Fairbank Denies Having Any Affiliation with CIA

John K. Fairbank '29, professor of History, yesterday repeated publicly that he has "never been a communist, nor a communist sympathizer," in answer to implied charges brought up before the Senate Internal Security sub-committee Saturday.

Lyle H. Munson, ex-Central Intelligence Agency operative, told the subcommittee that six persons, four of whom have been described as communists by "uninformed persons," were asked to help the C.I.A. in its Far Eastern activities.

"I have known Davies a long time but I have never heard of this proposal (to help the C.I.A. in the Far East)," Fairbank said. "I have never been connected with C.I.A. or heard of Munson before. These allegations of being 'procommunist' richochet around and get expanded in the process, so I have sent another denial to the papers on the chance that five column headlines of baseless accusations can be counteracted by two inches of truth on the editorial page."

The text of Fairbank's statement:

"In view of press stories linking my name with suspected communists as part of a proposed 'unit' for some kind of C.I.A. project, I trust you will permit me to state as I have already reiterated publicly and under oath, that I have never been a communist, nor a communist sympathizer, and that neither my wife nor I had any knowledge of the reported proposal made to C.I.A. in 1949, nor would we have considered working with Agnes Smedley or Anna Louise Strong (also mentioned by Munson) with whose views have been in sharp disagreement then and now."