Herbert Philbrick, appearing before the Un-American Activities Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. All photos are from his autobiography I Led 3 Lives (McGraw-Hill, 1952)

Reds Not Yet Ready For War -- Philbrick

(October 28, 1954) Communism is a criminal conspiracy to overthrow by force and violence the government of the United States, and if Moscow thought she could win it now World War III would be underway, Herbert Philbrick, citizen, “communist,” and counterspy, last Thursday told an audience of more than 600 at the first meeting of the year of the new Community Forum of Larchmont at Mamaroneck Junior High School.

Its tight core in the United States is composed of 30,000 hardened, disciplined followers of criminal mind who sole teaching and training has been toward that end, he declared.

Mr. Philbrick worked for nine years with the Communists while counterspying on them for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He became aware of Communist tactics when he was drawn into the Cambridge Youth League in 1940, and instead of resigning in righteous indignation, went to the FBI’s where it was suggested that he stay and learn more about the league.

His nine years of counter-espionage ended with his testimony at the trial of the eleven top U.S. Communists before Judge Harold Medina in 1949. His testimony cracked the Communist defense and helped convict them of conspiring to overthrow the U.S. Government.

The people of this country, Mr. Philbrick stated, are barraged with the greatest amount of information and misinformation ever in history. Some commentators try to emphasize the bad points of the American system, he declared, and point out that the people of this country are supposed to be living in fear, afraid to express opinions because they may be investigated by the FBI or congressional committees.

Apathy, Not Fear

“This charge of living in fear is completely and absolutely false,” Mr. Philbrick insisted. “But I do find a feeling of apathy and disinterest, and a lack of specific information in spite of everything that has been told about the Communists.

“The reason for this is that most Americans are optimists and don’t like to face unpleasant facts. The average decent American citizen finds it difficult to comprehend the criminal mind of a communist and his teachings to overthrow by force and violence the government of this country, and establish in its place the socialist regime of Soviet Russia.”

Many times, he added, in his nine years in the party he heard things he could hardly believe.

As to what makes a communist, and how and why some persons turn traitor to their country, Mr. Philbrick used his own case as an example. He was duped and victimized, he said, in 1940 to join what proved to be a communist front organization, a fact which he discovered six months later, he declared. He stayed in, he said, because he wanted, as a liberal, to learn some of the answers for himself.

At the beginning, he and 400 other youths in Cambridge had no idea what was ahead, he pointed out, and if they had known at the beginning about the Communist criminal conspiracy, most if not all would have hesitated to go ahead with it.

Out of This World

After he had accepted an invitation to join the Young Communist League, Mr. Philbrick continued, he began to discover shocking and revolting facts. He had to attend three to four meetings a week and “found that the life of a young communist puts you in a different kind of world.

“Communists realize,” Mr. Philbrick stated, “that it is no easy task to make a Communist. The young people who came in seemed like a decent sort from average, decent American families. However wrong, they were loyal young people.

“But disloyalty is what the Communist criminal conspiracy had to change, because it is impossible to be loyal to your country and a communist at the same time. The teachers who work on the youths work on the mind, heart, and soul to make them hardened, steeled, disciplined Communists.

Philbrick maintained a secret room in his basement where he prepared reports on his activities as a Communist Party member in Massachusetts - counterspying for the FBI.

Most of them quit when they discovered the true subversive nature of the criminal conspiracy, but some stayed on. Those who dropped out, in spite of the fact that they were card carrying members, did not become Communists and the true sense of the word. Those who stayed were completely transformed inside.

“Today we know more about brain-washing than we did then. We have learned that Communists have been developing the scientific technique. We really began to learn that when the technique was used on our own soldiers, who became so confused they could tell lies about their own country. It disintegrates the thinking processes.”

Two Year Apprenticeship

It took two long years, Mr. Philbrick said, before his teachers were satisfied that he could adhere perfectly to the dictates of the Communist Party, and had learned absolute discipline and blind obedience to the dictates of Moscow. At first, they pointed out, he and those accepted with him as Communists had to do all the dirty and unpleasant jobs, such as foment riots and civil unrest, peddle the Daily Worker and perform any other acts the party officers gave them.

At first, he continued, he did not realize the full significance of Communist insistence on secrecy of membership and their instructions to swear that he was not and never had been a member of the Communist Party or the Youth League.

Philbrick would relay his documents to the FBI by placing them in a subway locker, and then mailng his FBI contact the key.

Then, he declared, he learned a lesson number one: a Communist must learn to lie to everyone. Next he learns that his activities are illegal, he said, since Communists have an above ground, or legal, level, and an underground, or illegal, level. They are taught, he pointed out, that they are in the midst of the camp of the enemy and must recognize that they are engaged in an illegal activity.

Young people must be reeducated and taught Communist ethics, Mr. Philbrick continued. They must be so imbued with these ethics and Communist morality, he charged, that they must be prepared to repudiate ethics and morality as they are usually taught. For this reason, he declared, no Communist should ever be permitted to teach in our schools.

Communist morality, he stated, goes a step further in that it must be subordinate to the teachings of destruction of established governments.

Should Read Red Material

Because of these things, Mr. Philbrick said, he has urged that students be permitted to read what Communists teach and then decide for themselves which camp they would rather be in. He has no fears, he declared, but that they would choose their own country.

By 1945, he continued, he was chosen, along with 15 others, after intense screening, to attend a deeply secret training school at which, for a period of ten weeks the Communist teachers, who were never named, taught and advocated that it is the absolute duty of every Communist to work for the complete destruction of the United States and work towards the establishment of a Communist state by any and all means. “This, mind you,” he said, “during the latter part of the war when Russia was our ally!”

Rapid Growth

Communism, in its march toward world domination, has done all right, Mr. Philbrick pointed out. The movement started in earnest 37 years ago with 40,000 hardcore Communists. Today they dominate and control 800 million people. The British Empire claims 600 million and is shrinking, the Catholic Church only 400 million, he pointed out.

“Communists have been taking over territory at the rate of 8,000 square miles per day, everyday, and the free people of the world have not won back one inch of that territory!” he declared. “The tide won’t turn,” he declared, “until we wake up, lose our apathy, and face facts.”

Communism as one very great weakness, Mr. Philbrick stated, and that weakness lies in the hearts, minds and soul of the little people behind the Iron Curtain, despite persecution purges, and brainwashing. “

“If the Communists thought they could win,” Mr. Philbrick declared, World War III would now be under way. But they don’t dare start it as long as they can’t depend on the people behind the lines.

“Our responsibility, he declared, “is the fight for freedom which is not free, but which must be earned. Only then can we do our part on the outside, as those behind the Iron Curtain do on the inside.

During a question and answer period, he urged support of the Crusade for Freedom and Radio Free Europe.

Senator McCarthy as both helped and hindered, he said in answer to another question. He has helped by ringing the bell and sounding the alarm, and by making people stop and think, and he has been very accurate in some instanced, he pointed out. But, he added, Senator McCarthy has often mishandled his information, and it will be a long time before we can find out just how much he has helped or hindered.

As to the loyalty oath, since Communists are taught to lie, they will be the first to take it, he declared, and it won’t trap them.