PEACE HOSTAGE - THESE AMERICANS TELL WHY THEY HAVE VOLUNTEERED TO LIVE IN RUSSIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000100350040-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 1, 1999
• Sequence Number: 40
• Publication Date: March 8, 1964
• Content Type: NSPR

Sanitized - Approved For Release F:(" '
WASHINGTON POST AND CPYRGHT MAR 8 19
TIMES HERALD
PARADE
Mr. and Mrs. Harry L. Allen, of Hayward,
Calif. The couple has studied Russian.
.CPYRGHT
ce costa
f F ANS TELL WHY THE H A VOLU TEE EO TO LIVE WSS
by SID ROSS
he world is made up of little,
average individuals. Working
together, we can achieve
world peace-if the people
work for it and don't just leave it to the
government."
With those words, 17-year-old Shar-
ran Cowan, a high school senior of Oke-
mah, Okla., explained her readiness to
go to live in Russia as a "Peace Hostage."
Sharran is one of hundreds of citizens
from every section of the country who
have volunteered to take part in a New
York advertising copywriter's ambitious
plan to reduce the risk of all-annihilat-
ing nuclear war. ,
Energetic, red-haired Stephen (Dan)
James, 39, wants up to a million Rus-
sians and Americans to change places
for periods of 6 months to 2 years. He
proposes they get to know and like the
people of the host lands and exert their
weighty influence against the amassing
of nuclear armaments-and the ever-
present fear that these weapons might
be triggered, and countertriggered. As
a further deterrent, James thinks rela-
tives of some government officials should
be included in the deal.
Sanitized - App or Re ease
TYPICAL AMERICAN SCENES
And it seems possible that the home- Harry L. Allen, 49, a steelworker o
made peace plan which Dan James ,Hayward, Calif., and his wife Billie, 48, `
drafted on the kitchen table in his Bronx hope to live in their trailer in Russia if
apartment may someday be put into ef- Dan James' exchange plan can-gain the.
feet. Already it has propelled him into endorsement of the" two governments.
conferences at the State Department and Both Mr and Mrs. Allen, who have no
the White House in Washington and children, are veterans of U.S. Navy
with leaders of Russian life in Moscow. service. In preparation for their hoped-for
And it has drawn to his ~.pecial post of- sojourn in the Soviet Union, they have
five box (Box 2737, Grand Central Sta., been taking "home" movies of typical
N.Y. 17, N.Y.) the pledges of more than scenes from American life, which they
a thousand Americans th; t they are pre- Would like to show to some of the peo-pared to set up housekeeping in the So- pie there.
vict Union in the interests of peace. Says Harry Allen: "A person's life, in
What makes an American feel so ;,relation to time, is just a tiny flash. If
strongly about peace that he will pull up you can do one good thing in that flash
stakes and move thousand; of miles to a that can be remembered, you've accom-
strange land to help achieve it? plished something. My wife and I might
"I'm rather religious," Sharran Cowan .', not live so comfortably there as we do
relates. "Now that we've secured a Bomb here. So what? I'd be useful. I'd work as
that has the power to destroy mankind, a steelworker there, exchanging places
we'll have to learn to use this power in ! with a Russian steelworker. Wed both
God's way-to use the atom to do good, benefit an awful lot."
Mrs. evil; to save lives, not destroy them. rs. Allen expresses her feelings:
I think this 'Peace Hostage' program fits "If civilization isn't going to regress,
into the idea of teaching all of us to back to the animal stage, war just has to
understand and use this power wisely." be stopped. War in this day and age is
l
h
t
i
i
A
verage peop
e
ave
o
nsan
ty.
utter
Contfnue'
 Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00001 R00010035.0040-5
CPYRGHT
do everything they can to stop it. That's by the Cuban government and the ex-
why I'm for this 'Peace Hostage' plan. change of U.S. U-2 pilot Gary Powers
I'd even go to see Khrushchev myself, to for a Russian master spy, has agreed to
try to stop a war from coming. The rea- be chief negotiator for the Hostages
son we signed up is that this plan will Foundation. Other leading Foundation
give us a chance to show Russians what backers include the Rev. Robert L. Pier-
America really is." son. son-in-law of New York Gov. Nel-
To M. James Stark, 21, a partner in a son Rockefeller; Professors J. D. Singer
Buffalo, N.Y., auto parts business, going and Anatol Rapoport, .of the University
to the Soviet Union would "show the of Michigan.
Russians that Americans aren't afraid "As individuals, I think most of us.
to go there because they might be killed are asleep," declares Jane Robinson, 35,
in a nuclear attack on Russia. Our very of Miami, Fla., a divorcee, who will
presence would show then that the U.S. take along her two sons if she goes to.
isn't going to shoot off any rockets." Russia. "We let others do our thinking
Dan James recently met in New York and acting for us. I feel we have to
with a group of visiting members of the think and act for ourselves and in the
Soviet Peace Committee. As he has be- process also set some kind of example
fore, he pressed them to join in working for our children to really prove to them
out arrangements for a formal confer- that we mean what,we say we believe in.
ence between negotiators for the Com- "Some people salve their consciences
mittee and for James' Peace Hostages by giving money. But here, by placing
Exchange Foundation. The conference, yourself on the lire, you are contribut-
proposed for next June in Geneva, would ing your life and your efforts, and not
set up a pilot exchange of 50 citizens merely your checkbook."
from each country and launch studies FELLOWSHIP & HUMANITY
of all problems inherent in a vast expan-
sion of the exchanges.
James B. Donovan, attorney who
negotiated the release of rebel prisoners
'Peace Hostage' originator Stephen James
(right) with negotiator James B. Donovan.
B. James Raz, 36, of Huntington,
N.Y., is aI physicist associated with the
State University of New York at Stony : ''"
Brook and the Brookhaven, N.Y., and
Argonne, Ill., National Laboratories. He,
his wife Maxine, 3 5, and their two
fellowship and humanity to Russia..
could extend our concept of love and
"To me, this is an idea whereby we
young sons are ready to pull up stakes
countries. It seems to me the 'Peace IF
keeping lines of communications open
Washington was an excellent idea for F
to keep lines of communication open be- B. James Raz, his wife Maxine, their
tween ordinary citizens." sons Jeffrey, 6 (at left), and Jonathan, 7.
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00001 R000100350040-5
MAR 8 1964