USIA files, lot 56 D 581, “Foreign Press Reaction to Book Purge”
Extracts From the Foreign Broadcast Information Service1
German Press and Radio Comments on Cohn and Schine
4/22/53
Daily Radio and Television Digest covering Soviet and Soviet-controlled German-language broadcasts—April 9:
“Two officials of the McCarthy committee, touring Germany, expressed their ire over the sums being spent in Germany on the ‘ineffective’ US propaganda machine, particularly RIAS and Neue Zeitung. No names were mentioned.”
IBS Summary April 12
“Bonn 4563, April 10 (Unclassified) (IBS)
Communist Radio Berlin quoted a statement by Cohn and Schine that millions are being wasted by the public. According to the Communist radio, they are disappointed that ‘US war propaganda meets with opposition from the majority of German people’. They ascribe failure to Neue Zeitung, and RIAS.”
The following is an excerpt from cable from Bonn of April 9 re “Main emphasis German press, April 9”
McCarthy Representatives Accuse Kaghan: He Rejects Accusation
Factually reported, frontpaged several papers. Westdeutsche Neue Presse noted accusations, Schine’s, Cohn’s activities gave rise “widespread indignation” American circles Germany, American Womens Club Munich representing 200 citizens sent Eisenhower protest letter.
Berlin press April 9:
Headlines “Kaghan defends himself.” Der Tag frontpaged Mr. Kaghan, HICOG publication, rejected McCarthy investigators accusations of Communist tendencies.
Principal emphasis (East): …2
Asserted Mr. Kaghan (termed “scapegoat No. 1 for lack of success of American war-mongering”) stated “did utmost bring forth war mood among Germans, supervised anti-Communist propaganda longer than two traveling snoopers been out of school.”
Abendpost (Frankfurt) April 9, 1953
Confusion in the Hotel of McCarthy Agents
Employees of American Communist Hunter No. 1 gave the Bonn High Commission much to criticise. In American High Commission circles in Bonn, there are various feelings about the announced return of the two investigating officials of Senator McCarthy, U.S. Communist Hunter No. 1. The first impression of these two in Bonn was received by High Commission officials partly with humor and partly with annoyed disappointment. McCarthy’s two chief investigators, Roy Cohn, 20, and Gerard Schine, 26, came to Bonn from Frankfurt at 11 o’clock on Sunday evening. On this same evening, they interviewed James Hoofnagle, a Public Affairs Officer, at the Hotel Adler in Bad Godesberg during the course of a dinner which lasted for more than two hours. The dinner cost more than $25. The two investigators said that they had come to Europe in order to study “waste and mismanagement in the American Information Program”.
There are supposed to be books with Communistic tendencies in American libraries here. From HICOG circles, however, it was learned that “they did not ask a single question about costs and personnel”.
The two investigators informed the personnel of the Public Affairs Office at the High Commission that they should be available Monday morning at the High Commission building shortly before 11 o’clock. Between 11 and 12:30, they had a conversation with Glenn Wolfe, Executive Director, and Samuel Reber, the Acting High Commissioner.
Wrong Trousers.
[Page 1455]Then the event occurred which still is a main topic of conversation at the High Commission. At 12:30 Mr. Schine announced that he put on the wrong trousers that morning. A driver was sent to the hotel in order to pick up the right ones. Mr. Schine put them on and then discovered that his notebook was missing. He rushed back to the hotel with Mr. Cohn then in order to look for it.
In the hotel lobby, it was observed that Mr. Schine batted Mr. Cohn over the head with a rolled up magazine. Then both of them disappeared into Mr. Schine’s room for five minutes. Later, the chambermaid found ash trays and their contents strewn throughout the room. The furniture was completely overturned.
After lunch, the two investigators interrogated the Deputy Chief of the MSA Special Mission in Bonn, Frank Miller. They asked him and others the following questions: “What are your goals?”, “What is European Integration?”, “What does Western orientation mean?”
Eight Page Book
Afterwards they had a press conference with American newspaper correspondents.
Mr. Cohn introduced Mr. Schine as a management expert.
Question: “What experience do you have in this area, Mr. Schine?”
Schine: “I have studied this field.”
Cohn: “Mr. Schine has written a book about the definition of Communism.”
Schine: “Yes, it just so happens that I have a couple of copies with me. Mr. Cohn is mentioned often in the text. He has played an important role in the prosecution of Communist leaders in the U.S.”
It became evident that this “book” was an 8-page pamphlet that was published by Mr. Schine’s hotel company and distributed by the same organization, whose president and business head is the same, 26-year-old Gerard Schine.
Cohn: “We have also questioned representatives of the German public.”
He failed in this connection to state with whom they had spoken. Americans who had accompanied the two agents stated that they were the chauffeur, two hotel janitors and a barman.
