Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, National Security Affairs, Volume II, Part 2

Secretary’s Letters, lot 56 D 459, “D–E”

The Chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations of the United States Senate (McCarthy) to the Secretary of State

Washington, April 7, 1953.

Dear Mr. Secretary: Two members of my staff, Mr. Cohn and Mr. Schine,¹ have been visiting various State Department libraries and taking statements from some of those active in the Information Program in Europe. Last night via long distance telephone they gave me the very encouraging information that under your administration the books of Communist authors are being removed from the shelves of our libraries abroad. I am sure it will be encouraging to the American people to know that the works of Communist authors, which were purchased by the Acheson administration and stocked in our libraries throughout the world, are being removed under your administration of the State Department.

Over the past several weeks we have been questioning the various Acheson lieutenants to obtain the names of the individuals who were directly responsible for purchasing and placing in our libraries throughout the world the books of some seventy-five different Communist authors like William Z. Foster, Earl Browder, Agnes Smedley, etc. To date we have encountered nothing but bad memories, evasion, and no cooperation whatsoever from them.

As you know, the Information Program has been heralded and publicized by the Acheson–Truman regime as a weapon with which they fought Communism. To date none of the Acheson–Truman team have come forward to explain how they thought they were fighting Communism by purchasing, distributing, and placing the U.S. stamp of approval on a vast number of well known Communist authors. Incidentally, a number of those authors have appeared before our Committee and have refused to testify as to whether they have been engaged in espionage or sabotage against the United States, on the ground that if they truthfully answered the question it might tend to incriminate them.

Louis Budenz, who as you know has been of almost untold value in convicting and deporting Communists, testified that the placing of these Communist works in our libraries throughout the world was most likely the work of hidden Communists in the State Department. Therefore, I would very greatly appreciate it if you could designate someone in your department to run down the purchase orders of these various Communist books to their sources, or if the books were accepted as gifts, then the names of the individuals who accepted them and placed them on the shelves. I am sure you are as interested as my Committee in determining the names of the individuals and whether they are still in the State Department.

At the earliest possible moment we shall give you a report upon what our Committee has discovered in its current investigation of the Information Program. Incidentally, one of the matters that my staff is looking into in Paris is what appears to be waste and duplication in connection with the Voice of America and MSA Information Programs both operating out of Paris. I think it should be made clear that the MSA Information Program was not initiated by MSA Director Stassen, but by his predecessorHarriman. Mr. Stassen, having recently taken over, obviously has not had sufficient time to clean up the matter.²

Sincerely yours,

Joe McCarthy

1. For documentation concerning the Western European tour of Roy V. Cohn and G. David Schine during April 1953, see vol. i, Part 2, pp. 1379 ff.

2. Dulles replied on Apr. 10 as follows: “My Dear Senator McCarthy: I have your letter of April 7th. I think the point you make about works of Communist authors on State Department bookshelves abroad seems well taken and I am asking Don Lourie to look into this matter and let your Committee know what we find. I shall also be happy to have any additional information which your current investigation may supply on the workings of our Information Program. Of course, I recognize that, as you say, the present conditions were created some time in the past under a previous Administration and the responsibility for these conditions may now be difficult to pin down. We shall, however, endeavor to do so, and in this connection, I trust that the efforts of your Committee will be helpful.

   “Sincerely yours, John Foster Dulles.” (Secretary’s Letters, lot 56 D 459, “M”)