Ex-Communist Warns of Threat
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Amocllle Editor
"When ( Joined the Communist
Party, I made the greatest mis
take of my life," said ex PHI ni!ent
Karl Prussion in ids speech
Thursday.
Prussion was a member of the
Communist Party of the United
States for 2(i years, the last 13
of which were spent as a counter
spy for the FBI.
I learned through bitter experi
ence . . . that they tiad lied to
me,” tie said of his first four
years in the party, which he join
ed as a student at Wayne Uni
versity.
After that, Prussion tried five
times to tell the FBI of his mem
bership, ofllering to work for the
organization and become a secret
agent.
Cave Him Recognition
Communists, he explained,
"gave me an awful lot of recogni
tion and made me feel like I was
wanted . . This is an old tactic
of the Communists, and they are
doing it on our campuses today.”
"In fact, there was an increase
of 20 tier cent in Communist
Party membership in the United
States in the past year," he quot
ed FBI director J Edgar Hoover
The methods used by Commu
nists to influence Prussion while
he was in college were calculat
ed to make the young student feel1
more important.
leaches \ loir nee
"The Communist objective . .
a Communist dictatorship where
men will live by bread alone” was
how' the speaker described what
he found to be the party's only
concern not the men themselves
Training in the Communist
Party taught members to "partici
pate in provocation and violence."
Prussion said that he even wit
nessed the fatal beating of a party
member who had been discovered
to be an KB I agent. Also pres
ent were two members of the Na
tional Labor Relations Board,
who were also party members.
After he got out of college.
Prussion was sent by the party
to a Communist-run school One of
his courses there was in insurrec
tion methods, taught by Gertrude
Hesslcr, who had trained at the
Lenin Institute in Moscow.
"Have you ever lived on bread
and water for ten days?” the
speaker asked. He explained that
students in the Communist school
had been made to do this to test
their ability to “endure in a rev
olutionary situation.”
Schools Help Party
American schools today help
the Communists in their quest by
teaching that “we should try to
learn about Communists, so that
we can co-exist with them,” he
said. Another way they help is
by teaching that the Communist
Party is a political party, based
on a philosophy.
"However,” he continued, "my
definition of a philosophy is one
which has to fall within the realm
of truth . . and Communists are
liars, deceivers . . . men of ex
pediency.”
A "rift” between the Soviet
Union and Red China, said the
speaker, does not really exist,
but is only thought to exist be
cause of the difference in the
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io. A and 8th
ways in which the two countries
pursue their goals.
One of them (Russia) takes a
peaceful course of action, while
the other advocates violence.
Russia, China Co-operate
“But have we forgotten that
Red armies invaded Kstonia, Lat
via, and Lithuania in years past?"
“Red Russia today is co-operat
ing with Red China” in the Viet
Nam Conflict, he said, to show the
lack of a “rift."
One of the main objectives of
the Communists in the United
States is to get into unions, civic
groups, and political affairs to
gain their ends.
“Morally illegal” was the term
used by Prussion for that type of
activity.
"It is legalized illegality for
our own destruction,” he explain
ed, and the Supreme Court has
helped to legalize it.
"The ACLU has always been
the armor plate and protective
coat for the Communist Party of
the United States,” Prussion
claimed.
Three "transmission belts” for
party workers exist in the Uni
ted States today: church “com
munity action” campaigns, labor
unions and political organizations.
"Churches,” said Prussion, "are
the greatest obstacle they (the
Communists) have to overcome.”
Agents of the party have been
sent to organize such groups as
the Christian Youth League,
which Prussion helped to form
in Flint, Mich., at one time.
This organization, which had
over 400 members at one time,
eventually held a demonstration
in which Communist leaders start
ed fights It turned into a riot in
short time, and police brutality
was charged when police had to
use force to break up the distur
bance
‘‘This does sound familiar,
doesn't it?” he asked, and said
that the same tactics are still
used by the party that were used
30 years ago at that particular
demonstration
The Communist Party sent
Prussian to Detroit after that, to
infiltrate the union movement.
Though the automobile factory
he worked in there had good
working conditions, he helped to
stage false “poor working condi
tions.”
.Soon after that, the plant was
unionized by the young Commu
nist and Prussion was elected
head of the union local, lie then
worked his way into the Demo
cratic Party’s structure in Wayne
County, Michigan
From there, Prussion went to
California, where he described
the Communists' great amount of
influence in the California Demo
cratic Club, which was “the most
influential organization affecting
the administration of California,”
he said.
“The Los Altos area is by far
the most effective area for
Communist activity in the United
States today,” Prussion claimed,
describing his home at the time
of the 1960 House Committee on
Un-American Activities hearings
in San Francisco.
Prussion testified there at hear
' inf's, which were marred by large
demonstrations.
“If you don’t oppose them
<Communists) you cannot hope
; to defeat them,” he said, and con
; eluded his speech with a descrip
tion of the new anti-Communist
| movements in the country.
These organizations, he stated,
arc doing a valuable job in hin
: dering the Communists in their
efforts to turn the United States
into a dictatorship.
Shriver Applauds
University Effort
Editor’s Note: As one of his last official acts as director of the
Peace Corps, Sargent Shriver wrote a letter to University students
commending them for their response to Peace Corps Week, which
elevated the University to first among colleges in recruiting.
The final aptitude test will he given at 2 p.m. Saturday. The
loom will be posted in the Student Union.
To the Students of the University of Oregon:
I have followed with great interest the recent Peace Corps re
cruiting effort at the University of Oregon, and was pleased to note
that 421 students expressed interest in working with the Peace
Corps by signing up to take the placement tests. That 226 Oregon
men and women have thus far submitted questionaires and taken
the test is most encouraging to me.
When John F. Kennedy first proposed the idea of the Peace
corps in 1961, he said that he was sure there were many Americans
that would be willing to put their skills to use for two years in
developing nations around the world. There were many who
doubted that a sufficient number of young Americans would be
willing to participate in such a unique program.
The number of Oregon students who have responded to the idea
this year, and since 1961, is a vigorous answer to those who ques
tion the promise of your generation.
I understand that the final placement tests to be administered at
Oregon will be given Sat., Jan. 29. and it is my sincere hope that
those students who have not yet submitted their applications will
do so and take the test.
Many thanks to you all for your interest in the Peace Corps.
Sargent Shriver,
Peace Corps Director
-
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