General purposes of the Foreign Policy Association-World Affairs Center are rather well indicated in a fund-raising letter, mailed to American businessmen all over the nation, on February 23, 1961. The letter was on the letterhead of Consolidated Foods Corporation, 135 South La Salle Street, Chicago 3, Illinois, and was signed by Nathan Cummings, Chairman of the Board. Here is a part of Mr. Cummings' appeal to other businessmen to contribute money to the FPA-WAC:
"In his inaugural address which I had the privilege of personally hearing in Washington, President Kennedy summoned the American people to responsibility in foreign policy: ...
"This call for individual initiative by the President characterizes the kind of citizen responsibility in world affairs which the Foreign Policy Association-World Affairs Center has been energetically trying to build since its founding in 1918....
"The FPA-WAC's national program for informing the American public of the urgent matters of foreign policy such as those mentioned by the President–'the survival and the success of liberty,' 'inspection and control of arms,' the forging of 'a grand and global alliance' to 'assure a more fruitful life for all mankind'–is making remarkable progress.
"The enclosed 'Memorandum: 1960-61' describes the program and past achievement of this 42-year-old organization. Particularly worthy of mention is their annual 'Great Decisions' program which last year engaged more than a quarter of a million Americans in eight weeks of discussion of U. S. foreign policy and reached hundreds of thousands of others with related radio, television and newspaper background programs and articles on these important topics.
"Of the basic budget for 1960-61 of $1,140,700, nearly one-third must be raised from individual and corporate sources to meet minimal operating needs. The fact that over 400 major corporations, some of whom contribute as much as $5,000, already support FPA-WAC is evidence of the effectiveness and vitality of its educational program....
"I hope that you and your company will join ours in generously supporting this work."
Erwin D. Canham, editor of The Christian Science Monitor, has caustically denounced the American Legion Post in Atlanta for its "attack" on the FPA.
Mr. Canham, in a letter dated April 25, 1961, accused the American Legion Post of making a "completely false" statement when the Post contended that Mr. Canham and the Monitor advocated the seating of red China in the UN. Mr. Canham said:
"This newspaper's editorial policy has never espoused any such position."
I have in my file a letter which Mr. Canham wrote, April 29, 1960, as editor of The Christian Science Monitor, on the Monitor's letterhead. In this letter, Mr. Canham says:
"I believe that the United States should open diplomatic relations with communist China."
The interesting thing here is the coincidence of Mr. Canham's policy with regard to red China, and the policy of the Foreign Policy Association-World Affairs Center.
The Great Decisions program for 1957 (discussed above) was obviously intended to lead Americans to acceptance of U. S. diplomatic recognition of red China. The same material, however, made it clear that the invisible government was not yet advocating the seating of red China in the UN! Do these backstairs formulators and managers of United States opinion and governmental policies have more respect for the UN than they have for the US? Or, do they fear that bringing red China into the UN (before U. S. recognition) would finish discrediting that already discredited organization and cause the American people to demand American withdrawal?
Christian Scientists (through Mr. Canham and the Monitor), Protestants (through the National Council of Churches), Quakers (through the American Friends Service Committee), and Jews (through the American Jewish Committee, The Anti-Defamation League, and other organizations) are among the religious groups which have publicly supported activities of the Foreign Policy Association. Powerful Catholic personalities and publications have endorsed FPA work, too.