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Miom the professors call the "leading democrats alter 1945"?
The first of these is Ferdinand Peroutka, the foremost of the journalists
"f tin' National Front, and now Chief
°f the Czechoslovak Desk of Radio
free Europe.
According to Mr. Shepardson, Ferdinand Peroutka is a Catholic and independent who never was pro-Com-
•uunist, and according to Miss Thompson, he easts off light.
Peroutka was not a member of any
Party, but in 1945 the Benes National
Socialist Partv- nominated and sent him
jjlto the Parliament of the National
front. Besides being a socialist (as he
Professes himself to be in the aforementioned program of January 29,
1955), he has been a left-wing "pro-
pessive" "independent."
Thus, in his book So or So, he wrote:
Never in history wees Russia so mighty,
never were the- forces eil Socialism so
[aightfiilly arrayed. This is a new era eel
history. Despite- this, some people are still
thinking in an outmoded way. However, it
''■is not yet be-e-n peissihle- lee explain to all
hat it is necessary lor capitalism to fall.
In our country, there is only eme- evolu-
'"ii possible: towards Socialism.
Peroutka was also editor in chief of
"' Weekly Dnesek (besides being edi-
,."' i" chief of the big daily Svobodne
pXny). Here
we can sec-
how he
"f ~"\? !
•Ought' communism. In Dnesek, No-
'''hImt 27, 1947, an article staled:
I ls il nut clear to all realistically thittk-
JJjS-political men in Czechoslovakia that
ithont tin- Cm ists anel against the
-°" nists our country cannot In- governed?
., .**'o judicious, reasonable, realistically
j'nking Czech pe »l it ii inr i has thought for
J-,' -ut about the- creation e>f an anti-
""iiiuinist bloc,
i According to the December 15, 1955
/""''' of Katolik, the Czech Catholic
r.""-H-eekly (greatest of all Czech
I 'Jtliolic- press in the free world ), pub-
. "''I in Chicago, Illinois, which is,
,|"'"ig other functions, the organ of
.'e official Czech youth Catholic or-
ition:
Sariiz;
l ■}"< only elo we' judge Peroutka's actions,
p l we also raise- criticism which we will
:;| tu the- bishops of Czechoslovakia
ij™ to the Catholic people. We vvill show
b Christian thinking anel actions unele-r
Ll^lltj5a's leadership ill linn- lit a (le-cisive-
r?lit eif
Christianity ami de racy against
lu'i'"!""""-"1 were strangled, oppressed,
J™ destroyed.
|.-^|il,,s Vanek, who is Chief of the
'""iiiic Department, and one of the
"U;
COjle
M
, important political editors of the
Ij,"'1'"Slovak Desk, was one of the
,,s, lol> political leaders of the Czoch-
0,t0v'lK Communist Party. The Czech
In" Lexicon, Prague. 1931. Appendix
<, 1 »\ />rv/v .1 . A 7 1
„>h,
\\-^"-'\ out" of the partv in 192,5.
f- ** has he done since leaving the
{"""mist Party?
toftt Czech Masaryk Lexicon, Prague
v,'.,vll Part, page- 655, says:
'**»
"°s Vanek works principally lor the
Forum News, May, 1956
deepening of economic and cultural rela-
tiems between the- CSR and the USSR. . . .
He translated Trotski's book. Basic Problems of the Revolution (1925). . . .
(Note: The Trotski book, Basic
Problems of the Revolution, was published by the Communist Publishing
Company, Prague, 1925, as the fourth
volume of the "Lenin Library.")
The Communist, Zdenek Fierlinger,
now President of the Red Parliament
in Prague, writes in his book Ve slit:-
back CSR (In the Services of CSR),
Prague, 1947, p. .35:
There was here- a group of resolute
Comrades, of whom the foremost were
many who are today active Comrades:
Krauman, Dr. Maiwald, Polcek, Ubiria,
Pistorius, Dr. Janecek, [ng. Vae-c-k, Milos
Vanek and others.
To this can be added: Dr. Vacek
was until recently Communist Lord
Mayor of Prague (now retired); Dr.
Maiwald was Chairman of the State
Planning Office of the National Front;
Milos Vanek, and also Jiri Pistorius
now work for Radio Free Europe.
