They came from all across the country as well as from foreign lands.  Over 100 college campuses in 43 states were represented.  While the large majority were young, there was significant representation of the older generation who attended in their roles as teachers, school administrators, peace officers, businessmen and housewives.

The Generation Gap

            The only manifestation of the generation gap was during the public speaking sessions.  Each afternoon, time was allotted so that students could speak on a subject of their own choosing for a period of three minutes.  The two conditions were that they must not exceed the allotted time of three minutes and that they must submit to criticism at the conclusion of their speech.  Because of the large number wanting to take advantage of this opportunity, the decision was reluctantly made to accept no speakers over 30 years of age.

            Many took advantage of this opportunity to give their personal Christian testimony.  The enthusiasm with which the general audience received such messages gave a clear indication that Americans are hungry for genuine live-changing religious experience.

The Extremist?

            I was impressed once again by the effectiveness of the campaign that has been waged in educational circles to depict Dr. Fred Schwarz as a fanatical right-wing extremist or, in the words of Herbert Marcuse, “a hate monger and rabble rouser of hysterical dimension.”  Many of the students told me that this image prevailed in their schools and that they had been influenced by it.  One students from Florida stated that when he informed faculty and students at his school that he planned to attend the seminar, the typical question was, “Are you taking your white sheet?”

            This phenomenon often confronts me when I speak to university audiences.  Students have been led to expect an intemperate and emotional harangue.  The contrast between what they hear and what they expect to hear is so marked that it leaves many in a state resembling shock.

            This false image has its positive, as well as its negative aspects.  The reaction of a young college student to her experience at the seminar is expressed by a friend as follows:

            “She came to the school with all these ideas that Dr. Schwarz was a radical right-wing extremist.  After hearing you, she realized that she had been taught a complete lie.  This caused her to question other things she had been taught.  She is not studying with an open mind.  You may have saved this girl from both physical and spiritual destruction.”

            The reaction of students is shown by extracts from letters received:

            “I have just returned from the seminar filled with many emotions but hope is uppermost because of you.  God is surely using you as a prophet in our times.  He has given you attributes which the opposition must surely notice: deep love and kindness, sense of humor, keen disciplined mind, humility, good judgment, and balance.

            “My prayers will be with you as you travel, have heavy speaking schedules, and deal with knotty problems.

            “When school resumes in the fall, I will be sending tithe money for your Crusade.

            “And many I thank your Crusade for my scholarship.  It was a high point in my life.  I am going to try to get as many people as possible to attend next summer.”  (Victoria M. Hall, Tarawa Terrace, North Carolina)

            “This tiny note brings a great big thank you for the wonderful weekend at Hotel Sonesta.  I enjoyed every minute of the seminar and thrilled to your dedication and those of the speakers you selected for us.  I certainly want a few of our sisters on my staff and some of the children from West Philadelphia Catholic Girls H.S. to be in attendance next year.”  (Sister Margaret Boyle, S.H.C.J., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

            “I found the lectures most informative.  I was very favorably impressed by the conduct of the young people.  I just couldn’t get over their serious attitude and sincere desire to do their part in solving the world problems caused by communism.

            “I have resolved to devote one unit in my course in Govt. which I give to senior high school students to Communism.”  (Sister Mary O’Rourke, S.H.C.J., Potomac, Maryland)

            The deep impression made on some students is shown by the following amusing incident:

            “After attending your Seminar in Washington D.C. this past weekend, I feel like a different person; at least a lot more informed about anything than I have ever been before and it’s just the beginning!  Suddenly I feel like doing something constructive and that there is no better place to start than in your Christian Anti-Communism Crusade.

            “It might give you a chuckle to know that your Seminar absorbed my mind so greatly that I was sitting in a gas station getting my car filled up when suddenly I thought even harder about one of your lectures and would you believe, started to pull away; If the man hadn’t yelled as loud as he did, I would have pulled the pump right over.

