Red Rover, Come Over

From the Administration's point of view, America's performance at the last International Youth Festival two summers ago in Moscow might be called, charitably, a fiasco. The Administration was unhappy from the beginning, and by the time Americans were touring Red China, the government had become thoroughly irate. Preparations for a similar performance this year are already under way.

It would be hard to deny that Youth Festivals have served, and probably will continue to serve, as Communist front organizations. The official American reaction has been that participation should therefore be avoided and that, when possible, participators should be penalized. This year a number of international student groups have refused to participate--as have Austrian student organizations--and the American government may well be in good company.

But the difference between official participation and intelligently organized unofficial participation does not seem to have penetrated to the Administration. Contrary to a New York Times story, the State Department is not encouraging students, quietly or otherwise, to have anything to do with the Festival. There does exist a feeling among many lower-echelon officials of the Department, that a group of well-informed and intelligent Americans would help the United States and serve to counter-balance the Communist propaganda activities. The Administration, however, maintains its policy that anybody who has contact with Communists will be contaminated, and upon return pollute the United States--in all likelihood someone who would want to attend the Festival is a Communist anyway.

As a result, anybody who is either interested in observing how Communist show-pieces work, or who wants to talk with convinced Communists, runs the risk of having an unfavorable addition to his dossier, and probably encountering considerable difficulty in obtaining security clearances. Thus, the government effectively prevents the scientists and would-be public servants who must fear official comments from taking any part in the Festival.

The State Department, which recognizes the perils of a non-participation policy more clearly than most branches of the government, is virtually powerless to change the situation even if it wanted to. Its decisions on what is good for the country are already unpopular enough among other Departments to minimize the effects of approving attendance at the Festival. In future hearings, the fact of participation in a Communist-dominated activity would scarcely be mitigated by an ancient endorsement.

The responsibility rests with the Administration as a whole. If the government will recognize that taking a part--even unofficial--in Communist-infiltrated activities can help to balance lopsided propaganda, our real successes in Moscow may be repeated. But if we make things difficult for the interested to do anything without incurring the wrath of the government, those who went to the Russian capital to argue for the West will have little encouragement to visit Vienna, and America will be the loser.