Foundations and the Reece Committee

Art Crino

Apprehensions about large tax exempt foundations go back beyond the Clinton and Soros foundations. In the early 1950s Congress formed a Committee to investigate the major foundations. It started under Representative Cox but evolved to Representative Carroll Reece of Tennessee.

It found a variety of activities that were surprising and disturbing. The committee’s Director of Research was Norman Dodd. Sometime after graduating from college, he was hired by J.P. Morgan. He soon was given assignments that took him deep into Morgan’s history. Being a very patriotic American, this exposure caused him to resign. For those aware of the J.P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller activities in the early portion of the Twentieth century, it is not surprising patriotic Norman Dodd resigned. Most of his career was in general finance until becoming part of the Reece committee.

Dodd’s practice was to send a letter to the respective foundations stating the committee was anxious to ask certain questions and gather information. Rowan Gaither, President of the Ford Foundation, responded by inviting Dodd to meet with him.

Upon arriving in Gaither’s office and after salutations, Gaither said, “Mr. Dodd, we’ve asked you to come here today because we thought that possibly off the record you would tell us why Congress is interested in activities of a foundation such as ours. Before Dodd could respond, Gaither voluntarily stated, “Mr. Dodd, all of us that have a hand in the making of policies here have experiences either with the OSS during the war or the European Economic Administration after the war. We’ve had experience under the directives and these directives emanate and did emanate from the White House. We still operate under such directives. “The substance of these directives is that we shall use our grant making power so as to alter life in the United States so that it can be comfortably merged with the Soviet Union.”

Very startled, Dodd explained they are legally entitled to make grants for that purpose and would you be willing to tell the committee what you just said? Gaither’s response was, “We would not think of doing any such thing”.

To elaborate on Gaither’s statement, the OSS was under President Roosevelt, the Marshall Plan was under Truman and their conversation was under Eisenhower. That is, three successive administrations were issuing the directive to alter life in the United States so that it can be comfortably merged with the Soviet Union.

Another group Norman Dodd approached was the Carnegie Endowment for the National Peace. Dodd had asked the endowment to answer a multitude of questions. In a meeting with Dr. Joseph Johnson, the president and successor to Alger Hiss, Dr. Johnson made a counter suggestion. His suggestion was that Dodd send a member of his staff to New York for two weeks. That person will be given a room in the library and the minutes of this foundation since its inception. Dodd was aware of what was in those minutes but concluded Dr. Johnson was not aware. Dodd accepted the offer.

Dodd picked Katherine Casey for the work in the Carnegie Library. She was a practicing attorney in Washington and was on the committee staff to see to it that it did not break any congressional procedures or rules. She was unsympathetic to the purpose of the investigation and what could possibly be wrong with foundations? They do so much good. His instructions to her were rather bland. He did explain that she could not cover 50 years of minutes in two weeks so he identified certain periods of time to concentrate on. She spent two weeks at the Endowment and came back with Dictaphone belts. The data gathered was amazing.

In the year 1908, which was the year Carnegie began operation, the trustees raised the question which they discussed throughout the year, is there any means known more effective than war assuming you wish to alter the life of an entire people? They concluded that no more effective means than war to that end is known to humanity.

In 1909 they raised the second question and discuss it, namely how do we involve the United States in a war? They answered the question by concluding they must control the State Department. The next question is, how do we do that? The answer is they must take over and control the diplomatic machinery of the country and resolve that as an objective. Time passes and we are in World War I.At that time they send to President Wilson a telegram cautioning him to see that the war does not end too quickly. And finally the war is over.

At that time their interest shifts to preventing what they call a reversion of life in the United States to what it was prior to 1914 when the World War broke out. They concluded that to prevent reversion they must control education in the United States. They realized it’s too big for them alone so they approach the Rockefeller Foundation with the suggestion that the portion of education which could be considered domestic be handled by the Rockefeller Foundation and that portion which is international should be handled by the endowment.

They decided the key to the success of these two operations lay in alteration of the teaching of American history. They approached four of the then most prominent writers of American history, people like Charles and Mary Bird. Their question to them, are they willing to alter the manner in which they present the subject? They get turned down.

They then decided it was necessary to build their own stable of historians. They then approach the Guggenheim Foundation which specialized in fellowships said, when we find young men in the process of studying for doctorates in the field of American history and we feel they are the right caliber, will you grant them fellowships on our say so? The answer was yes.

Eventually they assembled 20 and they are briefed on what is expected of them when and if they secure appointments with the doctorates they will have earned. That group of 20 historians ultimately became the nucleus of the American Historical Association.

Toward the end of the 1920s, the Endowment grants to the American Historical Association $400,000 for a study of our history in a manner which points to what can this country look forward to in the future. That culminates in a seven-volume book study, the last volumn of which is the essence of the contents of the other six volumes. The essence of the last volume is the future of this country belongs to collectivism administered with characteristic American efficiency. That’s the story that ultimately could have been presented to the Congress as a whole. It never got to that point.

The chaos that caused the committee to dissolve had numerous participants. Democrat Wayne Hayes was ranking member of the committee, the White House and the Republican National Committee all were very much in favor of dissolving the committee. The magnitude of the furor caused Chairman Carroll Reece to also favor dissolving the committee. Considering the information the committee uncovered, it is not surprising the Deep State objected.

Art Crino is a combat veteran of WW II, graduate of OSU in Electrical Engineering and his career was in engineering and factory management. Art may be contacted by e-mail at: crino9850@comcast.net

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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