LETTER TO GENERAL WALTER BEDELL SMITH FROM EVELYN GORUP

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80R01731R003000270075-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 24, 2002
• Sequence Number: 75
• Publication Date: October 30, 1952
• Content Type: LETTER

Appro't For Release 2002/10/10: CIA-RDP8Q91731 R003000270075-2
COLLEGE MISERICORDIA
DALLAS, PENNSYLVANIA
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS CLUB
October 30, 1952
General Walter Bedell Smith
% Adjutant General
U.S. Army
Washington 25, D.C.
Dear Sir,
Senator Joseph
Governor Stevenson,
McCarthy in his broadcast attack on
on October 28, 1952, said,
... in the summer of 1943, after
Mussolini's government had fallen,
Stevenson was given the task of
formulating America's post-war policy
toward Italy... General Bedell Smith,
head of the Central Intelligence Agency
in his book, and on page 35 and 37 of
his sworn testimony, told what that
policy for Italy was-namely to "connive"
to bring Communists into the Italian
Government and to bring the Italian
Communists leader, Togliatti, back from
Moscow.
We have no idea what sworn testimony the Senator refers to.
But we do have your book My three years in Moscow. On'page 18
of your book in the chapter entitled Preface to Moscow. you
state:
... Viewing events in retrospect, it-is as
easy now, as it was difficult then, to
appreciate the nature of Soviet political
aims in Italy. We of the West were determined
to establish a democratic government with as
broad a base as possible, and this made it easy
Approved For Release 2002/10/10 : CIA-RDP80R01731 R003000270075-2
 Approve For Release 2002/10/10 : CIA-RDP 0$01731 R003000270075-2
COLLEGE MISERICORDIA
DALLAS, PENNSYLVANIA
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS CLUB
for us to accept Communist participation
in the Italian Government, and even to
accept, and indeed to facilitate, the
return of the Italian Communist leader,
Palmior Togliatti, who had been in Moscow.
Even had we been contrarily disposed, it
would have been difficult to ddny Communist
participation in the Italian Government.
Disciplined, militant Communist groups,
particularly in the industrial areas of
Northern Italy, had been the rallying point
for Italian opposition to the Germans. The
Communists were the hard core of the Partisan
movement, and their initial participation
in the reconstructed Italian Government was
on a cooperative, collaborative basis.
Would it be infringing too much on your very valuable time
to ask you to let us know if, in the light of these statements
in your book, it could be true that in a sworn statement you
intimated that Governor Stevenson; 'connived' to bring Communists
into the Italian Government."
Very truly yours,
Correspo ding Secreta
International Relations Club
College Misericordia
Dallas, Penna.
Approved For Release 2002/10/10 : CIA-RDP80R01731 R003000270075-2