Evening star., 1951-11-24
Speaking of Subversion

With typical truth -distorting ballyhoo the
Kremlin has made clear that it intends to beat
*he propaganda drums as much as possible in
an effort to support its charge that the United
States is engaging in subversive activities aimed
at overthrowing the governments of the Soviet
Union and other peoples democracies" behind
the Iron Curtain.
The balyhoo has been let loose in direct
formal protest to our State Department and in
a note to the United Nations demanding that
the General Assembly deal with the issue as an
urgent and important" matter. Our country,
it seems, is guilty of violating the 1888 Roose-
velt-Litvinov agreement pledging both us and
the Russians not to resort to subversion against
each other. Far from living up to that agree
ment according to Foreign Minister Vishinsky,
we are committing an "act of aggression" by
doing all sorts of things-including the f1nanc-
ing of armed opposition groups on Soviet soil!-
to undermine and unseat the Stain regime and
its puppet counterparts in countries like Poland,
Romania and Czechoslovakia, "warlike" pro-
gram of unprecedented interference in the in
ternal affairs of said states"
BY way Of proving that this nefarious project
is not a mere figment of the imagination, the
Kremlin has called special attention to the
Mutual Security Act adopted in the last session
of Congress to furnish military and economic
aid to our friends abroad. More specifically, he
has called attention to that part of the act-a
section sponsored by Republican Representative
KerSten Of WiSconsin-under which $100 million
has been set aside to help selected persons"
living in or escaping from Russia or any satellite
state to form elements of military forces sup
porting the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
or for other purposes" AS for the 'other pur-
poses" Mr.. Kersten is on record as having de-
.1a g.
when the time is opportune," to encourage
people behind the Iron Curtain "to liberate
themselves" from the yoke of Red oppression.
1t cannot be denied that this provision Of
our foreign-aid program-a provision not asked
for by the executive branch of the Government
can be readily distorted and misrepresented
by the Kremlin. To that extent, therefore, Mr..
Vishinsky may succeed in winning some propa-
ganda points with it among a number of U. N.
delegations, particularly because our official
policy frankly opposes Communism everywhere.
Nevertheless, his charge can be reduced to an
absurdity by two answering arguments among
others. The first of these is that the United
States, If undertaking direct subversive activi-
ties against the Soviet Union, would not pub
licize that fact by openly and loudly acting in
Congress to appropriate money for the project.
And the second is that for such an undertaking
including measures like our alleged financing
of armed "diversionist" bands on Russian SOIL
500 million would be only drop in the bucket,
much too little for the job.
Beyond that, of course, this latest Soviet
accusation, as the State Department has de-
clared in an understatement, comes with "sin-
gular ill-grace" from the worlds foremost prac-
titioner of revolutionary, dominance-seeking sub
version. In effect, what we have here is a
colossally brazen example Of would-be cut
throat trying to make it seem that his pro-
spective victim, not he, is the real villain of the
piece. The United States should welcome full
airing of the issue in the General Assembly.
The Kremn has left itself wide open to devas-
tating countercharges.