THE SECURITY IMPLICATIONS OF WORLD COMMUNISM IN 1957

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00901R000500160011-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 24, 2003
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: September 30, 1957
• Content Type: SPEECH

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CIIN-
RICHARD HELMS, Assistant Director, Central Intelligence Agency
"The Security Implications of World Communism in 1957"
64th annual conference of the International Association
of Chiefs of Police, Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Honolulu, T. H.
t. 30,.1957
Mr. Governor (if present)
Mr. President
Distinguished members of the International Association of Chiefs of Police,
and Guests:
I welcome this privilege of talking with you today about the threat
which International Communism poses to the security. of every country in the
Free World, Communism now affects the daily lives of all of us and could
affect the future of every citizen in every free country throughout the
world. But the future of these citizens and their countries will not be
determined by Communist dogma. The future of freedom must and will be safe-
guarded by the courage and skill with which men defend it. All of us here,
by the very nature of our profession, are charged with that defense.
For this reason, I count it not only a privilege but an exceptional
pleasure to discuss with you our vital task. We who devote our lives to up-
holding the law and guarding the national security have much in common. We
have identified the enemy. We have learned through practical experience
what his tactics are and how to counter them. We speak the same language,
face the same hazards, share common experiences.
During the past forty years the Soviet Union has undergone a series
of storms and gyrations which have shaken it to the political core. Yet
during this same period, it has never ceased to use and encourage Inter-
national Communism as its fifth column. Despite crises at home, there has
been no change in Soviet policy abroad: political domination of the world
is their aim. We all. know that.
There has been no change in their real intentions despite protesta-
tions to the contrary. The Kremlin is still the Kremlin. Its dedicated
purpose is still the denial of all the rights and dignities of individual
human beings even though its outer walls may be disguised to resemble a
temple of brotherly love. Look under the soft, white feathers of the new
Kremlin dove and you will find there the predatory claws of the hawk.
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The Soviets, their satellites and converts, are still engaged in
their relentless drive to undermine the democratic institutions of the Free
World, to destroy in the end our social, political, and economic systems
and thus to liquidate the greater freedoms we now enjoy. No tactics, how-
ever lawless, however deceitful, are overlooked. Under Moscow's direction
and control Communist parties and. front groups play their assigned roles in
subversion, espionage, and corruption.
Let us examine their tactics.
The attack against us is mounted in two ways: the overt and the
covert. The Communist :Parties of the Pree World are engaged in. the overt,
while the covert is carried on by hidden Communists, spies -- in fact, the
entire apparatus of subversion. There are three and one-half million o;-)en,
card-carrying Communists in the Free World. Tlho it parties poll a total vote
of 29, 000, 000. They claim 39, 000, 000 sympathizers and fellow-travelers en-
rolled in eight huge front organizations -- the eight Trojan horses within
our portals.
The forces we cannot see are probably more dangerous. From within
the Communist World more than 300,000 highly trained officers ensure the
continued Soviet domination of the twenty-seven intelligence and security
services of the Communist states. This force serves the bureaucracy of the
Soviet police and intelligence services -- the largest, wealthiest, and per-
haps the most protected class in the Soviet government today.
I must emphasize that these figures are modest estimates. Periri-'s a
clearer illustration of the consistency and strength of the Soviet cons-iracy
is the activity of Soviet intelligence officers sent into the Free World.
During the years 1942 to mid-1957 many of these espionage officers disguised
as diplomats were exposed to public view by police and security forces. Here
are the figures:
Australia 14 cases Sweden 10 cases
Canada 15 cases Turkey 5 cases
Japan 10 cases United States
Norway 7 cases of America 24 cases
Others were exposed in Argentina, Denmark, Iran, Italy, the United
Kingdom, and West Germany. All of you knob such cases.,
We all know something else: for every spy caught and rendered use-
less, another is sent to take his place. So the strength of the opposition
remains unchanged, and we dare not relax our guard.
Communist propaganda has been especially effective in countries
developing new national forms. Communist infiltration in these vast areas,
heretofore denied, has enabled them to warp and actually retard the normal
growth and emerging independence. In some such countries we can expect
extensive subversion (as in Syria), direct seizure of power (as in Czecho-
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slovakia), and brutal repression of the nation's will (as in Hungary). Our
responsibility is to work together to stop this process.
The first step in stopping the process is recognizing Communist propa-
ganda for what it is. Today we hear much about "united fronts" and "peaceful
co-existence". But these words mean something quite different when Com-
munists talk among themselves. In 195 Stalin made the true nature of peace-
ful co-existence unmistakably clear. Here is one of his favorite quotations
from Lenin:
"We live . . . not only in a state but in a system
of states, and the existence of the Soviet Republic side
by side with the imperialist states for a long time is
unthinkable. In the end either one or the other will
conquer."
