The responsiveness of Congress to grassroots opinion rather than to leftwing screams about “witch hunts” was clearly demonstrated by the overwhelming vote last month to continue the House Internal Security Committee as a separate entity. The House overwhelmingly rejected the two highly publicized proposals for destroying the Internal Security Committee by submerging it in another committee with an unfriendly chairman. The vote was a decisive 246 to 164.
All the evidence indicates that there is more reason than ever before for Congress to conduct continuing investigations and exposes of threats to our internal security. Anyone who thinks that sub version went out of style with the death of Stalin should read FBI Director Clarence Kelley’s recent statement that Communist-bloc intelligence agents have increased four-fold over the last 15 years, and that they outnumber to an alarming extent the FBI agents available to keep track of them.
One source of spies is the Soviet-bloc diplomatic delegation in the United States, which has tripled over the past 15 year so Other identified spies are in Soviet trade missions, and even posing as students and clergymen Director Kelley said that every Soviet visitor is a potential spy.
The book “KGB” by John Barron describes in documented detail the intensive training given to thousands of Soviet spies before they are sent to steal American military, scientific, and diplomatic secrets. The Soviets stole the secrets of the atom bomb by the Klaus Fuchs spy ring, and then stole the secrets of the Polaris submarine by the Gordon Lonsdale spy ring. The Soviet Y-class submarine is built from Polaris blueprints.
FBI Director Kelley gave us a piece of thoroughly sound advice when he said that, “if you are in a fight with your neighbor and see him out skipping rope and punching a bag, you had better do some of that yourself.”
Soviet spies aren’t the only subversive force in our country. Director Kelley called attention to the killings of 13 police officers during 1973 in what could be called urban guerrilla actions. He said that some domestic conspiracies “seem to be dedicated to violent overthrow of the government.”
Many Americans have such confidence in the FBI that they believe there is an FBI agent covering every subversive. Of course, that is impossible. The inability of government agents to locate Patty Hearst, one of the most publicized faces in the country, shows that the FBI cannot take care of our internal security by itself.
Unlike Congressional committees, the FBI has no power to subpoena witnesses and make them testify. Under the able Chairman Richard Ichord, the Internal Security Committee can continue to provide a forum for evidence on subversive groups, including the Communist Party, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Symbionese Liberation Army.
