THE ASSAULT ON THE WEST
By Ian Grieg
Foreign Affairs Publishing Co.
Petersham, Surrey, England
1968, 357 pp., 3.55
Reviewed by Kuo Yao-hua
This is a book that deserves much larger circulation than it is likely to receive. Those involved in any aspect of anti-Communism (and this ought to include the hundreds of millions of people who want to keep their freedom should find it either useful or informative. Unfortunately, the publisher is not a gigantic house with large funds for advertising and promotion and Ian Grieg's efforts may go largely unnoticed.
Then, too, the intellectuals of the West have a tendency to regard any anti-Communist book as suspect. What they think of as "objective" is all too often tainted with Communism.
Grieg's point of view is, of course, anti-Communist. Yet his concern is not with propagandistic denunciations but with presentation of the facts about the Communist campaign "to weaken the will of the peoples of the Free World to resist the spread of Communism and to confuse Western public opinion as to the true aims of the Communist states. It is a campaign in which a whole arsenal of non-military weapons are used such as broadcasting services, literature, news agencies, intelligence services, Communist Parties, fronts, economic aids, culture, trade and a number of other methods".
Grieg goes on to say that the assault goes far beyond the bounds of propaganda. "It encompasses the planting of false information, the use 6f bribery, blackmail, industrial disruption and the infiltration of governments and political parties. It attacks the morale of non-Communist countries by attempting to bring their values and institutions into disrepute."
In Part 1 on "The Attack From Without", Grieg examines Communist activities under these headings:
- Propaganda, including the publication and dissemination of foreign language books, periodicals and pamphlets.
- Radio broadcasting of the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Red China, North Korea, North Vietnam and Cuba. He takes up clandestine stations, content of programs and devices used to attract an audience.
- News agencies, including Peiping's "New China News Agency".
- Communist fronts, including the World Peace Council, World Federation of Trade Unions, Trade Union Internationals, International Organization of Journalists, International Radio and Television Organizations, World Federation of Democratic Youth, International Union of Students, Women's International Federation, World Federation of Scientific Workers, International Federation of Resistance Fighters, International Association of Democratic Lawyers, etc.
- Bilateral fronts, including the cultural societies and friendship associations.
- Espionage and subversion, including the KGB, GRU and the services of the Eastern Europeans, Communist China and North Vietnam. Cover organizations and auxiliaries are covered along with the training of agents and the detailing of operating techniques.
- Use of Communist Parties as a base for intelligence activities and the recruitment of non-Communists.
- Miscellaneous subversion and espionage operations as carried out through embassies and including the use of bribery and cultural concealment. Red China's narcotics trade is covered along with the supply of armaments, training of guerrillas and the role of the Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Committee.
- Auxiliaries such as foreign students, educational and economic aid to developing nations, trade delegations and exchange of visitors, exhibitions, etc.
Part 2, "The Attack From Within", analyzes the offensive under these divisions:
- Communist Parties in non-Communist countries, including history, organization, finance, recruitment and education.
- Activities and tactics of Communist Parties in non-Communist countries. Subtopics include the bid for mass support, the appeal for peace, support of national liberation movements, support of minorities, cultural appeals and pressure campaigns.
- Publishing activities of indigenous Communist Parties and Communist trade union activities.
- Concealed offensives, emphasizing fellow-travelers and secret Party members, infiltration, use of fronts, illegal parties and their publishing activities.
- Communist Parties and revolution, including special consideration of Mao Tse-tung and Che Guevara and their writings.
- Detailed examination of Communist guerrilla activities in Greece, Southeast Asia, Malaya, the Philippines, Indonesia, Burma, Vietnam, Thailand, Sarawak, Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia, Guatemala, Brazil, Angola and the Congo.
An appendix details the Communist Parties of the world, legal and illegal, setting forth the number of members, status, government representation (if any), chief officers and name of the organ.
In a study of such scope, Grieg's information is bound to be incomplete. But there is plenty of revelation, even for the serious student of Communism. Where he can, he uses Communist sources. What they have to say speaks more loudly of their intentions than volumes of anti-Communist publications.
Grieg's concluding chapter summarizes his opinions and is the only thoroughly subjective part of the book. In terms of grand design of frontal military assault, the Communists haven't made much progress, he says, and then continues:
"If, however, the strategy behind the Communist assault is seen as being the use of power politics designed to isolate the West; outflank its alliances, destroy its influence amongst the developing nations, whilst at the same time causing confusion amongst Western public opinion and gradually lowering its morale and weakening its will to resist, then a very different picture emerges.