            “Enclosed is a mailing list for your newsletter.  Also please find enclosed a check for $5.  It’s not much but I’m sure it helps.”  (Holly Biddle, Wolfeboro, New Hampshire)

            One who came with certain reservations expressed himself thus:

            “I just want to thank you for an interesting and worthwhile seminar.  Your speakers, some with whom I could not always agree, displayed an honesty and commitment to their beliefs that is appreciated.

            “I feel that if more of our politicians displayed such caliber as you and your organization display, many of the problems that exist between the government and the governed would be solved.  College students would not have to riot to make it known that they do exist and that there are problems and injustices that do have to be resolved.

            “In that you were willing to listen and respect, though not agree, with all shades of opinion, I find your work commendable and can have no qualms about its tax-free status.”  (J.A. Lipowski, Livingston, New Jersey)

The Politicians

            One question I have been asked frequently is, “Did any important people in Washington attend the Seminar?”  My reply is: “Yes, we had lots of intelligent young and inquiring students present.  These students are quite as important as the politicians.”  Frankly, the political leaders in Washington, D.C. were not present.

The News Media

            My attitude to the news media is rather unusual.  It consists largely of indifference tinged with scorn.  I am not impressed with the attitude or ability of most reporters when they attend a serious meeting.  It is unusual for them to listen to the message.  Usually they spend their time looking for a few controversial comments or incidents which they consider newsworthy.  As a result the report at best usually lacks perspective and at worst is completely false.  My major interest has been reaching students in depth so that their lives may be directed to study and intelligent, positive activity rather than to gaining news headlines.

            We did have a unique experience at the Washington D.C. Antisubversive Seminar.  A reporter from the Washington Post, Sanford J. Ungar, sat through an entire session and listened to the message.  Following the session, he asked me if he could arrange a personal interview.  I replied, “I’ll wait until I see your report.  If it proves that you are either dishonest or incompetent, I won’t waste my time.”

            As news reports go, his was one of the better ones and we did have the subsequent interview.  Nevertheless, the report does illustrate the point I have tried to make—it is almost entirely taken up with peripheral issues while it ignores the message I gave.  The subject I was discussing was “Marxism” which is of vital importance today.  One looks in vain for an intelligent summary of what I had to say on this vital subject.

“Crusade Hears Opening Attack At Communism

Saturday, June 13, 1970, The Washington Post

By Sanford J Ungar, Washington Post Staff Writer

            “There were love beads, long sideburns and a scattering of “Jesus Saves” buttons in the audience.

            “Elderly women with lace hats, young men with shoulder-length hair and Catholic nuns in full habit mixed self-consciously, but all listened attentively.

            “Yesterday was opening day for this year’s ‘Washington D. C. Anti-subversive Seminar’ at the Hotel Sonesta, and things got under way with a full round of attacks against ‘the forces out to destroy us.’

            “This was different, perhaps, from its original rallies in the early 1950s, but the Christian Anti-Communism Crusade had come to town to discuss the familiar question: How to fight communism.

            “‘The situation today is far worse than 10 years ago,’ lamented Dr. Fred C. Schwarz, co-founder and president of the crusade.  ‘The forces of disintegration are at work.’

            “If things look worse on the outside, Dr. Schwarz was nonetheless cheered by the renewed enthusiasm for his organization—what he called ‘a population explosion.’

            “About 450 people have registered for the four-day seminar, and almost 400 of them appeared in a banquet hall yesterday to hear Dr. Schwarz start the weekend with a lecture on ‘Marxism.’

            “A similar seminar here last year drew only about 100 participants.

            “Schwarz prepared his students for a weekend of hard work with a warning that ‘the situation is fluid. . . changing . . . developing.  If you’re not confused, you have no understanding of what’s taking place.’

            “With most of the audience taking copious notes, he explained that ‘all Communists are Marxists, but all Marxists are not Communists.’

            “The background offered on Karl Marx, co-author of ‘The Communist Manifesto,’ was that he was ‘born of middle-class Jewish parents (who later became Lutherans), and ‘became a young intellectual and . . . did his share of carousing at university.’

