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American Friends Service Committee — Part 7
Page 75
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7)
42 THE TECHNIQUES OF SOVIET PROPAGANDA
the husbandmen of this progress to sow its seeds in soi) until now
untilled. ‘he fallacy lies in the belief that this necessary generosity”
suffices to prevent. the spread of Communist infestation, especially in -
the short period within which this infection threatens to overwhelm
the “third world.”
Remember, | this disease has also attacked economically developed
prey Osechoslovakia. France, aii for the reason
countries, such as Czechoslovakia, France, and Cuba, for the reason
that it is ’ grounded on myths and passions, more than on needs. In
the underdeveloped countries, even more than in the West, the
Communist leaders are usually the wealthy intellectuals, while the
masses are more driven by messianic visions than by materialistic
influences. The revolts in Hungary and Tibet damaged the Com-
munist position in India considerably more than did 10 years of
American assistance,
Ironically America, which professes humanism and spirituality,
utilizes materialistic methods while the Communist world, professing
to believe in “Marxist materialism” resorts to idealism in its proselyt-
ing. The term “ideslism” is here used, not in its usual sense of
“generous impulses,” but in its philosophical m moeaniny as “placing the
principal emphasis on ideas,” as op sa ilosophical mate-
tialism.” The United States think they ed te only to build schools,
hospitals, and railways in underdeveloped countries, and hand out
for the peoples to be automatically cured of
mmunist leanings. Meanwhile the U.SS.R. works prim
minds, preaching the doctrine that an increased standard of living will
result—much, much later—from the people's faith in communism and
hatred of the West, propagating this idea by an inexhaustible stream
f books, pamphlets, and leaflets, written in every language and
eda ted to every level of in ence.
us has been established a division of labor between the U.S.S.R.
and the United States which will rapidly bring about the former’s
destruction of the latter. The United States provides food; the
Soviets Propaganda. The | United States builds schools to teach the
alphabet to underdeveloped people; the USSR. pi niti-An
newspapers for these people to Rad with their new skill. The
States builds libraries; Soviet auxiliaries fill them with Leninist
literature. The United States builds hospitals; the Soviets staff them
with Communist nurses to indoctrinate the patients.
This is not interpreted to mean that economic aid programs should
be discontinued. Aid can have excellent consequences, but only if
plemented by programs of political education. Dollars without
in genous political specialists ert to the Communist peril, invariably
wind up in the pockets of Soviet auxiliaries.
The truth is that in order to resist Soviet propaganda the most
enti necessity is aid, not to the underdeveloped countries of the
“third world,” but to the underdeveloped minds ope West. Such aid
is the purpose of the constructive measures to be subsequently
proposed.
FALLACY NO. 8: LET Us ARREST THE ATRIFE WITH THE COMMUNIST
GIANTS BY COEXISTENCE
The recently signed Moscow Treaty, prohibiting nuclear tests,
evoked paeans of joy. Yet 3 years before Moscow hadim plicitly
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