In addition to my work as a conductor and musician I have also composed two symphonies and other musical compositions including the score for several musical shows and two ballets.
I cite the details listed not as a record of achievement, but rather as the briefest kind of summary to indicate that my life and interest have been devoted almost exclusively to the world of music.
The practice of my profession, which is also my livelihood, necessarily entails frequent travel abroad and any restriction on such travel would be a most serious impairment of my right to engage in my chosen profession and an interference with the right to earn a living. Since travel was resumed after the war I have fulfilled engagements in Europe and elsewhere almost every year and my pending application for a passport is for the same purpose.
In connection with engagements to conduct concerts in Brazil, Italy, Israel and at other places I applied to the State Department for a renewal of my passport in April, 1953 but to date the travel document has not yet been issued. I was informally advised that the application is being considered in connection with Regulations of the Department of State having to do with the “Limitation on issuance of passports to persons supporting [the] Communist movement”.
Although I have never, to my knowledge, been accused of being a member of the Communist Party, I wish to take advantage of this opportunity to affirm under oath that I am not now nor at any time have ever been a member of the Communist Party or the Communist Political Association. I have never (to paraphrase the language of the Regulation) knowingly engaged in activities which supported the Communist movement under circumstances which would warrant the conclusion that I engaged in such activities as a result of direction, domination or control exercised over me by the Communist movement.
I have not adhered to the so-called Communist Party line or followed it “on a variety of issues and through shifts and changes of that line.”
The Regulations referred to are said to have a possible application to my case by reason of the fact that my name has been linked in various ways with a number of organizations which have been denominated as subversive by the Attorney General in connection with the government employee program.
I wish to state generally as to all the organizations involved that my connection, if any, with them has been of a most casual and nebulous character. Almost without exception, their very names are practically unknown by me except in the vaguest kind of way. In fact, in now attempting to recall them and my connection with them, I have had to rely on the memory of my secretary and refer to old scrapbooks, clippings, etc. Needless to say I never knew their real character as they were later denominated by the Attorney General of the United States. I never could claim any exact knowledge as to their objectives or purpose except the humanitarian, benign or cultural one mentioned at the moment I was accosted by some person or scanned the letter or other sugar-coated communication soliciting funds, the use of my name or my services as a musician and conductor.
I wish to emphasize that the name and real purpose of the organizations to which my name became linked through a charitable and well intended impulse, and obviously without the probing deliberation required, are hardly more than a blur in my memory. The link, if any, was on “paper” and not a personal one. Besides my ignorance of their underlying purpose, I have no recollection or knowledge of ever having really joined any of them which had a membership roll in the true sense. I do not recall the address of most of them or the years or the city in which they functioned or the names of the officers or principals. I have no knowledge or recollection of ever having attended an organizational meeting of any one of them. It is my general recollection that my name or sponsorship was usually requested in connection with some public function or activity such as a banquet, benefit or concert.
The letter of enticement would frequently excuse me from any personal participation of a non-political character. I did not thereby espouse or intend to espouse the concealed and ulterior purposes of such groups. I did not possess the requisite suspicion and caution to probe the devious and subversive objectives of those by whom I and too many others were innocently exploited. And, needless to state we did not have the facilities to make the proper determination.
Like almost every other person who has achieved some prominence, I have received hundreds and perhaps thousands of letters in the past ten years soliciting my assistance in one form or another for some charitable, cultural or liberal cause which is always made to appear worthwhile and which would appeal to many good Americans. The great majority calling for my services or appearance on a particular date would have to be declined because of prior engagements in this country or abroad. Those asking for the use of my name as a sponsor would usually be accepted on the basis of the prominence of the person soliciting me or the fact that other well known persons, not known by me to be suspect, had previously agreed to the use of their own names. The fallacy of this procedure in evaluating an organization has been demonstrated in too many cases involving others to require elaboration. In the event I did grant the use of my name to an organization, my secretary would usually advise it by telephone or in the letter of acceptance that I could not take part in its activities or undertake any responsibility as a sponsor. The letter of solicitation and my reply usually comprised the entire extent of my connection with or contribution to the organization.
The character of my sponsorship was usually of an innocuous character. In the case of the American Committee of Yugoslav Relief I recall it was Quentin Reynolds who asked me to lend my name to a Town Hall American folk song and jazz concert. The National Negro Congress asked me to serve on an audition board at a negro talent try-out at Town Hall. It is my recollection that I could not attend. The American Youth for Democracy tendered me a dinner and a scroll. I did not attend the dinner and received the scroll in the mail. I assume that this honor was bestowed on me because I had been designated by the United States Junior Chamber of Commerce and others at various times as one of America's “outstanding young men”. While I consented to the use of my name on the letter head of the American Council for a Democratic Greece, I have no present recollection that I ever attended or participated in its functions or met any of the persons active in it. I have no present recollection of the basis for linking my name with Action Committee to Free Spain Now or the American Committee for Spanish Freedom but I assume some nominal connection did exist.
