PORTRAIT OF RIGHTIST LEADER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000300300018-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 30, 2000
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: March 29, 1962
• Content Type: NSPR

4
#Yl A tl L J lib
Approved-for Release 2000/05/05: CIA-RD
1 1; 33,049
MAR ') 9 1962
pOM109 it
y r
Of Rightist
Leader _ I
By Peter Edson
WASHINGTON - (NEA) -
new right-wing Committee for Internal.
Wore the Senate Internal.
Newark, New Orleans ' and eehes by Pentagon and State
Philadelphia newspaperm a n, foreign correspondent, lecturer 'Hunter moved to the Wash-
and author ? .of half a dozen rt ton area several months ago,
with some misgivings. He says
books on international commu- St _. . . -
tive Effort is Edward Hunter. h. sparked, the probe of
STATINTL
has not covered at the front_
ta~lish no office of .; ~ own,
As a war correspondent he But he has a feeling now , at other than his Arlington. Va.,'
the next "war" may. be to > apartment. He would like to use,
covered Hitler's advance into the the United States from com- the facilities of some of the "50
Rhineland, the I t a 1 i a n con- munism and that many of the or more right-wing groups that
quest of Ethiopia. in World War battles will be fought in Wash- have their national headquarters
II he served in the Office of ~ngton. or offices. here.
Strategic Services, forerunner of He has had no political back- Hunter says he has been given
CIA. He was a consultant on ground and only one previous no money with which to operate
p c o ogical warfare during experience in American anti- and his own income from royal-
and after the Korean War. Communist organization. .411e ties, lecture and consultants'
headed a national committee fees is not sufficient to carry
Perhaps his greatest claim to , which cleaned the Commies, out the expense.
fame is is that he put the .: the American Newspaper
fame
' into the e term rm Guild when "it couldn't be Before the first formal meet-
brain asge:hat English d ." ing of his committee, now sched-
"
langua
uled for June, he hopes to have
Hunter is 60, of medium height ready budget estimates of what
After interviewing American and build, with a writer's it will cost to operate, and rec-
prisoners of war released by rounded shoulders and quick ommendations for the stipends
the Chinese Communists in the movements. He speaks with to be paid a permanent 'staff.
Korean War he wrote two books. energy and dedication. He is a
"Brainwashing in Red China" high school graduate, described He does not now anticipate
and "Brainwashing: The Story in Who's Who as "self-educated," that the expenses will be large.
of the Men Who Defied It.". They He is a Methodist, He describes He does not see the committee
revealed the Red tortures of himself as "an old-fashioned as a national political action
POW's and served as the basis liberal." He married a White group. Every cooperating organ-
for indoctrination courses to pre- Russian refugee, the former ization will be left completely
pare American military person- Tatiana Pestrikoff, in 1832. Their free to carry on its own projects.
nel for 'Communist cruelties son served three years in the
under captivity. ? Marines. Hunter's
idea is that his o
mittee mittee will function - as some-
me-
After returning from his last At the recent Washington one suggested during the ex-
overseas stint in Afghanistan meeting of 100 representatives Ploratory meeting of rightists
three years ago, Hunter says from rightist organizations, called here by the Rev. Dr. Billy
he sensed a change in this Hunter was given the job of James Hargis of Christian Cru-
country. Anti-Communist senti- naming a new Committee for the sade - like the "Committees
ment had taker hold at the Coordination of Conservative Ef- of Correspondence" in pre-
grass roots and was growing. He fort. He intends te, select mem- American Revolutionary times.
decided to work with this move- bers from the top-200 out of the It will keep the patriotic lead-
ment and he became z consult- total of 2,000 right-wing or- ers informed of what the others
ant to. congressional committees ganizations and leaders. He has a doin Gn o t e
mums atjp iPntgOVt 1rVf'Rti1 It DP ~' ( ,` {)00300300018-3
munism, commit ee wi e.
.]ast--the ~dcoats.