The true nature of peaceful co-existence has become very clear to
those who tried to befriend Communism and the Soviet Union. here are the
leaders of Europe who believed -- or tried to believe -- in Soviet friend-
ship? Some are dead: all have vanished from the political scene. Here are
a few who could tell us about it: Benes and Masaryk of Czechoslovakia;
Mikolajczyk of Poland; Dimitrov of Bulgaria; and Nagy of Hungary.
Today these European countries may seem far away, but the tactics of
ten years ago are now in use throughout the Free World. Ever since Stalin
loudly announced the dissolution of the Comintern, the Communists have
protested that foreign Communist Parties are independent of Moscow. The
fact is that Moscow subsidies continue to flow to those parties through
Soviet embassies abroad. The fact is that Moscow has actually increased
its training program for foreign Communists. The fact is that Khrushchev
uses the foreign Parties exactly as Stalin did -- as instruments of Soviet
power.
The dual tactic of peaceful co-existence and underground subversion
is still used because it is still effective. Some of the Communist Parties
of Southeast Asia are growing in strength and influence. In India the Com-
munist Party has gained control of the government of one state. The Syrian
Communist Party has maneuvered itself into a key position there.
We in the United States learned about peaceful co-existence and
united front tactics during the depression years of the 1930's. Then the
Communist Party in our country succeeded in enlisting a fairly large number
of disgruntled people by concealing its advocacy of violence, its revolu-
tionary goal, and pretending to be just another political party. The
technique aided the Communists in their attempt to develop a systematic and
highly organized penetration of our government. The plan failed because the
Soviet fifth columns were recognized and dealt with for what they were --
and in fact are.
Today Khrushchev's voice is the voice of the dove whenever he repeats
the thirty-year-old Stalinist lies about peaceful co-existence. But
Khrushchev has scarcely bothered to hide the unchanged Soviet purpose. He
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has himself emphasized that the Free World should expect no change in
Soviet foreign policy. A clear explanation of what Communists mean by
peaceful co-existence was spelled out in a recent book by an ex-Communist,
Milovan Djilas, from whom I quote:
"A united world which even the Soviet leaders desire
can only be imagined by them as more or less identical
with their own and as being theirs. The peaceful co-
existence of systems of which they speak does not mean to
them the interweaving of various systems, but the static
continuation of one system alongside another, until the
point when the one system -- the capitalist system -- is
either defeated or corrodes from within."
All of us are accustomed to dealing with facts. We must guard against
either underestimating or overestimating. We recognize that Soviet strength
is counter-balanced by certain real weaknesses. The extension of Communist
control to the territories of Eastern Europe has placed Soviet Russia under
unprecedented strain. Hidden conflicts have come into the open; hidden
defects have appeared. The death of Stalin and the ensuing scramble for
power set in motion a historical process which is too recent to permit a
full assessment. But it has become clear that for the first time in history,
Communism -- as ideology, ruling system, and international conspiracy --has
generated its on acute problem of internal security. Something has hap-
pened to the serpent: it is biting its on tail.
What is this pressing security problem within the Soviet orbit to-
day? It is that more men are beginning to think, to wonder, and to Question.
The rulers in the Kremlin are finding that of all human phenomena, ideas
are the hardest to control. And the ideas now arising challenge the exist-
ing order. They represent natural human aspirations for personal freedom
and, dignity. They assert the rights of man against the oppressions of the
monolithic Communist state. And. no matter how the leaders of Communism
turn and twist, shouting that these ideas have been imported from the best
or smuggled past the borders by sly and secret agents, the ideas persist and
grow. Why? Because they are the universal truths to be found in all
religions and cultures. The more people who become freed from the bonds of
ignorance through public education, the greater the number of individuals
who will demand their inherent right to question and to think for themselves.
It is this group which is an increasing challenge and meance to the Soviet
system as it now operates.
This challenge is not new to Soviet Russia and its satellites. From
the founding days of the USSR through the Stalin-Trotsky struggle, the
purges, the battles of collectivization, and the liquidation of the "kaiaks",
all the way to recent banishments to Outer Mongolia, the history of Soviet
Russia has been the record of conflict. But throughout the past the Soviet
leaders have been able to isolate the opposition, whether Mensheviks, army
officers, or doctors, and to destroy them one by one. Now these leaders
are queried not by cliques but by cross-sections of populations. The
questions of the Poles cannot be silenced by the butchery of the Hungarians.
The same nagging questions have been heard even inside the walls of Moscow
University.
