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PAGE 6—THE BULLETIN, September 19, 1959
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(By Vincent J. Giese)
(This is the third and final
article in a series of inside re
ports from Vienna on the
seventh World Youth Festival
held July 26 to August 4. They
are written by Vincent J. Giese,
editorial director of Fides Pub
lishers of Chicago, who was in
Vienna as an American partici
pant at the Festival.
Vienna — What kind of Amer
icans are taking part in the
seventh World Youth Festival
in Vienna? Can the American
people be proud of the kind of
representation the United States
received here in this Commu
nist-controlled propaganda ex
travaganza?
While it is extremely difficult
to generalize, I prefer to speak
about the two factions of Amer
ican participants separately. As
a member of the so-called Chi
cago anti-Communist group, I
naturally have a clearer under
standing of the delegates who
have been working closely with
the Independent Service Com
mittee than I do of the so-called
New York group.
Of the estimated 325 accredit
ed delegates at the Festival,
some 200 make up the majority
who revolted against the Com
munist-picked leadership of the
American delegation. These 200
are to a man serious-minded,
intelligent, well-educated Amer
ican youth whom America can
be proud of in every way. The
seriousness of the group and its
over-riding sense of responsibil
ity to the mission it had accept
ed to represent America truth
fully and intelligently was al
ready evident in New York City
before the plane trip was over.
The 89 youths I came over
with in a chartered flight spent
the trip reading and discussing
in preparation for the Festival.
I was impressed by the great
range of skills and special fields
of interest of these young men
and women in their mid
twenties. Most of them were stu
dents of international relations,
had previous travel experience
abroad, were active in student
affairs in school, had a working
knowledge o f parliamentary
procedure, spoke more than one
language, and were experienced
and mature student leaders.
The competence of this group
of 200 was demonstrated over
and over during the Festival as
they took part in seminars on
higher education, atomic energy,
freedom of the press, philosophy.
Whenever they were heard in
these seminars, they drew ap
plause, primarily because they
were thoughtful, sincere, cour
teous, and well grounded in
their fields. The same was held
true in contacts with various
other delegations and in the
many street-corner bull sessions
that took place in Vienna.
A great deal of credit is due
to the Independent Committee
for selecting these young Amer
icans and in the preparation of
them for the Festival. This, I
feel, has been the great achieve
ment of the seventh World
Youth Festival.
In being as objective as I
know how, I can say that these
200 Americans are not Fascists,
employees of the State Depart
ment or the FBI, McCarthyites,
or any other kind of label we
have heard ascribed to them this
week. They are apologists for
democratic institutions and the
democratic way of life. There
is no hard party line among
them, but a great diversity of
political positions. Their sym
pathies, however, are with the
West and they are united only
in their opposition to inter
national Communism.
On the other hand — and the
temptation has been strong this
week — I refuse to pin a Com
munist label on the minority
group of some 120 Americans
who make up the so-called New
York faction. Who is able to
say who is a Communist or not?
This is not the point, to ex
change villifying labels, al
though the Festival Organizers
wanted. exactly to create this
kind of dissenion among the
Americans. I think we can say
that the leadership of the New
York group is Communist. Who
they are and how many is not
relevant at this time. I personal
ly do not know the answers.
But for what they are worth,
here is how I would describe
the minority faction of Ameri
can participants. I believe they
are on the whole naive, mis
guided youth — not at all typi
cal of American youth. They
bought the Festival propaganda
bill of goods that the Festival
was non-political, that Frienden
Fraunschafi (Peace and Friend
ship) was the only purpose of
the Festival. There was a beat
nik element among them, evi
dent by the way they talked,
dressed and acted in a Bohemian
style.
They were desperately eagev
to make personal contact with
youth of other countries, an
objective which we all shared,
but which clouded out for them
all other reasons for participa
tion. Their reaction was almost
emotional against the 200 major
ity. They viewed us suspiciously
as a well-trained army of propa
gandists for the United States,
right or wrong, who came to
Vienna with the sole purpose
of upsetting the Festival. In
this, I think their assessment
of the 200 was wrong and un
fortunate, and perhaps by the
end of the week they began to
revise this judgement.
The most sobering aspect of
the American participation, to
me, is the thought of how un
representative of America the
delegation would have been had
not the Independent Service
munist controlled — are as un
representative of the youth ot
their nations as the New York
faction was of the United States.
The one impression I gathered
from meeting delegates from dif
ferent parts of the world is that
there is great variety among
Communists. Whereas the Amer
ican Communist sympathizers
were naive idealists, the mem
bers of other delegations at least
were authentic Communists.
They had reasons for being
Communists, rightly or wrongly.
I spoke to a young minor from
Kent, England, who was Com
munist because his union was
presently Communist controlled
and it was doing a good job
working for the interests of lads
in the mines. His reasons were
purely economic, not ideological
or international. Young Poles I
spoke to were Communists be
cause they were tired of war
and have more or less decided
to go along with Socialism than
revolt and risk more suffering
and war. While some of the
Poles were convinced of Marx
ism, they seemed to take an in
dependent stand as regards
Soviet domination. Africans
were Communist because they
were sick of the Colonialism
of the West and because they
were disturbed about the race
relations in the United States.
By and large one could find
some kind of reason to explain
the attraction of Communism to
many of these youth from other
parts of the world, but we could
find no reason for its attraction
among Americans unless it be a
kind of juvenile reaction mani-
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festing itself in revolt against
Committee recruited a group of
its own. I begin to wonder if
the other delegations — Com-
the U. S. much in the same way
other juveniles revolt against
different symbols of authority,
such as families, police, and
school. This was the beatnik
aspect of the American sym
pathizers, and probably for most
of them it is a passing phase
of their lives and will lose its
grip as they mature.
It was to the authentic Com
munists that I think the major-
, ity of 200 made its pitch. Wheth
er or not they were effective,
no one can estimate, except
these Communists have at least
had the experience of discussing
both sides of the question with
American youth the nation as
a whole can be grateful we were
in Vienna during the 7th World
Youth Festival.
Best Wishes
From
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