Speech #840092130

The Members will recall that these are the four Rumanians who for a short time seized and occupied the Rumanian Communist Legation in Bern last February. I understand their trial is to take place in Switzerland in the near future: The Soviets barbaric tyranny In Eastern Europe and their ruthless subversive methods in the free world. have not yet been able to crush the spirit of antiCommunist resistance on both sides of the Iron Curtain. The slave labor camps. deportations. mass massacres all over the Red prison of nations. the assassinations in the Katyn Forest and all the other crimes against freedom and human dignity. which are going on even today. have not extinguished that burning flame of resistance in Eastern Europe. nor has the new campaign. waged by the Soviets among the exiles. of intimidation through blackmail and murder. shaken the faith and determination of the refugees. But this overwhelming criminal pressure brought to bear both on the captive peoples themselves and on the escapees. has driven them to the verge of despair. Two years ago the despondent people of East Berlin attacked with their bare hands the oppressor. this year young antiCommunist refugees rising in utter desperation. raided a Communist Legation in Bern. Switzerland. exposing its subversive activities. These explosions of the strangled urge for freedom should be taken into serious consideration as they are warning signals of a general situation and not just isolated cases. In fact incidents such as that of Bern. are the expression of the deep instability. misery. and tension created by the Soviet aggressive intrusion in the free countries of the Eastern part of Europe and by the shortsighted indifference shown by the free world. After long years of Soviet despotism and Western abandonment. these people are reaching the end of their tether. Moscow is at this precise moment waging a powerful propaganda campaign to recruit among the unsettled. bitter and frustrated refugees. those desperate enough to accept repatriation with assurances of forgiveness and good jobs. The real aim of the Soviets in this maneuver is to get a corps of antiWestern. especially antiAmerican propagandists. as being direct witnesses of the failure of the West in dealing effectively with the problem of those who had chosen freedom. There is no doubt that the Soviets badly need new instruments of propaganda to keep down the fermenting discontent behind the Iron Curtain and to kill the ever renascent hope in the West. But neither is there much doubt that the program for handling the refugee problem is clearly inadequate. There is therefore a most urgent need to strengthen the badly strained morale of both the enslaved and the refugees. We are upholding this cause as being of vital importance in the battle for mens minds. We must give comfort and encouragement to those who. fighting for freedom. are serving as well the best interests of the United States.