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A Communist cell made up of Harvard professors was an integral part of the Red intelligentsia in this area during the late '40's, ex-F.B.I. undercover agent Herbert A. Philbrick asserted yesterday.
Writing in the 17th of a series of newspaper articles serializing his recently published book. "I Led Three Lives," Philbrick declared that the Party's "Pro-group" or elite, "the vanguard of the vanguard," was composed of a number of "surprising personalities." "Culture," he stated, "simply oozed out of out Pro-group; graduate and honorary degrees were a dime a dozen."
The mission of the members of the Pro-group was to "direct the thinking on all issues...in their communities, businesses, professions, civic organizations and local governments...toward the tenets of Marxism-Leninism and toward conclusions that would aid the Communists."
Philbrick claimed that in addition to the Harvard cell, there was a cell for M.I.T. professors, as well as others for public school teachers, writers, newspapermen, lawyers, doctors, businessmen, and social workers.
Philbrick, who was Dirk J. Struik's main accuser, mentions that the suspended M.I.T. professor of mathematics was an important member of the Pro-group.
He says of Struik, "Dirk was cold and calculating--perhaps the prototype of the pure scientist. He was not only a great mathematician, but an expert in the Marxist theory as well; and he combined these two fields in his flat assumption that the foundation of Stalinism was to be found in science."
He also recalled that at one time Struik addressed the cell to which Philbrick belonged. "In a two-hour harangue, Dr. Struik analyzed the conditions for socialism and revolution in almost every nation in the world."
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