Masters of deceit : $b The story of Communism in America and how to fight itHoover, J. Edgar (John Edgar)
History
Masters of deceit : $b The story of Communism in America and how to fight it
Hoover, J. Edgar (John Edgar)
Communism -- United States
The shift is over. The members whisk back to “Liberty House,” grab a bite
to eat, hear a pep talk, then return for another “tour of duty.” Cots are
available for sleep. In this way a few fanatical comrades can attract the
attention of thousands. Over the week end other comrades, off from work,
“flood” into a city and, in the flaming words of the Party press, march
by the “thousands”—meaning probably 250 to 300. “There’s Still Time to
Act. Send Telegrams, Letters to the Governor.” Mount the pressure. So
long as John Doe is alive he must be exploited.
5. _The imprisonment stage_: the defendant becomes a showpiece. He
is visited by his wife (called a “prison wife”) and his family, and
delegations go to see him. Sentimental and heart-tearing accounts are
written: “... as the train sped me northward, my eyes ached with unwept
tears of loneliness.” “I heard [his] quiet voice. I looked into his calm
eyes. But I noted too the tight lines of controlled grimness about his
mouth and the narrowed tightness about his eyes.”
Birthday-card campaigns are initiated. Send John Doe a Christmas
greeting. His picture is published. His “speeches” become “quotable
scripture.” A nine-year-old son visits him ... the child is shocked by
the “watchtowers,” “gigantic searchlights,” “locked iron doors” ... the
visit is over ... the little boy tells his mother, “After all, if Daddy
didn’t have such good political ideas he wouldn’t be there in the first
place.” (He is a Smith Act “victim.”)
The communist press will invariably superimpose its judgment on that
of a jury and judge with a trumped-up charge that the homicide was
justifiable, the evidence framed, or the witness had committed perjury.
It will have a defense for the crime that would cause the person not
familiar with the facts or the record of the trial to wonder. And the
longer the lapse of time, the more real the trumped-up defense will sound
to the uninformed. This might go on for years. For example, the Women’s
Committee for Equal Justice was not disbanded until seven years after
Rosa Lee Ingram and her two sons had been convicted and sentenced in a
Georgia court for the slaying of a neighbor.
6. _The post-imprisonment stage_: most of the propaganda value is
generally gone when this stage is reached. If the “victim” is dead,
“memorial” services may occasionally be held or articles written.
The cycle has run. The campaign may be dropped at any moment, shifted
to a new tack, used to buttress another approach. Another purpose,
especially in espionage cases, is to make the “victim” think he is a
“martyr” and believe that any cooperation with the American government,
such as implicating others or giving vital information, would be a
betrayal. Better to have him executed by the government for his crimes
than to expose other communists.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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