OPPOSING COLONIALISM AND COMMUNIST IMPERIALISM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP59-00224A000100270003-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 26, 2000
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: July 13, 1955
• Content Type: REPORT

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Calendar No. 863
84TH CONGRESS
1st Session
SENATE - REPORT
No. 855
OPPOSING COLONIALISM AND COMMUNIST IMPERIALISM
Mr. GREEN, from the Committee on Foreign Relations, submitted the
following
REPORT
The Committee on. Foreign Relations, having had under considera-
tion the concurrent resolution (II. Con. Res. 149) expressing the sense
of the Congress that the United States in its international relations
should maintain its traditional policy in opposition to colonialista and
Communist imperialism, reports the concurrent resolution favorably
with an amendment and recommends that it do pass.
The main purpose of the resolution is to restate the traditional
policy of the United States in support of the efforts of other peoples
"to achieve self-government or independence under circumstances
which will enable them to assume an equal station among the free
nations of the world."
The concurrent resolution was introduced in the House May 21,
1955, by Representative John W. McCormack and was passed by the
House June 23 by a vote of 367 to 0.
On July 13, the Committee on Foreign Relations heard testimony
from Representative McCormack and considered the resolution in
executive session. The committee agreed to an amendment to delete
the reference to membership in the United Nations and in other inter-
national organizations, and then ordered the resolution favorably
reported by a vote of 13 to 1.
As it passed the House, the resolution expressed the sense of Con-
gress that-
the United States should administer its foreign policies and programs and exercise
its influence through its membership in the United Nations and in other international
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2 OPPOSING COLONIALISM AND COMMUNIST IMPERIALISM
organizations so as to support other peoples in their efforts to achieve self-govern-
ment or independence under circumstances which will enable them to assume an
equal station among the free nations of the world. [Italics supplied.]
The committee amendment deleted the phrase in italics in the fore-
going paragraph.
The effect of the amendment, is to express the sense that American
influence to the stated ends should be exercised generally and not solely
or particularly through the United Nations and other international
organizations. The committee felt that it was preferable to couch the
resolution in general terms so as not to give special emphasis to any
particular means of accomplishing the objective which :is sought.
The resolution does no more than restate the traditional foreign
policy of the United States, a country which itself emerged from
colonial status to "assume an equal station among the free nations
of the world" only after a long and difficult war. The United States
quickly recognized the independence of the Latin American Republics
when those nations severed their ties with Europe. Moreover, our
Government was directly responsible for the independence of Cuba
And the Philippines, and has played a role in establishing the inde-
oendence of such other nations as Panama, Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos,
Carnbodia, and Libya.
Li the Pacific Charter of September 8, 1954, the -United States
;coined seven Asian and European nations in declaring that-
Thev * * * will earnestly strive by every peaceful moans to promote self--govern-
inent and to secure the independence of all countries whose peoples desire it and
are able to undertake its responsibilities
Further, in the Mutual Security Act of 1955 it is declared to be
the sense of Congress---
that assistance under this Act shall he administered so as to assist other peoples
in their efforts to achieve self-government or independence under circumstances
which will enable them to assume au equal station among the free nations of the
world and to fulfill their responsibilities for self-government or independence.
The urge for independence, and the tide of anticolonial. feeling
which is now running in many parts of the world, is as strong, as that
which swept the Western World in the late 18th and early 19th cen-
turies, and which in fact was sparked by the American Revolution.
Communist propaganda, howetier, constantly attempts to create the
impression that the United States is an imperialist power and that
the only true anticolonial power is the Soviet Union. The truth, of
course, is precisely the opposite, as is plainly demonstrated by the
record, of the United States in p,-omoting independence and the record
of the Soviet Union in subverting it.
In the circumstances, therefore, it seems to the committee par-
ticularly appropriate at this time for the Congress to emphasize once
again this traditional American policy. The resolution is, in essence,
a reaffirmation of the principle.. of the Declaration of Independence,
at document which, it should be recalled, was described by Abraham
Lincoln as meaning "liberty, net alone to the people of this country,
but hope for the world, for all future time."
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