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SUNDAY, AUGUbl' 5, 1962
MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDFORD. OREGON
'Hidden Persuaders'
Include Americans
As Foreign Agents
(Editor'i note: Tht con
gressional spotlight was
turned recently on lobby
ists for (oreign governments.
These lobbyists, among
them Americans, earn high
fees trying to win trade
concessions or other favors
for their employers. A Sen
ale inquiry is being read
ied. In the following dis
patch, a veteran UPI re
porter lakes the reader be
hind the scenes of "lobby-ing-for-pay.")
By LOUIS CASSELS
United Press International
Washington-IUPIl-Among the
"hidden persuaders" who try
to influence U.S. public opin-
ion and public policy are sev
eral hundred well-paid Amer
icans who are agents ot for.
eign governments.
Relatively few work for
communist countries. The vast
majority are in the hire of
non-communist nations which
want something such as fi.
nancial aid or trade conces
sions from the United States.
Their lobbying activities,
usually carried on as quietly
as possible, were briefly spot
lighted last month when Con
cress enacted a bill regulat-
inc U.S. sugar imports for
the next two years.
Under this legislation, 24
foreign countries received
quotas entitling them to sell
sugar to American consumers
at a price about 2.B cents a
pound above the world mar
ket. As a result of Its passage,
26 Washington lobbyists will
' collect about $500,000 in fees
from those countries.
Not Only Activity
Lobbying on Capitol Hill Is
not the only activity of these
foreign agents. They also cm
ploy public relations tech
niques to create a favorable
climate of opinion in America
for their clients.
It is not illegal for an
American or foreigner to
serve as the agent of a for
eign power, provided he reg
isters as such with the Justice
department, submits periodic
reports of his activitivies and
labels any political propagan
da he disseminates in this
country by stating plainly it
emanates from a registered
foreign agent. Violation of the
law is punishable by up to
live years in Jail and a $10,000
fine
Whether this law Is being
adequately enforced and
whether additional legislation
may be needed are questions
of immediate Interest to the
Senate Foreign Relations com
mittee. Puts on Staff
Chairman J. William Ful
brighl, (D-Ark.), has put a
slaff of investigators to work
digging into what he calls
"attempts by foreign govern
ments, or their agents, to In
fluence the conduct of Amer
ican foreign policy by tech
niques outside normal diplo
matic channels."
Fulbright plans to hold
public hearings which may get
under way late this month.
A preliminary report by the
committee staff emphasizes it
is not "necessarily wrong" for
a foreign government to sup
plement lis regular diplomatic
mission with a Washington
lawyer or an American public
relations firm to present its
case to Congress and the pub
lic. 'Increasing Concern'
But the report says there is
"increasing concern" about
t.hc use of "non-diplomatic
representatives" to get results
which a nation may ne unaoie nm
United States to whip up sup
port for the cause of Katanga
President Moise Tshombe.
Struelcns' activities were pub
licly denounced by Assistant
U. S. Secretary of State Carl
Rown as a "big-money cam
paign to convince Americans
they ought to support Katan
ga's secession."
The Senate Foreign Rela
tions committee staff strongly
implied in its preliminary re
port that the justice depart
ment had been lax about en
forcing provisions of the for
eign agents' law.
Staff Not Adequate
Nathan B. Lenvin, chief of
the justice department's for
eign agents registration sec
tion, said his staff of five at
torneys is not adequate to
make an exhaustive study of i
all political propaganda reach
ing the American public via
foreign agents.
Bui he said the section is
"not aware of any clear-cut
case where an agent has at
tempted to mislead the pub
lic by disseminating political
propaganda without disclosing
his affiliations" as required
by the statute.
Lenvin's boss, Alty. Gen. j
Robert F. Kennedy, has un
dertaken an investigation of
his own to determine whether j
more manpower is needed in j
the foreign agents section, and
whether the present law might
be more vigorously enforced.
Even If a foreign agent
places the required label on
a press release, photograph
or film, there apparently is
no requirement in the pres
ent law that the warning be
passed along to the public.
