A pseudo-peace movement and then Harvard...
After a year-and-a-half or so in Boston, my CP “comrades” insisted that I leave the anti-HUAC organization and work full-time for peace. That part was all right. By then, HUAC, while still ugly, was largely a concern of the past and the Vietnam War was issue Number One. I was ready to move on.
The “Party” decision was that I should become an organizer for Mass PAX#, a dead end proposal. Like virtually all “movement” organizations## in the US, the FBI was in control. Nonetheless, PAX at times played a role in demonstrating anti-war sentiment in the state. However, any chance that I could become an organizer was derailed by red-baiting, pro-imperialist propagandist Marty Peretz###, who was on the PAX board.
After I was rejected, my “comrades” decided that I should set up what in effect was a rival organization called PACEM (Peace Action Council of Eastern Massachusetts). This in principle was wrong, as it was in effect “dual unionism” - creating a competing quasi-organization when unity was needed. I was uncomfortable about the idea but too inexperienced politically to downright refuse.
The PACEM fiasco lasted for about a year, when I realized that I had to go back into science to earn my keep. Lawrence Bogorad (see post 20 of this series) had moved from the University of Chicago to the Harvard Biological Laboratories, and I was somewhat surprised that he immediately agreed to my request to become a post-doctoral fellow in his laboratory.
“Lawrence Bogorad, a leading researcher in plant biology who was widely known for his work on the synthesis of chlorophyll and on inheritance patterns in a variety of plants... Dr. Bogorad, who retired from Harvard in 1991, served as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Society of Plant Physiologists.” (The New York Times, Jan. 5, 2004)
An unwitting accomplice to chemical warfare...
Research went quite well. My main collaborator Richard Falk (now a Professor Emeritus at the Department of Plant Biology, University of California Davis) was also assigned by the FBI to keep tabs on me.
One day Bogorad called me into his office specifically to show me a scientific paper from Fort Detrick* (stamped “secret” or even “top secret”). “Fort Detrick... was the center of the U.S. biological weapons program from 1943 to 1969... it has hosted most elements of the United States biological defense program.” (Fort Detrick, Wikipedia)
Strange. Why show me secret US military material? Bogorad pointed to the reference section of the paper, which had to do with defoliation*. Among the paper's citations was a citation of my Ph.D. thesis research, which had been published: Solubilization and Properties of Chloroplast Lamellar Protein Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (US) 56, 1564-1570 (1966).
It should be noted that the US war against Vietnam was going on full force at the time, and defoliation was among the arsenal of horrible weapons the “Land of the Free” was employing against the people of that country.
At about the same time, Peter Hepler (see post 17), then an assistant professor at the same Harvard Biological Laboratories where I was working, informed me unofficially that I had been selected to assume his position as he was preparing to move to Stanford University in California. An assistant professorship at Harvard was considered a plum for young scientists. And I had not even applied!
Was it true? Probably so. I had just been promoted to Lecturer in Biology (see photograph No. 5 in my book “Silent Terror”), and in case I accepted the new presumed post, my time for political struggle would have been severely limited.
Both unexpected occurences should be seen as two parts of a treacherous whole. Bogorad's (actually the FBI's, of course) ploy was intended to demonstrate to still fairly naive Arnold Lockshin that there can be no escaping the talons of United States imperialism via “pure” research or by any other means. I had earlier thought that my scientific research was entirely humanistic and dispassionate, while in fact it was being used for the most foul of all human endeavors: mass murderous imperialist war. Hepler's “insider information” on my prospective appointment (whether true or not) indicated that abandoning one's ideal had its rewards.
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At that time, I understood considerably less about the United States of Dictatorship America (USA) than I do now. But even so, I was quite shaken about the juxtaposition of the two events. I saw no conscionable future for myself in science.
When Gus Hall, General Secretary of the “Communist Party USA” next came into the Boston area, I told him I wanted to become a full-time organizer for the “Party.”
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# “Academia has influenced the Massachusetts voter not only directly, but through the state's peace movement, perhaps the strongest, most effective such force anywhere in the United States. The membership of the state's peace groups has never been large: the most important, Massachusetts Political Action for Peace (known as “Mass Pax”), now has only 1,220.” (As Massachusetts went—
The New York Times, Jan. 14, 1973)
## The one most notable exception was the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) when it was led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Even when King led the SCLC, the organization was heavily infiltrated and partially obstructed by FBI stooges such as Jesse Jackson.
### “Martin H. "Marty" Peretz (born December 6, 1938) is an American publisher. Formerly an assistant professor at Harvard University, he purchased The New Republic in 1974 and took editorial control soon afterwards. Peretz is known for his strong support of Israel and support for the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.” (Marty Peretz, Wikipedia)
* Defoliate: “to destroy or cause widespread loss of leaves in (an area of jungle, forest, etc.), as by using chemical sprays or incendiary bombs, in order to deprive enemy troops or guerrilla forces of concealment.” (www.dictionary.com)
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Перед нами сейчас - коварный и опасный мошенник, расист, лжец и фашист Дональд Трамп, порочный Конгресс, нацистские ФБР - ЦРУ, кровавые милитаристы США и НАТО >>> а также и лживые, вредоносные американские СМ»И».
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Правительство США жестоко нарушало мои права человека при проведении кампании террора, которая заставила меня покинуть свою родину и получить политическое убежище в СССР. См. книгу «Безмолвный террор — История политических гонений на семью в США» - "Silent Terror: One family's history of political persecution in the United States» - arnoldlockshin.wordpress.com
Правительство США еще нарушает мои права, в течении 14 лет отказывается от выплаты причитающейся мне пенсии по старости. Властители США воруют пенсию!!
ФСБ - Федеральная служба «безопасности» России - вслед за позорным, предавшим страну предшественником КГБ, мерзко выполняет приказы секретного, кровавого хозяина (boss) - американского ЦРУ (CIA). Среди таких «задач» - мне запретить выступать в СМИ и не пропускать большинства отправленных мне комментариев. А это далеко не всё...
Арнольд Локшин, политэмигрант из США
BANNED – ЗАПРЕЩЕН!!
ЦРУ - ФСБ забанили все мои посты и комментарии в Вконтакте!
… и в Макспарке!