"Within the last ten years a firm Soviet presence has been established on the southern shore of the Mediterranean in the shape of strong economic and military missions in Egypt and Algeria backed up by a high degree of economic and cultural penetration of both countries, both of whose armed forces are now for all practical purposes largely dependent on the Soviet Union for munitions and supplies. A similar Soviet presence is being established on the Horn of Africa in Somalia, providing ready access to the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. In Syria economic penetration seems to have been followed now by a considerable degree of political penetration and here again the country's armed forces are now almost entirely oriented towards the Soviet bloc. Useful Soviet footholds have been obtained in Tanzania, Mali and Guinea, whilst further south in Africa, Congo (Brazzaville) has become a focal point for Soviet operations in Central Africa. In addition a Soviet backed Communist take-over in Ghana was only narrowly averted and Soviet influence has become important in Afghanistan, Burma, Iraq and the Yemen." He mentions Soviet reverses in the Congo, Ghana, Indonesia and Kenya, then turns to Red China.
Peiping, he says, "has reduced Tibet to colonial status; been instrumental in the expulsion of France from the East and become the dominant power of South-East Asia, and has engaged the West's leading champion in what amounts to a bitter war by proxy. But she has also emerged as a revolutionary world power, reaching out tentacles of subversion and intrigue to every continent." He warns of the danger posed by a Communist Cuba that is "nurturing some half-dozen guerrilla campaigns, which although small-scale and intermittently fought, could, given the appropriate conditions, at any time flare up to present the United States with a series of major crises on its own doorstep."
Grieg suggests that the Moscow-Peiping schism should not be viewed too optimistically. He says that a revisionist group might come to power after the passing of Mao and patch up the quarrel with Moscow. "The dream of the Soviet Union uniting with the West to make a common stand against (Red) Chinese ambitions is certainly attractive," he writes, "but it is as yet only a dream, and one which shows no sign of practical realization."
As for the future, he expects the Communist assault on the West to continue "in the shape of a sustained and resolute strategy of subversion and political warfare". He sees a three-stage Communist offensive: "Firstly, 'the propaganda offensive designed not so much to gain converts for Communism outright but to impress the uncommitted nations with the inevitability of the victory of 'Socialism', and to create an anti-Western climate of opinion amongst them. Secondly, operations conducted by all the means of political warfare, to undermine Western morale, confuse public opinion, and to induce a state of paralysis into the opponents of Communism and thirdly, operations of a military or paramilitary nature, including the supply of arms and the training of guerrillas, the instigation of revolution and support for 'wars of liberation'."
Grieg believes that the posture of the West has been much too defensive and based on the nuclear "balance of terror". He writes: "There is at present a real danger that the vision that has come to some (Red) Chinese leaders of the West being gradually isolated and surrounded in the same manner that towns and cities are gradually invested in the course of a successful guerrilla campaign could become a grim reality. Be this as it may, in any contest the side that al lows itself to become imbued with an entirely defensive philosophy has its feet firmly planted on the road to eventual defeat."
What can be done? Grieg wants:
- A stripping away of Communism's "covering of respectability".
- Enhanced diplomatic activity at the United Nations and by individual free countries.
- Anti-Communist unity and alliance. There is need for a worldwide system linking nations opposed to Communism, he says, and central organization for coordination.
- Fostering of a "greater sense of litigency and a new attitude of mind in the West in which the reality and danger of the overt threat to its existence in the shape of Communist subversion and political warfare is realized as clearly as was the overt threat of direct Communist military aggression after the Second World War".
In the end, Grieg writes, “there can be no lasting security for the non-Communist world until the present Communist regimes have been re placed by democratically elected governments”. He sounds a warning that Richard Nixon and the new American negotiators at Paris should heed. "For the moment," he says, "the point of decision will continue to lie in Vietnam. An enforced American withdrawal or the signing of an agreement which is but a disguised capitulation to Communist aggression could wel1 have such repercussions that the West's ability to contain Communist penetration anywhere within the developing nations could be fatally impaired and the whole outcome of the protracted East-West struggle thrown gravely into doubt. If, however, the Viet Cong can be defeated both politically and militarily and can be seen to have failed in their objective the atmosphere of infallibility surrounding Communist theories of world conquest by subversion and 'wars of liberation' will have begun to be dispelled and a welcome breathing space for the West may ensue."
