ADDRESS AT THE ANNUAL LAW DAY OF THE WALTER F. GEORGE SCHOOL OF LAW MERCER UNIVERSITY, MACON GEORGIA BY ALLEN WELSH DULLES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80R01731R001700030009-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 16
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 6, 2003
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: October 28, 1955
• Content Type: SPEECH

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ADDRESS AT THE ANNUAL LAW DAY
OF THE WALTER F. GEORGE SCHOOL OF LA1P
MERCER UNIVERSITY, MACON, GEORGIA
BY ALLEN WELSH DULLES, DIRECTOR OF CENTRAL INTI`ILLIGEVCE
28 OCTOBER 1955
Judge Tuttle, Dean O'Neal, Ladies and Gentlemen:
I sincerely appreciate the invitation extended to me to attezd
your Annual Law Day celebration. Your School of Law bears the name
of a distinguished citizen who in a period of great stress in our histor j
has made a high contribution to our national security.
As Director of Central Intelligence I have the task, among other a
of weighing the impact of our policy on the rapidly changing events of a
troubled world. Here, no factor has more significance than the ability
of our spokesmen to act for a united country. Senator George's -contribution
in developing and sustaining the bi-partisan and above-partisan charact?e
of our foreign policy has proved of incalculable value in giving force t-
our actions in our international relations.
Though my chosen profession is the private practice of the law.
have, since 1916, had the opportunity and the privilege of serving the
Government under every President from Woodrow Wilson, who was
President of Princeton when I entered there some 45 years ago, to
President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who entrusted me with my pre?;ent
appointment.
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Many people outside of government have tried to commiserate
with me and with others in government service at what they call tt,.*:.
sacrifice of serving one's government. I take no stock in tlits.
True, there is a financial sacrifice. Personally, I have always
found that serving the government is a high privilege and I have
sought no sympathy. The rewards of such service far exceed the
financial and other sacrifices which may be involved.
We lawyers are fortunate in exercising a great profes.3ion
which, when the call comes, we can leave from time to time to serve
our government, but still have the hope that one day we can be
welcomed back to its ranks -- possibly a little rusty as far :ss
the latest laws and decisions are concerned, but still, I believe,
with a broadened concept of the essential place of law in out over ..ill
governmental fabric.
By this I do not wish to imply that I have any intention of
giving up my present job. It is certainly one of the most fascinating
in Washington.
When I started on this work late in 1950, during the K.#resn
War, I had the firm promise that I could return to my law practice
in New York in a few months. Little did I realize that I should
still be in Washington five years later.
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Here is how this came about, and I mention it as a warning c
those of you who wish to avoid becoming involved in the work of
government. President Truman in 1948 had asked me to preside o,r er
a small Committee which was to study and report on the workings if
the CIA which had been created in 1947 by the law which unified th,t
Armed Services in the Department of D :fense. A couple of years
later General Bedell Smith, then Director of Central Intell;encZ.
asked me to come down to Washington to help put into effect the
recommendations of our Committee. I could hardly refuse to do this,
particularly as General Smith is a very persuasive man. Ht- said
it would only take a few months. I am still on the same job.
Naturally, it is intelligence with respect to the Communist
dominated areas of the world which is our highest priority ir. CIA.
That does not mean merely information as to the day by day aapp2tallv different.
These terms, according to the Soviet themselves, have constant_
fluctuating meanings. Foreign Minister Molotov, in a speech on
October 1, 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II, p3intc?di "t't
that with "one swift bl:-)w to Poland, first by the German army and then
by the Red army, and nothing remained of this ugly offspring of the
Versailles Treaty." Poland was then "protected" by a non-aggre ;ion
pact entered into with Russia in 1932, which was later (May 1934)
extended to the end of 1945. Molotov went on in the same speech to
point out that in the few preceding months "such concepts a,3 'agzr,!3sion'
and 'aggressor' have acquired a new concrete connotation, a new, ni-aaning.
"It will be easily understood," he said, "that we can no longer employ
these concepts in the same sense as, say, three or four months
And then in this same speech in referring to'"securiy" agreements
with the Baltic States, he said, "The special character of these mutual
assistance pacts in no way implies any interference on the part of the
Soviet Union in the affairs of Esthonia, Latvia,. or Lithuania." '?We well
know how the independence of these states was totally blotted out.
