they are reformers: to reform is tonimprove, and there is almost nothing innAmerican society that IPS wishes tonimprove upon. They prefer to ruin, notnrectify.nThe key players in IPS history testifynto its radical status. Richard Barnet,nfor example, was invited by Hanoinduring the height of the Vietnam Warnto give credence to the Communistncause. He openly said he was on theirnside, telling North Vietnamese officialsnthat they were fighting “against thensame aggressors that we will continuento fight in our country.” Consistentnwith such thinking, Barnet has said thatnthe US is no model for underdevelopedncountries and that the revolutionsnin Russia and China have broughtneconomic progress, while CubannCommunism has yielded educationalnimprovements. And he has justified thenSoviet invasion of Afghanistan by arguingnthat the Kremlin sensed “its ownnsecurity slipping away.” (Were thenmountain men, armed with WorldnWar I Lee-Enfields, about to takenMoscow on foot?)nMarcus Raskin is even more blunt.nHe, too, collaborated with the enemynin Vietnam, and has written that American-stylendemocracy “menacesnthe freedom and well-being of its citizenry”nand “poses a danger to worldncivilization.” He has referred to thenPentagon as a “bloated genocidepreparingnmilitary system” and has, notnsurprisingly, called for the eliminationnof the FBI, Secret Service, CIA, andnArmed Forces. Raskin believes thatnneither a democracy nor a republicnexists in America and has worked relenriesslynto weaken US intelligencenactivities. A former member of theneditorial board of Ramparts, Raskinntoday says of IPS activists, “We are allnMarxists.”nOther senior IPS players includenChester Hartman, the advocate for thenhomeless who sponsors rent-controlnlegislation (thereby contributing to then30/CHRONICLESnproblem he claims to worry about),nand author of a lavish public housingnprogram, the express intent of which isnto “further undermine the existingneconomic system.” Robert Borosage isnthe IPS director, an activist who holdsnthat (a) the Soviet Union is moreninterested in arms control than the USnand (b) Moscow is the source of “interestingnsocial experiments” in “Yugoslavia,nHungary, Poland, Cuba andnNicaragua.” Most revealing of all isnSaul Landau, former member of thenCommunist Party’s youth organization,nparticipant in the World CommunistnYouth Festival in Havana, initialnmember of the KGB-sponsored VenceremosnBrigade, personal friend ofnFidel Castro, and producer of propagandanmovies on Cuba and Nicaragua.nIt would be one thing if only a fewnhacks were involved in IPS. But such isnnot the case. Perhaps the most valuablencontribution that Powell has made innthis well-researched and welldocumentednbook is the insight henprovides into the extensive network ofnIPS activities and programs. IPS is,nunquestionably, the mecca for leftwingncauses in the United States. Morenthan that, it is the mother of left-wingnspin-off organizations and projects, responsiblenfor the genesis of organizationsnlike the Center for National SecuritynStudies and publications likenMother Jones. It has founded radionsyndicates, news wire services, journalsnand periodicals, foundations, “peaceninstitutes,” anticorporate associations,nsocialist leagues, and international organizations.nIn the 1960’s, IPS was busynsponsoring the W.E.B. DuBois Schoolnof Marxist Studies, a Communist Partynfront group. It was also the intellectualntraining camp for scores of self-stylednrevolutionaries, including Bill Ayers,none of the chief bomb and demolitionnengineers for the Weathermen. Whennthe Weathermen were locked up fornrioting in Chicago in 1968, ArthurnWaskow of. IPS wired money for bail.nWaskow even tried to convince thenJustice Department that it should indictnthe Illinois State Attorney Generalnfor prosecuting the urban terrorists.nMeanwhile, senior IPS activist CoranWeiss was planning and leading antiwarndemonstrations, inciting her followersnto “storm the doors of thenWhite House” next time around. Atnnnthe end of the decade, IPS became thendepository for the Pentagon Papers,nhaving been given the stolen classifiedndocuments by Daniel Ellsberg. IPSnkept the documents for a year and anhalf before Ellsberg gave the papers tonThe New York Times for publication.nInterestingly, it was Paul Warnke —nlater to become the Arms Control andnDisarmament Agency director — whongave Ellsberg access to the PentagonnPapers in the first place. Today Warnkenis a trustee of IPS.nIn the 1970’s, IPS continued tonwork against US national security interests,nhelping to launch CounterSpynmagazine, which ex-CIA agent PhilipnAgee used to publish the names ofnCIA operatives. CounterSpy was directlynresponsible for the death of RobertnWelch, the CIA bureau chief innAthens, Greece, but that didn’t stopnIPS fellow Paul Jacobs from commentingnthat “It should come as no realnsurprise, nor cause for grief, when anCIA agent gets killed in the line ofn’duty.'” In the late 1970’s, atheistnCora Weiss and minister WilliamnSloane Coffin cofounded the RiversidenChurch Disarmament Program. Bothnof them were among the welcomingnparty that hosted Nicaraguan dictatornDaniel Ortega in 1985. Predictably,nIPS has raised money for the Sandinistas.nWhat keeps IPS afloat, more thannanything else, is the credibility itncarries with important segments of thenmedia and the Congress. In a piece thatnThe New York Times did in the fall ofn1987 on Jesse Jackson, it quoted IPSnfellow Roger Wilkins, referring to himnas a member of the liberal Institute fornPolicy Studies. When Ted Koppel introducednIPS activist Chester Hartmannon Nightline, December 26, 1987, henmade no mention of the status of IPSnand simply told viewers that Hartmannworks for the Institute. Worse still isnThe Washington Post, an organ whosenwriters have been known to teach atnIPS. The major media not only treatnIPS with respect, they often pick upnstories published in IPS publications.nStill another way IPS influences thenmedia is by positioning its members,nlike Richard Barnet, on the editorialnboard of magazines like Sojourners.nCongress grants legitimacy to IPSnby letting its spokesmen testify beforen
January 1975April 21, 2022By The Archive
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