            “Then Schwarz presented a half-hour explanation of the place of ‘materialism’ in Communism philosophy.

            “An Australian medical doctor who moved to the United Stated in 1953 after earlier successful lecture tours here, Schwarz himself is the son of an Australian Jew converted to become a Baptist.

“Denies Charge

            “Schwarz, who has been accused of being right-wing extremist with anti-Semitic leanings, said that old charge is ‘totally false.’  He pointed out that the seminar includes a lecture tonight by Dr. Joseph Dunner, a professor at Yeshiva University in New York, on ‘Communism: The Enemy of the Jewish People.’

            “A question period after the opening meeting revealed a broad spectrum of people is attending this year’s antisubversive seminar.

            “Robert McGill, of Rehoboth, Mass., for example, who described himself as ‘a moderate or a liberal,’ caught one panelist urging an American effort to ‘control’ rather than ‘influence’ the minds of people in Latin America.

            “The panelist, Raymond A Joseph of Haiti, who is also moderator for the weekend, backed down from his statement.

“Notre Dame Classmates

            “McGill is attending the seminar with Mr. and Mrs Walter J Meyers of Philadelphia and their son, Robert, who is his classmate at Notre Dame University.

            “The Meyers explained that they had come because ‘we’re concerned as to what is going on in our country—especially in the colleges.’

            “‘Most professors today are too liberal-minded and are advocating socialism, to be perfectly honest,’ said Mayers, a funeral director.  ‘The boys don’t get both sides.’

            “But the two students offered other reasons for their attendance.  ‘Every time I go home for vacation, my parents throw this stuff at me,’ the younger Meyers said.  ‘I wanted to hear it myself.’

            “McGill said he attended because he ‘thought it would be pretty exciting.’

            “They agreed their expectation was that the Anti-Communism Crusade is ‘a little to the left of the John Birch Society,’ but they had been surprised by the apparently moderate tone of some speakers.

            “Schwarz, however, delivered his usual measure of controversial—and occasionally amusing—remarks.

            “He provoked the only laughter of the day with the statement that ‘if Karl Marx were alive today, he would have had a heart attack after seeing the hardhats in New York.’

            “Later he continued his long-standing feud with Sen. J. William Fulbright (D-Ark.) by accusing the senator of ‘malicious lies’ about him; but he followed that with praise for the United States as ‘the most permissive society in the history of mankind, (which) permits me, an alien, to attack a senator.’

            “Schwarz insisted that he was not in Washington to lobby on political issues (I wouldn’t dare give an opinion on Cambodia.  I don’t feel competent.”) and said he had not sought congressional endorsement for the seminar.

            “As the weekend continues, his students will also hear from Herbert A Philbrick, former counterspy for the FBI who wrote the book, ‘I Led Three Lives,’ Former Rep. Walter H Judd (R-Minn.) and other anti-Communist lecturers.”

            This seminar reinforced my conviction that projects of this nature are among the most fruitful activities in which we can engage.  It is our objective to increase the frequency and effectiveness of such events.

THE BLACK PANTHERS PROMOTE COMMUNISM

            The leaders of the Black Panther organization are finding it difficult to convince people that they are serious revolutionary communists.  They repeatedly announce that the Black Panther Party is the Marxist-Leninist revolutionary vanguard.  Marxism-Leninism is a synonym for Communism.  Despite this, many insist on regarding them simply as angry young blacks who are resisting the oppression of the police and who are fighting poverty in the ghettos by giving free breakfasts to children and conducting free medical clinics.

            The ‘good works’ of the Panthers simply illustrates their application of the basic communist strategy, ‘Find out what people want, promise it to them, go to work to get it for them so that you may come to power over them.’

            The Black Panther strategy must be taken seriously as it presents a serious threat to the continued existence of the United States.  This strategy is as follows:

1.  Establish “liberated” areas in the black ghettos which the police will be afraid to enter:

The inhabitants of these areas will then be terrorized and policed by Black Panthers.  These “liberated” areas will then declare their national independence from the United States and make treaties with foreign communist governments and governments of black countries.

