional censure of the . Be ‘by @ Corernment employee con- sidered from point of view of their effect-on-—juveniles and the morality of persons whe profit from euch sales, ‘ae it Zt SESURUTY, INFORMATION