You have undoubtedly read, as I have recently, about how the number-one Communist labor leader of Latin America, Vicente Lombardo Toledano of Mexico, has been busy denying the authenticity of a letter attributed to him by the Government of Ecuador.
They have several things in common: They are all controlled at the top by Communists, directly or indirectly they engage in vast propaganda activities today they emphasize "national liberation" and, particularly in Latin America, "economic independence." Through these fronts, and with Soviet financial support when required, local, national, and international meetings are organized travel to the Communist hinterland is arranged and financed selected candidates are trained and indoctrinated and an infinite variety of propaganda publications in all languages is distributed. Each has a theme designed to attract a following from the particular target group. These fronts are divided, one from another, on functional lines so that, despite their similar operational patterns, they can "offer all things to all men." There is a front for "peace," perhaps the cruelest of all, since all mankind yearns for that there are others for youth, women, labor, international traders, journalists, intellectuals, and professionals.All have a common purpose-to draw as many social groups as possible closer to communism and to make amenable to them the global aims of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Each is a huge "interlocking directorate" linking the Kremlin to a vast network of national organizations operated by local Communists or dupes. The Soviets now control 13 major international front organizations, each with dozens of subsid- iary organizations all over the world.We have had this problem of "fronts" in the United States it is particularly serious in Latin America. In this way hundreds of thousands of people are made the innocent tools of the Communist conspiracy. Especially in times when Communists wish to lull others into complacency and relaxation such as the present, the "popular front" tactic is applied through the development and infiltration of organizations, often having objectives or appeals which appear to coincide with the legitimate aspirations of a group-the technique of the soporific-which are then used to achieve Communist objectives.In the thirties, with the Communist Parties then only small minorities, one of the compromises which was developed to establish contact with the masses, either through collaboration with the leaders of non-Communist organizations or through appealing to the masses over the heads of their leaders, was the so-called "popular front." The basic task of Communist Parties all over the world in trying to carry out both aspects is, in the words of Lenin, to combine the strictest loyalty to the ideas of communism with an ability to make all the necessary practical compromises. This, of course, is utterly contrary to our way of life in the Americas and will never succeed. This role involves both aspects of the international Communist movement, the ideology of the party line held out by Communists and, even worse, their subversive intervention in the internal affairs of other states and peoples.
It may have taken on a new coloration, protective to the Communists themselves but always destructive to the rest of us.
It is the same role in North America, Central America, and South America, or else where in the world. Today I want to talk to you about the role of communism in the Americas.Assistant Secretary for Inter-American Affairs (1) (Government Printing Office Washington 25, D.
Inter-American Series 53 Released March 1958įor sale by the Superintendent of Documents U. Reprinted from the Department of State Bulletin of February 3, 1958 Latin America from a Cold Warrior's Perspective