Peace Council 01/01/1983-09/30/1983 Box: RAC Box 29
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Collection: DeGraffenreid, Kenneth E.: Files Folder Title: World Peace Council 01/01/1983-09/30/1983 Box: RAC Box 29 To see more digitized collections visit: https://reaganlibrary.gov/archives/digital-library To see all Ronald Reagan Presidential Library inventories visit: https://reaganlibrary.gov/document-collection Contact a reference archivist at: [email protected] Citation Guidelines: https://reaganlibrary.gov/citing National Archives Catalogue: https://catalog.archives.gov/ WITHDRAWAL SHEET Ronald Reagan Library Collection Name DEGRAFFENREID, KENNETH: FILES Withdrawer SJW 9/2/2016 File Folder WORLD PEACE COUNCIL 1/1/83-9/30/83 FOIA F02-0083/0l Box Number 29 PRADOS 2940 ID Doc Type Document Description No of Doc Date Restrictions Pages 179980 FOLDER MEMOS, REPORTS 60 ND Bl The above documents were not referred for declassification review at time of processing Freedom of Information Act - [5 U.S.C. 552(b)l B-1 National security classified information [(b)(1) of the FOIAJ B-2 Release would disclose internal personnel rules and practices of an agency [(b)(2) of the FOIAJ B-3 Release would violate a Federal statute [(b)(3) of the FOIA] B-4 Release would disclose trade secrets or confidential or financial information [(b)(4) of the FOIAJ B-6 Release would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy [(b)(6) of the FOIA] B-7 Release would disclose information compiled for law enforcement purposes [(b)(7) of the FOIAJ B-8 Release would disclose Information concerning the regulation of financial institutions [(b)(S) of the FOIAJ B-9 Release would disclose geological or geophysical Information concerning wells [(b)(9) of the FOIA] C. Closed In accordance with restrictions contained In donor's deed of gift. WITHDRAWAL SHEET Ronald Reagan Library Collection Name Withdrawer DEGRAFFENREID, KENNETH: FILES SJW 9/2/2016 File Folder FOIA WORLD PEACE COUNCIL 1/1/83-9/30/83 F02-0083/01 PRADOS Box Number 29 2940 ID Document Type No of Doc Date Restric- Document Description pages tions 179980 FOLDER 60 ND Bl MEMOS, REPORTS The above documents were not referred for declassification review at time of processing Freedom of Information Act - [5 U.S.C. 552(b)] B-1 National security classified information [(b)(1) of the FOIA] B-2 Release would disclose internal personnel rules and practices of an agency [(b)(2) of the FOIA] B-3 Release would violate a Federal statute [(b)(3) of the FOIA] B-4 Release would disclose trade secrets or confidential or financial information [(b)(4) of the FOIA] B-6 Release would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy [(b)(6) of the FOIA] B-7 Release would disclose information compiled for law enforcement purposes [(b)(7) of the FOIA] B-8 Release would disclose information concerning the regulation of financial institutions [(b)(8) of the FOIA] B-9 Release would disclose geological or geophysical information concerning wells [(b)(9) of the FOIA] C. Closed in accordance with restrictions contained in donor's deed of gift. ' Red-baiting, no. Anti-Communism, yes. THE 'PEACE COUNCIL' AND PEACE BY RONALD RADOSH AN OLD PROBLEM is back. Activists in the nuclear called the World Peace Council, which is bought and fl. freeze movement are faced, whether they like it or paid for by the Soviet Union." Far-right author and not, with the question of what attitude they should take researcher John Rees followed suit, stating that "the toward Communists and Communism. They want the Soviet Union is running the current worldwide disarma White House to engage in serious arms control negotia ment campaign through the K.G.B. and ... the World tions, which is an essential goal. While working toward Peace Council," and that U.S. peace activists were "up that goal, they are receiving overtures from American to their necks in this effort." And there were more such Communists who espouse unity in a common effort, but attacks. Of course all this is nonsense: the vast majority whose own private agenda is quite different. of those who campaigned and voted for freeze resolu- • One might have thought that the experience of de tions in November have never even heard of the World cades would have settled this issue long ago-indeed, as Peace Council. long ago as 1924, during the third-party campaign of The right's tactic of using this relatively obscure group Senator Robert M. Lafollette. After working to support to undermine the peace movement has not worked. The Lafollette as part of a broad coalition, the Communists American press has been sharp in exposing the paucity received new orders from Moscow and suddenly con of the allegations, particularly in challenging the Presi demned