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Thus, not only are there instances where words start out with
meanings which are totally foreign to us, but in the Soviet world ? t T
have flexible and changing meanings as the needs of the state reqinre.
Then there are other basic legal differences between us? !r
addition to public law and procedure, which is the only law we kn(Ax,
they have in the Soviet Union secret law and secret police to guard the
security of the state. The name of the organ through which thin him,
and this police force functions has been changed many time 3. It began
as CHECKA, later became OGPU, and then MVD. The MVD stilt exists
as a law enforcement agency, but its secret police powers wave large
been transferred to a new agency, the KGB. With all the chanf :# name
there has been little change in procedure.
Possibly there has been some relaxation since thle death 4 Stalin.
We do have some reports that the special administrative T ribun -"' a of the
MVD were abolished in September of 1953, but if so, this fact has en
kept about as secret as were the proceedings of these extrz.ordin ry
Tribunals. After all it is not many months ago that we were tclc )t the
execution of Beria who was destroyed by the machinery and prcc?- iures of
which he, himself, had been one of the chief architects.
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I do not suggest that Beria did not richly deserve the fate
accorded him. Few men have been responsible for as much human misery
as he. One may ponder, however, whether Soviet legal procedures have
really been liberalized since the sweetness and light camp.3ign f.Llowing
Stalin's death. Here we see the Number Two man in the r agime
liquidated by secret procedures without any prior public presentation
of charges or any opportunity for public defense. During the puTj; s
of the 1930's there was at least the semblance of public trial.
Under Kremlin doctrine, persons may also become "scc i_ity
dangerous," which means "politically dangerous" for any number Af
even reasons which may never be known to the erns
themselves. Quite recently a new type of procedure, som wh.-i
extra-legal, has appeared which is applicable not to crimes but
to deviations. Self confession under the stress of brain washing
techniques or of court procedures has appeared quite frequently ir-
the Soviet and Satellite trials of deviationists. But in the case
of deviations of a more subtle or technical character, thee-e sell
confessions may be imposed on those who have erred slightly frcw:xi
the ideological path or who have failed in their assigned tasks.
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We well remember how Malenkov fell from his high estate. though
retaining a position in the Politburo, as he confessed his inc.:)mpettance in
dealing with the tasks assigned him. Now Mr. Molotov, on the eve of
important negotiations, suffers the humiliation of a public confes. It
of
ideological error which even to a confirmed Marxist, I would, belie ve-, must
seem to be of the most trivial sort. Thus, the state has at its comtr:and not
only the secret police procedure for the more serious failings of tht indi-
vidual, but a more subtle way of devaluing those high officials wh,-, '.ave lost
the stamp of absolute correctitude by some state imposed standar1s.
I cite these examples merely to show the nature of the difficulty
in arriving at common understanding between the two worlds. WY..~ nth
may talk of co-existence but yet our basic philosophies are s) far
apart that the term becomes quite meaningless.
As a lawyer talking to lawyers, I would point out another clanr
difference between the role of law here and in the Communist worlr.
Lawyers in this country have played an outstanding, even dominant rPrt
in developing our system of government since the days of the 3rafti;r
of the constitution and to the present time. It is interesting tt3 note=
that so far as we can ascertain from the records, there has n--'ver L a-n
a single lawyer in the Politburo, the highest governing body of the
Soviet. Andrei Vyshinski came close to it by being an alternate member
for a short time.
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Possibly the lawyers in the Soviet Union have been fairly smut
after all. Of the 48 full members who have been in the Politburo saace
it was organized in 1917, thirteen were executed, purged, or else
disappeared; two were murdered or assassinated; one comma?tted E'2icide;
and eight may have died natural deaths. Eleven are full members Still
and thirteen others are still extant. Actually the attrition or
casualty rate is higher than these statistics suggest. Before 1952,
when the Politburo was enlarged for a brief period, the attri Lion ral h-,
by violence, was about 60 per cent. So membership in this organization,
despite the power it gave, has not proved to be a very enviable job.
Today the Soviet Union and its European satellites have- aga n
started a vigorous campaign. just as they did in the early 19':0's. ?:.
lure back behind the Iron Curtain their former citizens who fled tc
freedom in the Wet. Amnesty measures have been widely advertised,
and all sorts of lures are held out to these people. And they are
tempted. At best the lot of the expatriate is a hard one.
But those who are tempted to leave the lands of freedom sho-.