A recent tour in Yugoslavia, Poland and Romania of a State Department
sponsored musical group, “Blood, Sweat and Tears,” proved to be highly
successful.2 Between 10–20,000 young East Europeans
turned out for the performances in each country and were wildly
enthusiastic. Indeed, the Romanian authorities cancelled the final concert
in Romania (a benefit performance for flood victims), undoubtedly fearing
they could not contain exuberant crowds.
The tour through the communist countries apparently had a constructive impact
on the members of the band, who on return reflected more balanced
perspectives about the United States. Their new outlook was picked up in the
press—and, as a result, the radical left (led by Mr. Abbie Hoffman) picketed
the band’s concert in New York charging that the band had become
“pig-collaborators.”
Tab A
Memorandum From Secretary of State Rogers to President Nixon4
Washington, August 14, 1970
SUBJECT
- Results of Department-Sponsored Tour of Eastern Europe by Blood,
Sweat and Tears
The contemporary American musical group, Blood, Sweat and Tears, recently
returned from a visit to Yugoslavia, Poland and Romania under our
auspices. They waived their normal performance fee of $25,000 per night
for this tour. Audience reception to the ten concerts was outstandingly
favorable, and our Embassies reported that they were able for the first
time to reach and communicate with youthful audiences. Over 15,000
persons attended the concerts in Yugoslavia; more than 20,000 in
Romania; and 18,000 in Poland.
The Reader’s Digest assigned Mr. Ira Wolfert to accompany the tour. In a
letter dated July 28 to Assistant Secretary Richardson, Mr. Wolfert summarized his conclusions as
follows:
“I scored the tour A plus.
“Here were the American Establishment and its youthful opposition getting
together to present a very bright aspect of the quality of present-day
American life to peoples whose own media have been enjoying a field-day
coloring it all horrible.
“The audiences got the message. The ovations they thundered forth were
described to me by knowledgeable people I consulted in all three
countries visited as ‘historic, unprecedented,’ and they were for
America as much as for the band as the Bucharest audiences made clear by
greeting the conclusion of the last encore with a chant of ‘USA, USA’
that went on until the police stopped it.
“Although the police stopped it, it’s hard to believe it will not linger
on in the hearts of those who raised the cry.
“The taxpayers got a bargain this time and I look forward to more like
them.”
Earlier, on July 13 in a telephone conversation with our Office of
Cultural Presentations, Mr. Wolfert described the tour as “A very large
plus for the United States and the State Department.” He added that
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“As a result of this tour,
Communist propaganda will have a harder time convincing those people.”
The final concert in Romania, scheduled to be held in Ploesti as a
benefit for flood relief, was cancelled by the Romanian authorities. Mr.
Wolfert, commenting on the cancellation, said:
“It was cancelled because the Government of Romania was afraid
that they would be blown out of power by saxophones. They were
afraid there would be people coming down the streets like Hungary or
Czechoslovakia. They didn’t want any more people being too joyful.
The cancellation was a tribute to Blood, Sweat and
Tears.”
The tour apparently had a constructive effect on the youthful members of
the Band who, on their return, reflected new perspectives about the
United States. Before they left, two of them in particular indicated
views held by other youthful American college-age students regarding
Cambodia, Viet-Nam and race relations. On their return to the United
States, the Band’s drummer, in an interview published in the New York
Post on July 10, declared:
“Communism is a stone drag. Before the trip I thought all that
stuff about Communism was American propaganda. But now I know I
could never live that way.”5
The drummer also said he expected to be criticized by the radical left in
the United States because of his conclusions: “But they ought to go over
and see for themselves,” he added.
On July 19 the New York Times published a long article on the return of
the Band under the headline, “Lessons for a Rock Group.”6
The guitarist,7 the most
outspoken critic before the trip, stated:
“I wish that everybody in America who has strong political
feelings—one way or the other—could go over there and see what it’s
like. It turned out that I really missed this country while we were
there. The positive things that we do have really are worth
it—compared to what’s happening in the rest of the world.”8
In the same article, the saxophone player9 said:
“The first night in Bucharest we got two encores and everybody
went crazy. I don’t think we really saw the audience
reaction—screaming ‘USA, USA’—we just heard it. And that kind
of turned our heads around because it was great to see everyone that
enthusiastic . . . It
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meant something else to us there because they could see the freedom
we had on the stand—the excitement and happiness of playing.”10
On July 22, testifying before the House Sub-Committee on State Department
Organization and Foreign Operations, columnist William Buckley, a member of the
USIA Advisory Commission on
Information, stated:
“We did have a smashing success with the Blood, Sweat and Tears
group; whether they converted more Romanians or whether Romanians
affected them, it is hard to say. It is rumored that some of the
members of Blood, Sweat and Tears having come back from East Europe
are actually more appreciative of America than they were when they
left. So it may be that that particular activity will have primarily
a beneficial effect domestically.”11
On the night of July 25, Blood, Sweat and Tears conducted its first New
York concert since its return at Madison Square Garden. The radical
left, the Yippies, led personally by Mr. Abbie Hoffman, picketed the
concert outside. They handed out a leaflet charging that the purpose of
the Blood, Sweat and Tears tour was “to create false propaganda about
how happy everyone in the good ol’ U.S. of A. really is.” The leaflet
declared:
“Stop buying albums and attending concerts of these
pig-collaborators.”
“Disrupt any concerts by any means necessary, especially when they
lay down the pig lies about how free everyone is in the
U.S.”
The leaflet is signed “Youth International Party.”
Media comment on the Eastern European concerts continues to be highly
favorable from Yugoslavia and Poland.