him as a Fascist. Lafollette concluded in a dent's recent assertion that "foreign agents" instigated public letter that Communists had joined his campaign the freeze movement. Even a cursory look at the Nuclear only "to disrupt it," and warned, "To pretend that the Weapons Freeze Campaign shows that the U.S. Peace Communists can work with the progressives is deliber Council, the American branch of the World Peace Coun ately to deceive the public." cil, is not part of its elected leadership. It is not to be After World War II, liberals faced the issue again found on its National Committee or on the smaller when the remnants of the wartime Popular Front sup executive and strategy committees. On the other hand, ported Henry A. Wallace's 1948 Presidential campaign. major organizations such as the Presbyterian Church are Wallace's "Gideon's Army" believed that there were officially involved, and one suspects that it is this kind of "no enemies on the Left," that liberals and Communists popular support that really upsets the White House. had to work together and maintain unity against the If Communists and U.S. Peace Council members are conservative drift. Americans for Democratic Action, the involved in working for the freeze on a local level, their American Civil Liberties Union, the New York State participation is too minimal to have any po1iti, al mean Liberal Party, and many other liberal groups disagreed, ing. Yet they are trying to play a more activE' part. contending that the Communists' antidemocratic ideol Indeed, just as the right needs to paint thE' freeze move ogy and their subservience to Soviet policy were flatly ment as pro-Communist, so do the Communists need incompatible with liberal goals-and that liberal orga this Red-baiting to gain them attention and legitimacy. nizations were not only within their rights to exclude A new generation of activists naively responds to the them but had a moral obligation to do so. This did not problem with their own kind of illogic. If the attack on prevent right-wing extremists from continuing to attack the peace movement through the U.S. Peare Council is such organizations as Communist, but it deprived such McCarthyism, they reason, the rejection of the U.S. charges of much of their force. Peace Council must also be McCarthyism. Today the issue has reappeared, with the Reagan It is this attitude, newly emerging, that allows such an Administration and its right-wing allies Red-baiting the old-fashioned Communist front as the U.S. Peace Coun entire nuclear freeze movement. The President himself cil to gain a following among old left peace groups such started the attacks, proclaiming in December 1981 that as Women's Strike for Peace and the Women·s Interna antiwar demonstrations "are all sponsored by a thing tional League for Peace and Freedom. Tht·:-e groups were themselves incorrectly attacked bv Senator Jere- Ronald Radosh is co-author with Joyce Milton of The . miah Denton as Communist fronts. R~t it would be Rosenberg File: A Search for the Truth, to be published in correct to describe their leaders as unfailing fellow trav August by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. elers of the type that flourished in the 19~ :, ,. and 1950s. 14 THE N l: W REP U BL IC January 31, 1983 The brochure of the U.S. Peace Council's national con Communists smoothly excludes the "peace activities" of ference is adorned with ads from both the various locals the Party's most popular and long-standing leader, Earl and the national office of the W.I.L.P.F. Browder-who went to prison for his peace campaign Perhaps the best example of how the new breed of during the Nazi-Soviet pact, and who was purged in fellow travelers reacts to Soviet policy can be found in 1945 for prematurely advocating the detente the Party their response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. It now supports. Meyerson ends his "Open Letter" by never occurred to them to react first with an outright extolling the virtues of his Party comrades: "Our experi condemnation of the invasion-to say nothing of offer ence in working with U.S.P.C. members who belong to ing their moral support to an indigenous liberation the Communist Party has shown them to be as honest, movement struggling for self-determination. They ar hard working, thoughtful and dedicated to the cause of gued that the Soviet invasion was not a cause for alarm. peace as anyone else." After all, Afghanistan was already a client state of the Soviet Union, and the Afghani rebels were composed of XCEPT, THAT IS, when the cause of peace is es barbarians-wife-beaters who objected to imposed pro E poused within the Soviet Union. I asked Meyerson gressive measures such as elimination of the bride price.