I recall that I did permit the use of my name by the Civil Rights Congress under the mistaken impression that it was identical with the American Civil Liberties Union. In fact, I only learned of this mistake within the past few days. The only connection with the Council on African Affairs I can recall is a small contribution made in response to the representation it would be used to buy food for starving negroes in South Africa.
With respect to the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee I recall being tendered a dinner by the Boston chapter in the latter part of 1944 and attending one or two similar events perhaps in New York or San Francisco. I also believe I made a contribution to a hospital in Mexico City which was being sponsored or assisted by this group.
The Jefferson School of Social Science has asked me to lecture on music subjects on several occasions but I do not recall complying with these requests. My secretary recalls I made a small contribution to it. During the war, I recall I had some slight association with the Music Committee of the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship which had the support of many outstanding Americans. I recall that my teacher, Dr. Serge Koussevitzky, Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, was chairman of the Music Committee at the time.
I am advised that my name appears among more than 100 others in a paid advertisement inserted in the March 3, 1945 issue of the New York Times advocating support for Representative John M. Coffee's Resolution H.R. 100 which recommended severance of our relations with Spain. Among the other signers were Quentin Reynolds, James Montgomery Flagg, Franklin P. Adams, Hon. Stanley M. Isaacs and the Hon. Joseph E. Davies. T
he Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade is listed as the organization sponsoring the advertisement. I recall no connection with this organization and believe that Paul Robeson communicated with me about the use of my name on this occasion. I met Mr. Robeson one time while we were both backstage during a concert.
The last occasion on which my name was probably used in what may be described as a controversial setting was in early 1949. The world famous Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich was expected to arrive in the United States. I recall the New York Times music critic solicited outstanding American musicians to sign a cable of greeting. According to the New York Times clipping this cable read as follows:
We are delighted to learn of your forthcoming visit to the United States and welcome you as one of the outstanding composers of the world. Music is an international language and your visit will serve to symbolize the bond which music can create among all peoples. We welcome your visit also in the hope that this kind of cultural interchange can aid understanding among our people and thereby make possible an enduring peace.
In this manner, I suspect I became, with other conductors, composers and musicians, a member of the welcoming committee. The arrival of Shostakovich and other musicians was apparently exploited as a propaganda event by means of a conference and formal dinner at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel under the auspices of an organization, which I am informed, is not on the Attorney General's list.
In any event, I did not attend the dinner or the conference and did nothing to promote them either than second a welcome to a fellow composer who came to the United States with the permission of this government.
The controversy which followed the Waldorf Astoria conference in March, 1949 brought unfavorable publicity to myself and others and shortly thereafter my name was included among a list of “prominent people who, wittingly or not, associate themselves with a Communist-front organization and thereby lend it glamor, prestige or the respectability of American liberalism.” This article, which appeared in the April 4, 1949 issue of Life Magazine convinced me that my name and my good intentions were being improperly exploited by cleverly camouflaged organizations which concealed their true objectives and Communist aims behind a plausible and appealing front. Since that time I have attempted to be most circumspect about permitting the use of my name to organizations in general.
Perhaps one saving grace with respect to my response to organizational appeals is that during the very same period which found me linked to groups later declared subversive, I was also lending my name to activities completely opposed to communism. I have been most active in the cause of Jewish philanthropy and the promotion of Israel as an independent state free from Soviet domination. I have been honored to accept invitations to preach the sermon in Jewish temples in Boston, Chicago and Houston. My religious training and belief would necessarily make me a foe of communism.
I have contributed to the American Red Cross, made radio appeals on its behalf and given concerts in hospitals under its auspices. I made contributions to the Salvation Army, the Boy Scouts of America, the Riverdale Children's Camp, the Al Smith Memorial Hospital Fund, the Harvard Scholarship Fund, the Greenwich House, the National Urban League, the National Federation of Infantile Paralysis, the Irvington House, the United Jewish Appeal, the United Unitarian Appeal, B'Nai B'Rith, American Friends Services Committee, Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society, United World Federalists, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Grace Congregational Church, American Friends of Hebrew University, the Y.M.C.A., New York Guild for the Jewish Blind, the Order of the Purple Heart and many others.
I have permitted the use of my name to organizations having no possible Communist-front implications such as The Nation Association, the Planned Parenthood campaign, European Friends of ORT, the Riverside Children's Association, the American Fund for Palestinian Institutions, the Brooklyn Philanthropic League, the Exhibitions of Palestinian Art in America, the American Christian Palestine Committee, the American Red Magen David for Palestine (similar to American Red Cross), American Arts Committee for Palestine, the Hebrew Union College, the United Jewish Appeal (musicians group), Golden Anniversary of the City of New York, the National War Fund, the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation and the World Festivals of Friendship, among others.