            This strategy is based on the old communist doctrine that the blacks represent a colony within the United States and that this colony must be free and must establish its own government.

            This claim has apparently been accepted by many who support the Black Panthers under all circumstances.  There is a great public outcry because the chairman of the Black Panther Party, Bobby Seale, and other Black Panthers have been arrested and will be tried for the alleged torture and murder of a party member whom they classified as a police informer.  Many thousands recently demonstrated at Yale University against the coming trial.

            The protesters do not emphasize the claim that Bobby Seale and the Black panthers are innocent of the charge that they tortured and murdered the man.  The contention is that the United States’ legal system has no right to bring Bobby Seale to trial because Bobby Seale is a citizen of an independent black nation and not a citizen of the United States.  For this reason the attempt to try him is a manifestation of colonialism and imperialism.  The inference is that blacks are entitled to conduct their own trials and administer punishment and that the Black Panther Party is the appropriate authority for this purpose.

2.  Establish treaties of mutual defense with countries such as Communist China, North Korea, North Vietnam, Algeria, Cuba, etc. so that any attempted lawful action against the Black Panthers will result in international conflict:

            This conflict could vary from charges of genocide presented to the United Nations to the burning and bombing of American diplomatic, educational and military institutions overseas or the assassination of American tourists.

            Eldridge Cleaver, Minister for Information of the Black Panther Party, is presently touring the world trying to establish such alliances.  A recent statement by Eldridge Cleaver concerning the call of Mao Tse-tung for unity for the destruction of America is printed in the Peking Review of June 12, 1970 as follows:

“Statement by Responsible Member for Information of the U.S. Black Panther Party”

            “Eldridge Cleaver, responsible member for information of the Black Panther Party, the Afro-American organization which advocate armed resistance against violent repression, expressed, in his recent interview with the Hsinhua correspondent in Algiers, the warmest support for Chairman Mao’s solemn statement supporting the struggle of the world’s people against U.S. imperialism.  He said that Chairman Mao’s statement was a tremendous encouragement and support to the American people in their revolutionary struggle, and that the cause of the American people was sure to be victorious and U.S. fascist ruling circles were bound to be defeated.

            “Cleaver said, ‘In his statement, Chairman Mao Tsetung has set forth a brilliant and timely analysis of the qualitatively new and excellent situation that exists in the world.’  ‘This statement pulls together into clear focus the revolutionary struggles and the liberation struggles of the people of the whole world, including the revolutionary struggle of the American people themselves.’

            “He pointed out, ‘This statement by Chairman Mao Tsetung has reflected the heartfelt feelings and common hope of millions of oppressed people in the United States.  It made the American people see clearly the reactionary and aggressive nature of the U.S. imperialism.  U.S. imperialism has carried out barbarous and criminal fascist repression on the domestic scale and rampant aggression on the international scale, thus committing innumerable crimes.’  He went on to say, ‘The black people in the United States have been the long-suffering victims of fascist violence and repression.  But under the reactionary Nixon clique, this violence and repression has been escalated to unprecedented heights.’

            “Cleaver said that never before has the Nixon government been so isolated as it is today.  And never before has it been so clear that its criminal rule can only be ended by the people rising up courageously to take up arms and seize their own destiny from the handful of willful exploiters and murderers.

            “Cleaver pointed out that the solemn statement of Chairman Mao Tsetung, the great leader of the Chinese revolution, hero and teacher of the revolutionary people of the world, has added impetus to the struggle of the people of the world against the common enemy of us all—U.S. fascist imperialism, and has made an inestimable contribution to all mankind.  Chairman Mao Tsetung’s inspiring statement gives new heart to the peoples in their struggles to throw off the shackles and chains of oppression now being held in place by U.S. imperialism.

            “Cleaver said, ‘We welcome this statement because we have learnt, by shedding our blood, that the statement is of great significance and that only through relentless struggle, by resorting to arms inside the very house of U.S. fascism and imperialism, can we gain our freedom and liberation.’

