The Wilmington morning star., 1947-11-20
AS Pegler Sees 1t
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER

sheviki who have been hailed before the
Thomas Committee on un-Americanism
Activities have been more or less implicated
in the communist front known as the joint
Anti Fascist Refugee Committee. Among
them was Howard Fast, mediocre writer
who has enjoyed, however, by reason OF his
political color, the professional promotion
of clandestine communists who operate as
book-reviewers in several New York papers
and periodicals of oStenSibly orthodox Amer
ican purpose. Fast wrote a. distortion OF
history called "Citizen Tom Paine" the
hearty reviews and Endorsements OF which
in most cases established the political in
clinations of those who wrote them. While
war was still in progress, he tossed off a
long pamphlet on the Croatian killer, Joseph
Broz, now known as Tito, the marshal and
dictator of Yugoslavia, in the status OF
Joseph Stalin's deputy. Soldiers of the Unit
ed States, including thousands OF young
fliers, but recently taken from the cam
puses of high school and college, cleared
the nazis out OF Yugoslavia and handed this
land over to Tito, who then slaughtered Gen.
eral Mikhailovitch Mikhailovitch, patroit,
had fought the nazis but, at the same time,
had tried to save his country from the
treachery of native, Russian and American
communists.
| The treachery of the American commun-
lists was brought to bear through the joint
AMT Fascist Refugee Committee. This COM
mittee, as its name suggests, had appealed
to Americans for money to smuggle out OF
T1tlers Europe innocent persons who other
wise must die in the gas chambers or by
other horrors because they were said to be
devoted to democracy" This committee
was a communist fifth column in the Unit
ed States In the ordinary course of its spy
ing and infiltration it naturally would i'm
port and plant some Stalinites here, in Holly
wood in the Army and Navy and in the
State Department. The committee managed
and financed Titos return to Yugoslavia.
Second Lieutenant John A. Kraft, OF ong
Beach, Calf, formerly of Chippewa Falls,
Wis, seems to have been typical of the
American young men who were seduced into
the army of their own country to die for
lorn and to the eventual detriment OF the
United States and civilization, delivering
the Balkans to Stalin-and Tito.
Kraft was lost on the first great Ameri-
can raid on the Ploesti oil fields in Ruman-
ia The Russians, even then, were almost
as savage toward Americans as they are
now but Roosevelt was determined to throw
Hitler out of the Balkans and let the COM
munists flow in and this raid was part of
the plan.
Mrs. E. H. Kraft and the mothers of sew
eral other similar Americans who went
down on B-24 called the Danfino on Aug.
| l, 1943, believe that their sons lived through
taken by the Russians The crew are still
posted as missing in action" and Mrs.
Kraft believes her son is now Russian
prisoner.
Hope is agony in many such cases. but the
attitude of Howard Fast and Louis Adamic,
an immigrant, naturalized Yugoslav who
dined at the White House with Churchill
and the President by Eleanor's invitation, is
in contrast to the action of these naive
young Americans Fast was conspiring
here to finance the return to Yugoslavia of
the butcher who later was to shoot down
five more young American fliers who wan
dered slightly off course over his boun-
daries, unarmed and believing they we're
in friendly territory Adamic is political
advocate of Tito but, as he explained in
Dinner at the White House." he found
reasons not to take physical part in the
war in his native land, even to help Stain
and Tito. He might have been afraid Young
Kraft was but he went anyway. Mrs. Roose-
velt was on personal terms with Adamic
and she volunteered a plug for Fasts book
on Paine.
The Kraft boy could have chosen to hide
out the war but he refused.
'He foolishly went in in 1941 to serve his
year, Mrs. Kraft writes. "He lay in the
mud at Camp Claiborne, La, for eight
months. He had graduated in electrical en-
gineering. told him John, you could claim
essential occupation He looked at me and
said Mother, if 1 don't go, some other boy
will have to 90 in my place He carried
greeting card to send on Mothers Day. 1t
came home in his effects from Africa. He
was good son. Where is he now?
II have gone into many angles OF this
terrible raid. My husband and have inter-
viewed many boys. At first they were told
not to talk Now few things come to light
Not one boy wanted to fly that low-level
mission. One young navigator said to me:
John must have had nearly all his hours in.
He had been bombing constantly and it was
hardest on the 30O-hour men, They told them
lif they didn't fly the raid they couldn't go
home He was cited five tines
Fast and all the Hollywood traitors, of
course, sat it out safely. The United States
did not cite them, but Stain might. In those
days, General Mikhailovitch was our friend
and the leader of the resistance against Hit
Ter in the Balkans. The communist Tito,
had vanished after some activity on the
communist side in Spain. But after the war
was won and Roosevelt had :, handed over
Yugoslavia to Stain, the United States
abandoned Mikhailovitch and he was shot
by firing squad after mock trial He was
accused of treason to the country he had
tried to save from Tito.
| Now when Americans are called TO Wash
ington and merely asked by committee of
! Congress to say whether they are commun-
Ifies the committee and Congress as body
In most of these cases, the committee was
ready to prove that these witnesses were
traitors had they denied it.
AS for Fast, he refused information about
the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee
and got three months and small line FOR
contempt of Congress-
But was the committee front? He an
swered that in his pamphlet on Tito, where
he wrote: "An agent of the Joint Anti Fascist
Refugee Committee contacted Tito and the
committee provided funds for Titos return
TO Yugoslavla. Tito was communist. He
made no secret of that ="
Some covert communists and some credu-