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And how have the leaders of Communism reacted? Here is another
weakness. They have reacted to new ideas by searching for old plots. The
men who now ask the questions have at least a glimmering hope of freedom.
The leaders do not, because they are the prisoners of their own system.
Beset on all sides by the growing pressures of faceless opposition, they
have begun to bite each other. The result is a spreading restiveness in the
Communist Parties of other countries. Such a result is inevitable, because
followers are disturbed when their teachers in the Kremlin disagree. His-
torically, the entire Communist world has been dependent on Moscow for
direction and leadership. Mao Tse Tung's approval of Soviet slaughter in
Hungary is a cynical recognition of this fact. The questions of Budapest are
asked of Communist chiefs in Bucharest, Rostov, Ulan Bator, and Peiping::
They turn to Moscow for answers, but hear instead the sounds of confusion
and fear, of purge and banishment.
For the past forty years the Communists have been telling us that
they are on the move. And it is true that we have seen a lot of movement.
But they seem to disagree about where they are going. I have heard recently
a story told among refugees and whispered behind the iron curtain. It runs:
not long ago Kadar and Khrushchev were surprised to find themselves sitting
opposite each other on a train going from Budapest to Moscow. After a. few
toasts had been drunk, Kadar asked, "'Where are you going?" ttTo Moscow"said Khrushchev. "Ah." said Kadar. "How glorious is the modern Soviet
technology! There you sit, looking at me -- and you're going to Moscow.
And here I sit, looking at you -- and I'm going to Budapest."
Kadar is not the first comrade of the Kremlin to discover that the
roads to Moscow are one-way streets.
A totalitarian regime dealing with popular dissatisfaction may choose
any of three methods. It may seek to distract is citizens from their
troubles at home by plunging into adventures abroad. It may resort to
bloody suppression, as in Hungary. Or it may attempt to ease the pressure
by installing the safety valve of pretended liberalization, as in Poland.
The first of these moves would pose a graver and more immediate problem for
the Free World than suppression or tactical liberalization. But even though
restlessness is now in the air, the threat of world Communism remains un-
diminished. It will. grow, as it has grown in the past, if the Communist
chiefs are again permitted to devote their full attention to our destruction.
Our defense must remain unceasing vigilance and cooperation with. each
other and with all who share our aspirations. The maintenance of internal
security in our free countries is our strongest bulwark against Communist
influence. For this reason the infiltration and neutralization of police
and security forces outside the Communist Bloc is one of their first ob-
jectives. The magnitude and aggressiveness of Communist subversion has
placed a heavy burden upon law enforcement agencies.
The Central Intelligence Agency enjoys close and effective coopera-
tion with Mr. J. Edgar Hoover. It is not for me to speak of the accomplish-
ments of the FBI and the various police forces in the United States, or of
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their very effective work in countering the Communist threat there. But
today it is plain that the Communist Party of the United States is at its
lowest ebb, chiefly because of the determined and professional manner in
which the Communist conspiracy, in all its ramifications, is being exposed
and prosecuted by the law enforcement agencies.
As part of its program of technical assistance to the countries of
the Free World, the United States is helping the police and security forces
of those countries to develop their capabilities to resist Communist sub-
version. It is gratifying that these services are sharing with us their
skills and hard-won experience in the face of a common adversary.
Perhaps I should let Communism's leading spokesman round out the
picture for us. In a speech made in past Germany two years ago, Mr.
Khrushchev said, "We want friendly relations with all countries. If anyone,
however, expects us to forget the doctrines of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and
Stalin, he is making a tremendous mistake. Those who wait for this will
have to wait until a shrimp 1.aarns to whistle." I think that Mr. Khrushchev
and his friends will have to :gait even longer before we forget the dogmts of
Marx,3ngels, Lenin, and Stalin and the disastrous results of those dogmas.
It will indeed be long before the survivors of the Hungarian Revolution
forget.
In India Mr. Khrushchev said, "We have never renounced and will riot
renounce our political line, charted for us by Lenin. We did not renounce
and will not renounce our political program. That is why we tell the gentle-
men who are expecting the Soviet Union to change its political program --
wait for pigs to fly."
We of the Free World do not often think in terms of pigs, shrimps,
and other inhabitants of the "Animal Farm". We think in terms of peopl=~.
The freedom that we defend is the freedom others seek. The major and
heartening successes which you have achieved renew the hope and strength
of all men.
Mr. Governor (if present), Mr. President, distinguished members, and
guests, I bring greetings from Mr. Allen W. Dulles, the Director of Central
Intelligence. I give you his assurance that we are proud and honored to
work shoulder to shoulder with all those who are dedicated to the protection
of the sacred rights of free men.
I thank you.
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