He Led 3 Lives

(Conspiracy Nation, 08/22/07) – Herbert A. Philbrick was chairman of the Cambridge Youth Council (CYC) in 1940. He worked to help coordinate progressive youth groups. But when Philbrick realized the CYC had been infiltrated and subverted by Communists, he was appalled. Philbrick's first impulse was to resign from the CYC. On further consideration he decided to talk with the FBI beforehand.

In 1940, public opinion polls showed 93 percent of Americans opposed to U.S. participation in a European war. The vote for Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) in 1940 was “a vote for his peace promises,” according to Philbrick. (I Led 3 Lives. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1952). Still, there were ominous rumblings. In 1940, Congress passed the first-ever peacetime conscription (draft) law.

Philbrick met with FBI agent Harold Leary, who became his first handler. Agent Leary persuaded Philbrick to remain with the CYC as a counter-spy for the government. Philbrick reportedly received no compensation for 8-plus years' work as a counter-spy. Thus we have Philbrick's “3 Lives”: 1) Citizen; 2) “Communist”; and 3) Counter-spy.

It is important to distinguish between Soviet Communism, as in “Communism died in 1991,” and International Communism, a separate branch of the quasi-religion. The Comintern, later renamed the Cominform, represents International Brigades created at Moscow's instigation and constituting a genuine Communist army, even though not all of their troops are Communists. (The Black Book Of Communism, by Mark Kramer, et. al. Harvard University Press, 1999). There are two levels to the Communist Party in the United States, or at least there were during the 1940s. Outwardly, there was a political party having an open list of members. But there was a secret group of professional Communists hidden beneath the outer shell and dedicated to destroying the Constitutional government of these United States. The Communist Party USA was (is?) “a political conspiracy that is based on concentric circles of secrecy.” (Philbrick, op. cit.)

Gradually, Philbrick rose through the ranks of the Communist Party USA (CP-USA) and gained increasing knowledge about the secret, insider core. Through covert “drops” he passed along what he knew to the FBI. His book, I Led 3 Lives, reveals startling information on the depth of Communist penetration.

It is true that later, 1950s “witch hunts” and “blacklists” were outrageous. Many mere dupes and “fellow travelers,” basically innocent, were caught up in a typical heavy-handed government crack-down. Philbrick, a liberal, warned against McCarthyism in 1954. Senator Joe McCarthy, although “ringing the bell and sounding the alarm,” had hindered anti-Communism by mishandling his information, stated Philbrick. “It will be a long time before we can find out just how much he has helped or hindered.” (http://www.larchmontgazette.com/guide/history/1954/1954philbrick.html)

Philbrick's book, published in 1952, is a mother lode of inside details. It has clarified many of today's news stories and events for this editor, by diagraming their earlier foundation. Many connections have sprung to light and are igniting brainstorms.

One aspect of CP-USA work involved “rubbing salt in the wounds of the Negro people to stir up dissension and trouble.” There was widespread discrimination at the time, but the Communists worked mainly just to augment civil unrest. Ostensibly their efforts were for the betterment of the “Negro,” but in fact CP-USA's efforts were meant to better destabilize the United States and assist its overthrow. One group alleged to have been infiltrated by Communists was the Cambridge Committee for Equal Opportunities, which was “a fertile field for Communist recruitment and development.” The National Negro Congress, as of 1952, according to Philbrick, was a long-time Communist front.

Secret cells of hard-core Communists, unknown to each other and rigidly controlled from above, met privately. They used special “drops” to pass messages. For instance, a package would be left in a bus station locker, and the key would be mailed to the appropriate comrade. High-ranking professional Communists at these underground meetings often were females, almost all dressed in “drab grayness” which was “almost the uniform of Communist femininity.” Inspectors from the “Review Committee” were on Philbrick's trail. One of them visited Philbrick's wife, Eva, and insinuated that, “The function of women and girls is changing... A growing girl can look forward to motherhood, but should not be taught that this is her only function... Boys who want to be modern have to include girls in their games when they play soldier... If we prepare our children for their vanguard role we must not hem them in by the narrow restrictions of conventional middle-class sex patterns of behavior.”

An unrelieved “atmosphere of doom,” writes Philbrick, pervaded “the swamp of communism.” Recruits to the Reds were often “lured into the parlor by the spiderweb of Communist 'fronts' spun to catch them.” These “front groups” were “baited with idealism.” Those who were hooked sank deeper into the morass. It was not easy to escape, since the comrades subtly threatened blackmail against potential apostates.

By 1945, Philbrick, by then having risen in comradely esteem, was allowed to enter a restricted District One Convention of CP-USA. Tight security was imposed and only the inner circle gained entrance. There he witnessed a “hate program” plotted by the ultra-left within the Party. “Hate! Hate! Hate! reverberated around the room from wall to wall, ceiling to floor.” These “roars of rage and hate” were directed against “moderates” within the CP-USA itself! These circumstances sometimes erupt within the caverns of Communism, and insults such as “Obstructionist,” “Deviationist,” and “Trotskyite” are hurled. Later, Party Discipline was imposed on the errant members. Don Tormey, a key instigator of the earlier “left-wing revolt,” was “severely reprimanded” and “put on the blacklist.” Blacklists, we learn, were used within CP-USA itself!

The CP-USA inner circle believed war and/or an economic crisis would be a golden opportunity for revolution. They were even determined to foster an economic crisis if they could, according to Philbrick. The Communists are pro-bureaucratic, “in that they recognize bureaucracy as one of the 'creeping diseases' of capitalism.” As capitalism grows, “bureau is piled upon bureau” until “the government becomes top-heavy, and the whole thing crashes.” CP-USA's ceaseless drive, therefore, is “to throw all economic and social problems into the hands of an expanding government bureaucracy.”

On July 20, 1948, a Grand Jury in New York indicted twelve top CP-USA leaders. (One was later excused for illness.) Philbrick was subpoenaed to testify at the trial and consequently his cover was blown. This editor, reading the heart-pounding segment of the book where Philbrick is called as prosecution witness and is revealed to the comrades, could imagine how unnerved Philbrick must have felt. Yet Philbrick was also happy to at last resume a normal life. The eleven defendants were convicted and their conviction was later upheld by the Supreme Court. Philbrick concludes his book by warning amateur anti-Communists that they are battling heartless, well-schooled professionals. “If the Communist had his way, he would force all non-Communists to the extreme right, toward fascism and state control.” This would serve to “create a split in our society” and provoke intense conflict, which is desirable from the Communist viewpoint. Rather than behave in that manner, urges Philbrick, we must “adhere to our traditional American dream” and disprove the Communist theory of the inevitability of capitalist deterioration.

Conspiracy Nation

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