Barbour found that he was not alone either. "We heard of others who had been similarly used. Even the United States Government!" That experience is a thorny one that everyone involved wants to forget. It is the last documented evidence of MRA receiving governments funds and it happened in 1955. An English journalist named Tom Driberg recounts the episode in his well-documented book, The Mystery of Moral Re-Armament.

Harold E. Talbott, Secretary of the Air Force, put three large aircraft at the disposal of 192 MRA people and flew them by a circuitous route from Manila to Switzerland. They were presenting a play called The Vanishing Island to Asians and Africans. When part of the cast felt like flying to Damascus and Amman, which were not on the schedule, the crews of the plans got angry and refused to fly them there.

The play itself was sharply criti- cized. (One scene in the play shows a "typical" democratic election candidate stuffing a ballot box.) Sherman Adams, Driberg reports said it might do serious damage to the cause of democracy in Asia. Ambassadors cabled protests, and John Foster Dulles notified embassies that MRA had no official standing. Vice-President Nixon tried to get the tour stopped.

The American taxpayers paid $135,000 to send the play around the world. MRA paid $124,930, according to a facsimile check printed in one of their books. Talbott was later forced to resign as Air Force Secretary and--according to Driberg--the MRA affair played no small role in Eisenhower's decision to oust him.

Driberg also illustrates some of MRA's other tactics. They are fond of attributing quotes to people who never said them, especially mayors and top officials who cannot politically afford to issue a denial. MRA will also take full-page ads in newspapers and then later cite them as though they were regular news articles. The Times of India was especially incensed when MRA pulled this stunt on it.

Another coup came in a full-page ad in the London Times of June 9, 1960. It read in part: "'A Hurricane of Common Sense´--that was the headline in a newspaper read by the leaders of Washington. It refers to the manifesto Ideology and Co-existence ... It puts squarely to the modern world the choice--Moral Re-Armamnet or Communism."

The "newspaper read by the leaders of Washington turns out to be not the Washington Post but the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Advertiser, a free sheet dropped on the doorsteps of suburban Washington homes. A right-wing columnist named "Tar" Paulin, the paper's publisher wrote: "As I progressed through [the MRA manifesto's] 31 pages of text something almost wonderous (sic) and magical happened to me. My cynicism gave way to a deeper, greater emotion--moral re-armament ... I'm a dedicated anticommie. I cheer Moral ReArmament. Its litle pamphlet is like a hurricane of commonsense sweeping away the fog of confusion."

And how did Dalton and the Young Republicans and the International Relations Council get mixed up with this organization? Why did they sponsor a Harvard Sing-Out?

The Young Dems case is unclear. Heikki went to the then-president Lawrence E. Seidman '68 and asked him to provide $3000 for the performance. Seidman turned him down, and then the problems began. The YD executive committee was split on the matter of sponsring MRA after Heikki said he didn't want money, just someone to get Sanders for them. Eventually the members who felt that everyone has a right to be heard, "in the spirit of Rockwell," as Dalton says. Seidman made the decision, saying "I hope this won't be a Bay of Pigs" as Dalton took over the club in the middle of the year.

Dalton backed him up, but he admitted later, "We really knew nothing about MRA. We were pretty much opposed to it, but we didn't want to make a fuss about it." Dalton also claimed that Heikki had told him that the Young Republicans had agreed to sponsor the Sing-Out, and YD members knew at the time that no such decision was made. The Young Dems said they would not sponsor MRA without the YR's in on it too. Dalton laid down more stipulations, about publicity and about songs. MRA was not to say that the YD's "invited" them to Harvard. He felt that Heikki would turn the Dems down with all the strings attached, but he didn't.

There is another unsual part of the story. When Heikki first came to ask for money from the YD's, Dalton said. "We completely embarrassed him by asking loaded questions and interrupting frequently. Many people felt very bad about treating him that way, and that may have affected our final decision." So Heikki got his group into Harvard and many Young Dems executives regretted it, especially after the show.

The Young Republicans had a far simpler line. Jay B. Stephens '68, YR president, said right away that he believes everyone should be able to express an opinion. "They (MRA) were providing an opinion that had a right to be heard on the campus. We don't believe in screening an organization to see if they are all right," he said. "Certainly sponsoring does not mean endorsing." He also blasted the YD's for being so reluctant about the whole thing. "I regret aspects of the Harvard community that don't give an open mind to exposing a point of view. It seems the ones who profess to be the most libertarian are not when it comes to matters that affect them directly," he said.

Mary Belle Feltenstein '69, president of the International Relations Council, also admitted that she knew very little about MRA. She went along with Young Dems when she found that they were sponsoring the Sing-Out and ran into some trouble on her own executive board. Like Dalton, she seems to regret having sponsored the group.

She and Dalton and Stephens may regret things a lot more in a few weeks if MRA usse its normal publicity techniques. Pace, the MRA magazine, and press releases all over the country may read: "The Harvard Young Democrats, Young Republicans, and International Relations Council invited Sing-Out to their campus. Harlon Dalton, YD president called it ..."

(Next: The Sing-Out Kids--their hang-ups, motivations, and draft deferments.)