In the 45 minutes that remained between the press conference and their departure by air for Berlin, Messrs. Cohn and Schine interviewed Elmer Lower, Chief of all Information Programs in Germany, Edmund Schechter, Chief of the Radio Branch of the U.S. High Commission and Theodore Kaghan, Acting Chief of the Office of Public Affairs, of which the Information Division is a part.
Berlin Whirlwind
They began their investigation in Berlin on Tuesday at 11:50 in the morning. They were not finished early enough, however, in order to take the regular American courier airplane to Frankfurt in the afternoon and so a special flight had to be arranged for them which, according to High Commission sources, cost $300.
Despite all this, the visit from Washington has provided an inexhaustible supply of material for satire in exactly the same way [Page 1456] that Senator McCarthy’s hunt for Communists and traitors actually appears in reality.
April 10—from Berlin:
Following is translation of DPA (German press agency) despatch appearing in today’s Der Kurier (West Sector):
“Berlin—Two members of the anti-Communist McCarthy investigation committee of the American Senate, Roy Cohn and David Schine have accused the acting Director of the HICOG Information Services, Kaghan, of Communist tendencies.
“Kaghan, who is immediately responsible for the Neue Zeitung, RIAS, and the magazine Der Monat is said to have recently refused to undergo an examination concerning his political reliability. The accused man is said to have published a book in 1939 with ‘obviously Communist tendencies’.
“Cohn and Schine told reporters they had telephoned Senator McCarthy Monday night (April 6). McCarthy is supposed to have made known that he regarded the matter as serious. It is to be assumed that Kaghan will be heard before the Senate Investigating Committee in America.
“The two representatives of the McCarthy Committee have been assigned to study the conduct of the American information and propaganda program. In Berlin they gathered information about the work of RIAS and the Amerika Haus. They also visited the House of Soviet Culture in the East Sector. According to their statements, Amerika Haeuser in Germany are to be examined and books by Communist authors removed. Cohn and Schine will give McCarthy a report on the effectiveness of the American information activity in regard to ‘psychological warfare’ and whether improprieties are to be traced to intention or stupidity.”
Weekend Radio and Television digest covering Soviet and Soviet-controlled German-language broadcasts—Friday April 10 through Sunday, April 12:
“Senator McCarthy’s representatives in Germany: Soviet Zones ‘Berlin Hour’ waxes extremely sarcastic over the trip to Germany of Messrs. Cohn and Schine, whom it describes as ‘foaming at the mouth’ with rage after they had visited the Soviet sector ‘House of Culture’ and compared its effectiveness with the US propaganda effort in Germany. The Communist radio uses some very uncomplimentary language about Senator McCarthy and his investigators, comparing the charges against Theodore Kaghan to the sort of action which precipitated the Forrestal suicide and alleging that they in reality represent an attempt to find a scapegoat in order to excuse the ‘blatant failure’ of US propaganda. ‘This Kaghan, the big boss of RIAS and Neue Zeitung, declares that he was working against communism when these two were still in their diapers … They are also investigating the America Houses in order to make sure that their shelves carry no subversive literature. No doubt they will find some, such as the Bill of Rights and the American Constitution … !”
German Press and Radio Comments on Cohn and Schine
4/24/53
Excerpt from FBIS Report of April 21, 1953:
McCarthy’s “Young Snoopers” Hurt U.S.
Editorial opinion of the West German press on topics of general interest.
Frankfurter Rundschau, in a critical comment on Sen. McCarthy entitled “Witch Hunt with Originality,” stated it had withheld comment on McCarthy’s activities until now because it believed that they were a purely internal matter and not a “political inquisition.”
The paper asked whether McCarthy knew what immense damage his “young snoopers” had done to U.S. prestige abroad. “We do not think he has paid any attention to the likely result of such a visit or, what is worse, he does not even know what a huge democratic job American citizens and officials did in the first years of occupation in Germany.
It would have been well if McCarthy had experienced the days during which the American occupation authorities eliminated, without much ado, the fellow travelers, and if he had seen how the Federal Republic was built up as a bulwark against Communism with the help of the American fellow citizens whom he defames today on the ground that they have come to understand more of German and European affairs than he himself and his committee.”
Listeners of the Voice of America and the innumerable users of U.S. libraries in Germany, Frankfurter Rundschau continued, shook with laughter upon learning that of all people Americans seized on the idea, generally practised only by their adversaries, to censor books suspected of Communist tendencies. The paper concluded by calling upon McCarthy to “spare both his fellow citizens and us such practices. We Germans know what freedom of opinion means from bitter experience—but also through those people whom McCarthy today attacks.”
- The Foreign Broadcast Information Service was an agency of the National Technical Information Service of the Department of Commerce. FBIS prepared Daily Reports which were circulated to interested agencies and departments in the Federal government. Portions of these Daily Reports were classified, others were not. There is no indication on the source text which of the excerpts were classified.↩
- Ellipses throughout in the source text.↩