MEMORANDUM FOR: HONORABLE ARTHUR SCHLESINGER, JR. FROM C.P. CABELL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80B01676R000800070017-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 11
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 20, 2003
• Sequence Number: 17
• Publication Date: November 9, 1961
• Content Type: MF

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interest to you.
C. P. Cabell
General. U&AY
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 HECK SSIFICAT ION TOP AND BOTTOM
UNCLASSIF
FILE
INFORMATION
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some comment on Arthur Schlesinger's memo.
He recalled that at one time you had indicated
6 you had some views and has
therefore asked that, if you have not already
done so, your views be provided to Mr.
Schlesinger. JSE
bas e
had not had an opportunity to do anything about
did feel that we should make
+ although he
Dick:
The Director pulled this one out of his
k t late Saturday afternoon and noted he
FOLD HERE TO RETURN TO SENDER
FROM: NAME, ADDRESS AND PHONE NO.
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30 Oct 61
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THE WHITE HOUSE
October 2, 1961
MEMORANDUM FOR:
Honorable Allen W. Dulles
I would welcome any comment on
the attached memorandum.
Arthur Schlesinger, jr.
Special Assistant
to the President
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CONFIDENTIAL'/ -
WASHINGTON
September 29, 1961
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
SUBJECT: Organizing the Democratic
Parties of the World
1. The Soviet Union enjoys one striking advantage over the
United States in waging political warfare: the fact that it has at its
disposal two mechanisms for its operations in other countries -- not
only the official government apparatus, but also the 'unofficial' appa-
ratus of the Communist Party. This ability to work through eighty-
nine national Communist parties with a membership of millions has
obviously vastly increased the USSR's effectiveness in mobilizing sup-
port for its policies around the world. In effect, a world civil war is
going on in which one side has a unified international instrumentality
and the other a dispersed collection of political fragments. One of
our basic weaknesses in the competition with the USSR is the absence
of any organized mass movement willing to be identified with US ideals.
2. Yet there are through the world a great many national parties
committed to social reform within a framework of individual rights and
representative institutions. These parties contain individuals of devo-
tion, character and courage. They contain ideas uniquely capable of
countering the appeal of Communism to intellectuals, workers and the
underprivileged. Even though it is not possible to subject these popular
democratic parties to centralized international discipline on the Com-
munist model, they represent a potentially valuable, if thus far largely
unexploited, resource for our political warfare.
3. What is our interest with regard to the popular democratic
parties? Obviously it is to strengthen them as much as possible --
both their organization and their commitment to democratic ideals.
Thus far we have tried to do this indirectly. An ultimate objective of
our aid programs, for example, is to create a healthy economic and
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CCTF IDENTIAL
social environment in which democratic political parties would
flourish. Similarly our cultural exchange programs are designed
in part to educate people for democratic political responsibilities.
But none of these programs can succeed without effective political
leadership. And, if the end product of these efforts is supposed to
be the creation of free political society, why need we confine our-
selves to promoting effective political leadership through indirect
methods? The Communists have not so limited themselves. Why
would it not advance our interests to provide direct assistance to pro-
democratic parties?
4. What do these parties need?
(a) They need training in political techniques -- in the
development of leadership; in modes of organization; in working the
precincts and the grass roots; in the use of press, radio and pamphlets;
in the production of political education materials; in organizing workers,
peasants, students, women; in dealing with Communist efforts at oppo-
sition or infiltration; in general, in the practical problems of establish-
ing an effective party structure.
(b) They need money to support their organization, party
press and radio, etc. Cne of the ironies of our present world is that
the New Frontier parties often lack the economic means to compete in
their own countries either with the right-wing parties, financed by the
local oligarchies, or with the left-wing parties, financed by Moscow or
Peking.
(c) They need a consolidation of their intellectual position. Some
pro-democratic leaders, especially in the new nations, are excessively
abstract and rhetorical in their approach to politics. Their programmatic
thought is exhausted in such slogans as 'economic development,' 'land
reform, ' 'industrialization. ' They require not only a firmer understand-
ing of democratic philosophy but education in the identification of practical
issues and in the formulation of concrete programs. This means training
in such areas as economic theory, public administration, history of polit-
ical parties, agrarian reform, economic development, community organ-
ization, labor organization, international relations, etc.
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CCJ'rTIDENTIAL
(d) They need moral assistance -- i.e., they must be
assured that they have friends in other countries, especially in the
United States, and that history is moving in their direction. Espe-
cially in the underdeveloped nations, the pro-democratic leaders
often have a terrible feeling of isolation. The oligarchs call them
'Communists'; the Communists call them 'camp-followers of American
imperialism'; and their natural allies -- the American people -- have
remained largely unaware of their existence and indifferent to their
struggles. Indeed, the local American business community and, on
occasion, the US Embassy have often displayed far more sympathy
with the local oligarchy than with the popular democratic parties.
What is required, in short, is a program of technical, economnic,
intellectual and moral assistance to democratic political parties on
terms consistent with their own sense of dignity and honor and designed
ultimately to create a worldwide popular movement of pro-democratic
forces.
5. It should be noted that the time for launching such a program
could hardly be more propitious. The change of administration in the
United States has immensely increased the appeal of American ideals
to the world. The rise of the New Frontier has greatly multiplied our
points of contact abroad with intellectuals, trade unions, underdeveloped
countries, etc. As in the days of Wilson and of Roosevelt, we have once
again a chance to regain the leadership of the non-Communist progressive
elements everywhere. Because of this change in atmosphere, democratic
parties in many countries feel much less compromised by American
associations and are even eager for American support. I have seen in
recent months a number of proposals from democratic leaders in Europe,
Latin America and Asia looking to the establishment of an "Association
of Free Democratic Parties" or a "Democratic International. " Such a
grouping already exists in rudimentary form in Latin America (INADESMO the Inter-American Democratic Social Movement).