In liis post in Radio Free Europe,
Vanek has never repented his past
deeds. Under his pseudonym of "Prav-
domil Basta" he jovially talks about
tin- non-fulfillment of Communist
plans, and gives false advice to the
people in the East, such as that con-
cerning tin- monetary reform in 1952.
The question arises — has Mr. Shepardson, who tried to get information
about nu-. ever tried to obtain information about Comrade Vanek?
Dr. Jaroslav Stranskv, Benes Socialist, weekly commentator on Badio
Free Europe, is former Justice Minister of the National Front. He signed
the tvosic-e Program, the decree about
the extraordinary Peoples' Courts, the
dee ire about the confiscation of property, etc.
Vaclav Majer, festival speaker (as
representative of the "Czechoslovak
Democrats") over Radio Free Europe
tei the pc-ople of Czechoslovakia, is a
Social Democrat and former Food
Minister of the National Front. He
signed the same decrees as did Jaroslav Stranskv. In exile. Majer is the
Chairman of the Czechoslovak Social
Democratic Party.
On March 14, 194.3, on the 60th anniversary of the death of Karl Mars.
representatives uf Socialist and Communist parties met at Marx's grave in
the London cemetery. Vaclav Majer
said there, as reported in Cechoslo-
vak, London, March 19, 1943:
We believe together with Mars that
Socialism is the way for a common Internationa] cooperation, lor a lasting pe-ae-e-
and welfare of the- nations. 'I'eielav we are'
lure', a hanelfiil eil Socialist emigres from
Czechoslovakia. Hut . . . Marx's grave will
be- the' pilgrimage place of mankind, liberated Ireini the- blinel captivity of de-ael
economic doctrines.
Dr. Ivo DucHacek, close friend of
Dr. Hubert Etipka, is one of the- leading editors of tin- Czechoslovak Desk
of Radio Free Europe in New York,
and former Chairman of the Foreign
Committee of the Parliament of the
National Front. He is a man who
really led the Peoples' Party under tin-
National Front.
He "fought" communism under tin-
National Front in a manner indicated
by his speech in the Prague Parliament, March 8, 1946, one of many
speeches of like vein which are available for study:
The alliance with Russia is a cause of
all parties of the National Front. It is the
result of their common efforts, the cause
eil the- e-ntire- people, not of one party. . . .
After all. the' competition in claiming
e-re-elit (or the treaty with the Soviet Union
is in its substance no bad feature. It . . .
reasserts how all the- people of this ceiun-
try really stand.behind this treaty.
Dr. Josef Lettrich was Chairman of
tin- Slovak Parliament of the National
Front and has been Chairman of the
artificially created Slovak Democratic
Partv. At Christmas, 1943, he closed
an agreement for special cooperation
vv ith the Communist Party, as is shown
on page 14 of the Kersten Report.
I quote from one ol his speeches in
which he explained why all non-Socialist parties were liquidated by the National Front, which appeared in Cos.
daily of the Slovak Democratic Partv.
June 19, 1945:
We have' not restored the' e>kl political
parties be-cause- we consider their programs
to be outmoded.
On January 25, 1948, one month before the Communists took over Czechoslovakia, Dr. Lettrich said at the session of the Slovak Democratic Partv iu
Bratislava:
The' alliance with the USSR is the- stalling point of our new foreign policy and of
our security system. . . . This orientation
i.s to be considered as the- invariable device lor our future political life.
Lettrich was sent on one propaganda trip for the National Front to
the United States in 1947, and now.
in America for the second time, he is
one of the leaders of the "Council of
Free Czechoslovakia" and speaks over
RFE as the representative of the "democratic Czechoslovaks." According to
the Declaration of the Slovak Democratic Partv on January 10, 1948:
We emphasize that we- are- in ae-e-orel
vviih a thorough purree- ... of antistate
elements. [The- purge- came one month
later.]
Dr. Petr Zenkl, a Benes Socialist,
Chairman of the- National Socialist
Party, was Deputy Prime Minister to
the Communist Prime Minister Klem-
ent Gottwald. He also must accept responsibility for the crimes of the National Front, since he was in a position
of leadership in the- government on the
day Czechoslovakia rejected the Mai-
shall plan. etc.
On Mav 7. 1917. in the National
Front Parliament, Dr. Zenkl said:
The faithfulness to the alliance- with the
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