Was Under Contract i
Millions of Americans saw
on television a movie short;
entitled "Fortress Formosa,"
which extolled the cause of
Generalissimo Chiang Kai-
Shek's "Free China," without
realizing the film was pro
duced by an American public !
relations firm, the Hamilton
Wright organization, which
was under contract to
Chiang's government.
Free film footage Is only
one of several devices by i
which foreign agents tempt I
U, S! news media to carry
their clients' message to the i
public. In the senate commit- i
tees growing files are case.
histories of newspaper and
magazine reporters who have
allowed public relation firms
representing foreign countries
to pay all or part of their
expenses on supposedly objeo
live fact-finding trips.
The most flagrant case of
irresponsibility by news
media which has yet come to
light involved a 10,10 deal
hetupon AlpyanHnr 1.. Gill. :
erma, then president of Mu-1
tual Broadcasting system, and
the late dictator of the Do
minican Republic, Rafael Tru
jillo. Paid In Advance
For a cash fee of $750,000,
paid in advance, Guterma
agreed that the Mulual net. i
work would broadcast at
least 425 minutes of "news'' ,
each month favorable to Tru-
jillo's interests. Guterma later
was booted out of Mutual
presidency and sentenced to
a prison term.
Guterma was not tried for
failing to label political prop
aganda, but for failing to reg
ister as a foreign agent in
the first place.
Nine persons have been in
dicted during the past seven
years for alleged failure to
register, and the department
is now satisfied that most if
all of those who should
to get through its normal oii- k-kimi-i nave uum- u. ounc
lomatic dealings with the U.S. 11154, the number of officially
government. registered foreign agents has
"There is quite a bit of evi- climbed from 271 lo 411.
A. r. said a committee in-1 Perusal of Files
vcstigalor, "that some coun
tries are using these agents
lo make an end-run around
(he President and the state
department."
Foreign lobbyists who de
liver the goods arc highly
paid. Washington attorney
Charles Patrick Clark gets
SR7.MHI a year from the gov
ernment of Generalissimo
Francisco Franco for "n'-omol-iiu:
and encouraging friendly
and understanding relations
and good will between the
United Stales and Spain."
Displays Great Interest
As an ex-enemy nation,
Wrst Germany has also dis
played a great interest in im
nro'v'ng its U.S. "image" Ac
cording to its olficial regis
tration reports, the Julius
Klein Public Relations firm
of Chicago receives about
$230,000 a year from West
German interests for "dis-
Perusal of the registra
tion files, which are open
to public inspection, shows
nearly every country lo the
world has one or more agents
representing its interests, out
side of diplomatic channels,
in the United Stales. Japan
currently has the biggest ros
ier .12 agents.- including
Thomas K. Dewey's Wall
Slroet law firm
Some agents work for sev
eral countries at once. One
such is 1. Irving Davidson,
41, a native of Pittsburgh.
Davidson's registration
statements show his hread-and-bulter
account. which
pays him $12.0011 a year, has
him serving as the Washing
ton voice and general handy
man of Gen. Luis Soinoa,
president of Nicaragua. But he
has also In-cn involved in nu
merous other activities, such
as Irving to peddle Israel's
nominating information in the I "UZ1" Bun to the U.S. Army.
United States so that the ' Joins Other Lobbyists
Amercan people may know.! Recently Davidson joined
understand and support the ; the swarm of agent-lobbyists
fact that West Germany is a hovering around the sugar
political, economic and mill-;h ill. lie was representing
tary ally of the wortd de-, Fcundor, which had never be
iliocracies," fore been regarded as a sugar-
Not all tlu- big-lime agents i producing country entitled lo
are American citizens. When a quota
Katanga Province tried to i The new law gives Ecuador
secede Irom the Congo. Bel-1 the right to sell 25,000 tons
eium s .Minstry ot Airuan ni
fairs sent one of its officials.
Michael Struelcns, to the
of premium-priced sugar to
American housewives annual
ly for the next two .years
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