6. Obviously this attempt to mobilize the parties committed to liber-
tarian and progressive goals cannot be achieved on a government-to-
government basis. It can be achieved only to a limited extent on a
government-to-party (i. e. , covert) basis. While such covert assistance
may be necessary for emergencies, or for general training programs, it
is corrupting and demoralizing when it becomes routine.
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Still democratic, ingenuity can surely devise some way by which
we can give our political friends one-tenth the backing which the.
Communists give theirs and do so with appropriate respect for their
sense of pride and independence. For the sake of clarifying some
of the issues, I would like to suggest a minimum, an interim and a
maximum program.
7. Thw minimum program would involve the utilization of one of
our most neglected instruments of international political warfare --
that is, the Democratic Party. That Party, after all, is the oldest
political party in continuous existence. It ,has given the Worldin this
century the two dominating principles on which the future is most likely
to be organized -- the idea of international association; and the idea
of a mixed economy based on limited government intervention in eco-
nomic life to guarantee minimum levels of employment, welfare and
security. The Democratic Presidents who particularly symbolized
these ideas, Wilson and Roosevelt, are still names to conjure with in
large areas of the world.
Yet, despite the impact on the world of these traditions, contributions,
leaders, the Democratic Party as such does practically nothing in the
international sphere. Political leaders from all over the world come
through Washington in search of aid, counsel, friendship -- the Demo-
cratic National Committee has no official designated to receive them,
advise them, befriend them. As a consequence, we have missed
extraordinary opportunities to establish ties -- of a sort which cannot
be established by the government itself -- with the political leadership
of pro-democratic parties. We have thereby deprived ourselves of
important possibilities for exerting influence abroad; and we have con-
siderably reduced our chance of fostering a pro-democratic mass move-
ment to compete with the mass movement of the Communists.
It is easy to see why this condition exists, and it is obviously the fault
of no one over at the Committee. (As individuals, indeed, some people
at the Committee have done their best to meet the needs of foreign
visitors.) The Committee's traditional job is to win elections in the
United States, and it has rightly concentrated on that. But the world is
changing; national politics have become increasingly internationalized,
whether we like it or not; and surely the time has come for the Derno-
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cratic National Committee to establish an International Bureau
charged with developing relationships on an informal basis with
pro-democratic leaders and parties and with pressing New,F'rontier
ideas through the world.
I even have a candidate for the job -- Neil Staebler of Michigan. He
is already interested in the general area and, I understand, is at the
moment on a world tour. He can handle questions of organization
as well as of ideology; he would be personally effective in dealing
with politicians from other countries; and I think he would fully
understand the importance and urgency of the assignment.
If the Republican Party wanted to establish a similar bureau, so much
the better.
8. An interim program might well envisage the setting up of
regional training institutes on the model of the Institute of Political
Education in Costa Rica. The San Jose Institute is already doing a
job of great importance in training democratic leadership for Latin
America. It has also proposed a program of expanded activity in th-:
future, including the establishment of regional institutes in other parts
of Latin America and the creation of a publications center to advance
democratic ideas and policies.
The establishment of comparable institutes under indigenous direction
in Asia and Africa might have a decisive effect on the future of democracy
in those continents. Had the San Jose Institute been in operation a decade
ago, for example, the evolution of the Cuban Revolution might have been
considerably different, and the problems of a transition to democracy in
the Dominican Republic today might have been less acute.
9. The maximum program would have to be worked out experimentally;
but, in the long run, it would seem to me that we might consider heading
toward some sort of Democratic International. A non-governmental
organization of free political parties could promote the understanding of
democratic ideals and practices, assist democratic parties and regimes
threatened by totalitarian forces, discuss problems of democracy in lands
lacking antecedent democratic traditions and strengthen the morale and
sense of common purpose among all those striving in the democratic
cause.
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Obviously the idea of a Democratic International raises difficult
problems and therefore must be approached with the most careful
consideration. Some of the problems are:
a) Should the association include all democratic political
parties, conservative and liberal? or should it be confined to liberal
democratic parties? (The best way of solving this problem might be
to frame a statement of principles and open membership to all parties
prepared to adhere to the statement. )
b) Should the association be on regional lines, or should it
begin as a world organization? (Iv'y guess is that regional beginnings
are necessary in order to test the vitality of the association. )
c) What should the relationship be with social democratic parties
and with the now moribund Second International? (most 'socialist' parties
today, like the British Labour Party and the German SPD, have abandoned
the principles of classical socialism and are, in essence, mixed-economy,
welfare-state parties. )
d) Should the association be loose and fraternal? or should it
aim toward common programs and policies?
10. The formulation of the maximum program must await greater
knowledge and experience. But an International Bureau could be set up
right away in the Democratic National Committee; and the experience of
this office could provide some idea of the feasibility of more far-reaching
steps. Whoever heads the office might have in mind the objective at some
future time of calling a W% Iorld Congress of pro-democratic parties and
leaders to proclaim the principles of social change for and by democracy
and to affirm faith in the world of choice and the open society. The
World Congress might lead to the establishment of a permanent inter-
national organization of education and action on behalf of democracy and
freedom.
Arthur Schlesinger, jr.
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