            “In conclusion, Eldridge Cleaver shouted: ‘Long live Chairman Mao Tsetung!  Long live the victory of the people’s war!  Death to U.S. fascism and imperialist aggression!  All power to the people!’”  Pages 25-26.

3.  An intensive propaganda program within the United States to rally support for the cause of the Black Panthers amongst all white revolutionaries and to exploit liberal devotion to ‘civil liberties’ to protect the Black Panthers from the legal consequences of their crimes:

            The way the Black Panthers operate in a local area is described in a signed article in the Los Angeles Times, Sunday, June 21, 1970, by Roy Haynes.  He discusses the activities of the Black Panthers in the Los Angeles area.  He writes:

            “Panthers say they are attempting to ‘liberate’ the area by chasing the police out then forming alliances with nonwhite foreign countries.

            “Using the teachings of Mao Tse-tung as a guide, the Panthers have trained at least 100 young men and women in guerrilla warfare, including sabotage, handling machine guns, hand grenades and other weapons.

            “These angry young blacks, who call themselves the vanguard of the ‘people’s revolution,’ already have ambushed two officers, according to authorities.

            “Elmer Pratt, a decorated war hero recently returned from Vietnam, was taking charge of the group.  He had adopted the name Geronimo, but most of the Panthers call him ‘G’.

            “Geronimo reorganized the Panthers, instilled strict party discipline and taught them guerrilla warfare.  Following the teachings of Che Guevara, the Cuban revolutionary, on suburban guerrilla warfare Pratt organized the Panthers into small groups of four or five men.

            “Further directions came from the party’s Minister of Defense, Newton: ‘When the masses hear that a Gestapo policeman has been executed while sipping coffee at a counter, and the revolutionary executioners fled without being traced, the masses will see the validity of this type of approach to resistance.’

            “Police contend such an attack was carried out against two officers.  The commander of Pratt’s squad No. 3, Walter Toure Pope, was killed in a shootout with the police Oct. 18.  A member of his squad, Bruce Darrell Richards, was wounded and now faces charges of conspiracy to murder a police officer.

            “Officers Alvin D. Moen and Don Mandella tell this version of the shooting.  They were staked out in a patrol car shortly before midnight at 710 E. Manchester Blvd. Watching a drive-in restaurant which had been robbed frequently.

            “Pope and Richards walked up to the rear of the car and opened fire with a carbine and a shotgun.  Moen was struck in the right shoulder and left hand by the shotgun blast.  Mandella was not injured.  The two officers returned the fire, killing Pope and wounding Richards who fled but was captured later.

            “The ambush failed, but the strategy was not rejected.  The Panthers planned other attacks.

Liberate by Fear

            “According to a member, the Panthers hope to immobilize the police by making them afraid to enter the ghetto, to make South Central Los Angeles ‘liberated territory.’

            “Some members report that the overall plan of the party is to create several  pockets of ‘liberated territories’ across the country and then form an alliance with the Chinese, North Vietnamese, North Koreans, Africans and other nonwhite people for mutual protection.

            “The Panther leader in exile, Eldridge Cleaver, who was in phone contact with Los Angeles, is said to be negotiating for that treaty with foreign countries.”  Page 1B and 3B.

            Communists have always been a minority seeking to control and exploit the masses by either terror or bribery.  The Black Panthers are no exception.  They have remarkably little support in the black community.  Roy Hayne reports:

            “Actually there apparently is little support for the Panthers among the general adult black community.  A recent random sampling by The Times indicated that only 4% approve of the group.  A much larger percentage, 29%, disapprove, but the big majority, 67%, simply does not know much about the Panthers.”  Los Angeles Times, June 20, 1970, Page 3B.

            The authorities have a duty to protect all citizens from vigilante violence.  This applies fully to the black citizens in the ghettos.  If they are assured of adequate police protection, the Black Panther attempt to ‘liberate’ them will fail.  If the Black Panthers are unrestrained, the consequences will be calamitous.