I have donated my professional services to a number of organizations and for a number of causes. These would include War Bond drives, the National War Fund, the Music Box Canteen, the American Theatre Wing War Service, Veterans' Administration Hospitals, New York Stage Door Canteen and many others. I have participated in hundreds of benefit performances in the past ten years for worthwhile charitable and cultural purposes.
While abroad on previous occasions, I have no reason to believe that my work or activities were a source of possible embarrassment to the government of the United States. Every impression I received, from both the foreign press and other observers, was to the contrary. I had reason to believe sincerely that I was making a small but genuine contribution to international good will and understanding. In this connection, I would like to point out that I have received official and semi-official letters of commendation from members of the Foreign Service of the State Department following my appearances at concerts in European cities. I have also been invited to return on most occasions. The State Department has asked me on several occasions to submit material of a musical nature for dissemination in connection with its information programs abroad. As recently as July 9, 1952 I acceded to a State Department request for the use of my music from the production of On the Town for a Voice of America program. In 1947 I was invited by the State Department to appear on the Austrian section of its International Broadcasting Division and in 1948 I was invited to serve as a visiting lecturer at cultural centers maintained by the State Department in South America.
In retrospect, perhaps the most profound effect made upon my life, philosophy and thoughts was by the celebrated conductor Serge Koussevitzky under whom I studied and who was, among other outstanding achievements, initiator and director of the Berkshire Music Center and the conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1924 until several years before his death in 1951. Koussevitzky, already famous, and twice honored by the Czar as early as 1903, left Russia with the advent of Communism and in my close and long time association with him I came to know and share his strong antipathy for Soviet Communism and its evils. While he detested Communism he loved Russia and its people deeply and always looked forward to the day when they could join the people living in a free world.
Most of the events which have been discussed occurred when I was a young man and while I do not desire to take refuge under any claim of immaturity, I was in fact, inexperienced in the realm in which I dabbled. I have, since reaching my majority, voted almost exclusively in New York City where the voter, during this period has had the opportunity to vote for candidates of political parties other than the two major political parties. I have never, during this time, voted for or otherwise supported any candidates except those of the Democratic and Republican parties.
I have in the past spoken out against the inhibitions imposed upon creative artists, particularly composers, under the Soviet regime. I have frequently and publicly stated this viewpoint, in my lectures on 20th-century Operas and Symphonies at Brandeis University at Waltham, Massachusetts, commencing this year. In February 1948 I publicly expressed somewhat the same viewpoint in the Theatre Arts Magazine in which I commented on the proletarianization of Russian art and music. In this statement I referred to the Soviet effort to force its serious composers to write music limited by mass appeal and described one of the resultant products as “dreadful”. I added that in the case of the ballet suite in question “the Soviet idea of music for the masses seems to have reached an all time low”, and further, “there comes a point beyond which simplicity of thought can become infantile”.
In conclusion, I am informed that the United States Supreme Court has stated, in the case of an avowed o
fficial of the Communist Party itself, that many organizations have several purposes or objectives, some good and some bad, that persons join such organizations for different purposes and that the evidence of membership to fulfill the bad purpose should be “clear”, “unequivocal” and “convincing”. What then should be the judgment in a case where membership is practically non-existent, the true purpose is unknown and the connection with the organization is of the most nominal and tenuous character?
I have attempted in the foregoing pages to set forth some of the facts which may be of assistance to the State Department in the consideration of my passport application. I express the hope that they may place in better perspective the allegation which has given rise to the long delay in passing upon the problem.
I realize now that I might have made the task of the Passport Division of the State Department an easier one if in 1949, when I came to realize that I had been imposed upon, I had made a public disavowal of the harmful significance which had been attached to the use of my name and prestige by questionable organizations. Unfortunately I did not do so and confined my efforts to advising only my friends and associates of the true situation. I recall that in 1949, in discussing the matter in correspondence with Mr. Edward A. Norman, President of the American Fund for Israel Institutions, that I stated in part as follows:
Let me state for you and for the record that I am not and never have been a member of the Communist Party, nor have I ever subscribed to communist doctrine or ideology. I have been away from the United States for many months on an extended concert tour, and I have not seen a copy of Red Channels,65 and I do not, therefore, know to what associations or organizations you refer, but I can say unequivocally that I have never belonged or subscribed to any cause which I understood committed me to support of a subversive doctrine, either communist or fascist.
It is possible that, in the turmoil of life to which an artist is subject, and particularly during those days when the necessity of war created many temporary alliances, that I did sponsor activities without closely examining their affiliations. If so, and if any of these have been investigated and found subversive by the government of my country, I disown and disavow them completely.
The Leonard Bernstein Letters Page 43