JOURNEY THROUGH CHINA
By Jules Roy
Harper & Row, New York
1967, 299 pp., US$7.95
Reviewed by Charles C. Clayton
Jules Roy is an ex-French army officer who resigned his commission in Indochina in 1953 because he considered the war there "unjust and idiotic". He then turned to writing. Best known of his earlier books is The Battle of Dienbienphu, which analyzed the tragic mistakes of the French in 1954 as well as the tactics of Mao Tse-tung used by the Vietnam Communists. As might be expected, his thinking tends to be leftist. In the fall of 1964, he went to the mainland to do research for a book on the Chinese Communist "revolution". He had planned to stay six months but left after two months disillusioned and frightened. This book, first published in French in 1965, explains why.
What makes the account of his journey through mainland China significant is the candor with which he reveals his disenchantment with Chinese Communism and its leaders. As he puts it, "I became the subject matter of my book because the Chinese had not wanted me to write about them." In view of his own description of himself as "a man of the left", his disillusionment is convincing. He writes: "In the Empire at the Center of the World, the matter of what the West may think is of no concern to anyone. The works of Mao Tse-tung surround the libraries like a new Great Wall, and one of the most intelligent peoples on earth is on the way to becoming one of the most stupid."
Few writers who have been permitted to visit Red China are as candid as Roy in detailing the constant surveillance to which foreigners are subjected, the areas forbidden to visitors and the insistence with which a visitor is forced to admire museums, factories and apartment developments. The author makes it plain he was never permitted to wander alone through the streets or to talk to the people. He notes that in his conversations with everyone from interpreters to top government officials, he was conscious of their overwhelming hatred for the West and their contempt for everything not Chinese.
There are frequent references to his suspicion that he was being lied to about everything from production statistics to details of Mao's life. For example, he relates that when he visited the village of Shaoshan, Mao's birthplace, he found most of the items on display were fakes. One reality, however, was the people. The author retains his respect for their suffering. He writes:
"I looked around, coldly and critically, at this China they described to us as liberal and happy, and saw a vast miserable segment of humanity working itself to death. Today was Sunday, but just like every other day old men and children were breaking stones in the quarries, other old men and children were carting them away."
As the title suggests, this book is a day-by-day journal of the author's trip from Peiping to Hongkong. He visited Shanghai and Nanking, paid a visit to the tomb of Dr. Sun Yat-sen and saw the conference hall where the Republic of China was proclaimed in December, 1911. There were a few pleasant interludes but it was for the most part a frustrating journey. "For my part," he notes, "so long as I was forced to look only at those things they wanted me to see, I reacted by giving free rein to my critical sense, and each new subterfuge to limit or direct it, provided me with a new reason for refusing to conform to their rules."
In Hongkong he talked to Chinese Communist business leaders as well as refugees from the mainland. He visited Macao and interviewed refugees there. He debated whether to visit Taiwan and decided against it. He decided to go back to France. He even questioned whether his journey was worth recording. His comment is revealing: "It bears so little resemblance to what people in the West expect to hear about China, and even less to the fairy tales the sycophants and the blind have brought back ... I was certain that China's generosity was a mockery, China's innocence a swindle, China's love for peace a lie. I knew that the Emperor Mao Tse-tung, founder of the new people's dynasty, and his whole silent and mournful court of hirelings dreamed of nothing but revenge."
It must be kept in mind that the author's journey was made in 1964, before the "cultural revolution" and the Red Guards. Undoubtedly his disillusion would have been deeper had the 'trip been made two or three years later. He makes it plain that he did not set out to criticize; rather he admits, "I had felt a yearning for this land." Even the most critical reader cannot escape the conviction of his sincerity and his disappointment. It must be added that he is not informed about Taiwan. The contrast with life on the mainland and in Taiwan would have surely altered his conclusions. He is in error when he attempts to interpret the policy of the United States in Taiwan, just as he is in his appraisal of Chiang Kai-shek. He is at his best when he writes about the common people on the mainland and pays his respects to China's past.
Most important of all is his exposure of the false veneer Red China seeks to show to the world, as well as the falsity of many of the books written about Red China in recent years.