A WEEKLY COMMENTARY
Year Twenty-Nine ... Number Forty ... October 15, 1982
COMRADE ARMAND HAMMER HOSTS A ROYAL RECEPTION,
DEDICATES A WORLD
COLLEGE, PLANS A SOVIET PIPELINE
"When self-appointed savoirs of humanity set about their task of trying to change the world to meet their desires, they usually find that schools are essential to their program. ... Rhodes sought to unite the United States with the British Empire or vice-versa. As a means to that end he provided scholarships for students he hoped would become future leaders of the world. Eighty years after Hammer seeks to unite the United States with the Soviet Union or vice versa. As a means to that end he endows colleges and provides scholarships for his future leaders of the world." So quoted Gary Allen in the September 1982 issue of American Opinion from our Don Bell Reports of June 11, 1982, in which we spoke of the plans of Comrade Hammer and the Prince of Wales who were bulding a United World College in Monetzuma, New Mexico. Four months later 73 students from around the world have settled into a new way of life at Armand Hammer's United World College of the West. There are prospective world leaders recruited from Soviet Russia, Arabs and Israelis, blacks and whites, "people from various cultures who can get along with each other," according to Comrade Hammer.
On Oct. 28, this United World College will be formally dedicated. According to Jody Jacobs of The Los Angeles Times, "In typical Hammer grand style the dedication will be just the beginning for a weekend of socializing and celebrating. The Prince of Wales will be attending ... and such stalwarts as the Marques do Portago, the Duke and Duchess of Bedford, Mr. and Mrs. Maxie Anderson, Houston's Mrs. Oscar Wyatt, Jr., Sharman Douglas, Baroness Vittorio de Nora de Bavier, Mrs. Ralph Levy, Dr. Aldo Gucci, Yasmin Aga Khan (the lovely daughter of Rita Hayworth and the late Aly Khan), L.A.'s Mr. and Mrs. Guilford Glazer, Mrs. Joseph Lauder (Estee Lauder), and quite a few more titled and untitled folk are all involved in the social side of the three day events ... Among those serving on the American West college's board with Dr. Hammer are William J. McGill, Theodore D. Lockwood, Anna Bing Arnold, Helen M. Boehm, John Kluge of Metromedia, Sherry Lansing of 20th Century Fox, and James Pugash, who serves as board secretary. Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Merv Griffin, Phyllis George Brown (wife of the governor of Kentucky), Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Arthur Gilbert (the art collector) and A. Robert Abboud are just a few of the honorary trustees," (Unquote).
But don't get any idea that this 84-year old Monopoly Capitalist that Lenin called "Comrade Armand Hammer" is going to settle down and run a college. This is just one of a veritable multitude of activities engaged in by the man who would like to see the US and the USSR merged into one Socialist World Government. His most important activity at present is the promotion of a coal slurry pipeline running from Siberia to Moscow. And this tricky scheme requires some explaining:
You'll remember that when the Soviet Union offered to sell natural gas to the Nations of Western Europe, those Nations agreed to supply the technology (American technology, of course) and the materials necessary, if the Soviet would build the pipeline. That slave labor would be used to do the Soviet's part of the job wasn't even considered by the Western governments, nor was the possibility that becoming dependent upon Soviet energy would make them economic captives of the USSR. President Reagan promptly spoke out against the proposition, properly, and ordered economic sanctions against any government of multinational company that supplied any kind of US technology or materials for the building of the pipeline.
Here is one case where President Reagan spoke out against the Trilateral Commissioners and Foreign Relations Councilors in his Administration. But, silently and without fanfare, Reagan's orders were simply ignored, and plans to build the pipeline went ahead just as if Reagan hadn't spoken. Furthermore, shortly after Reagan gave his orders, he appointed George P. Shultz as his Secretary of State; and the Bechtel Multinational Corporation which Shultz formerly headed, was one of the principals in the building of any project of this size and extent. As would be expected, Shultz has said not a word about the pipeline controversy, has remained discreetly silent. It might be interesting to notice the "P" which stands for Shultz's middle name. His full name, almost never published, is George Pratt Shultz. Back in 1939 Mrs. Harold Pratt gave The Pratt House in New York City to the Council on Foreign Relations as a memorial to her husband Harold, who was a member of the CFR and was intimately associated with John D. Rockefeller while a partner in Standard Oil. So George Pratt Shultz is bigger than Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, or Alexander Haig. Shultz is not just a hireling; he's virtually a member of the Rockefeller family. So, that gas pipeline is going to be built, Russian gas will be delivered to Europe. And, it might be said that, when Reagan objected, the first team was sent in to replace such men as Haig. And with Shultz, formerly of Bechtel; Weinberger, formerly of Bechtel, and Deputy Energy Secretary E. Kenneth David, formerly vice president of Bechtel Power Co.; running the show, Reagan can impose sanctions to his heart's content against companies using U.S. technology to send gas pipeline equipment to the Soviet Union, and he'll simply be ignored.
All of which is important in the case of the newest project of Comrade Armand Hammer. About two weeks ago, Hammer was in Moscow, discussing the building of a coal pipeline from Siberia to Moscow. This would be somewhat similar to the gas pipeline, except that coal would be crushed and converted into slurry, and pumped to Moscow, where the mudlike mess would be dried out and the coal used to provide energy and heat to a very cold city. When Hammer went to Moscow to talk over the proposition, along with him went at least two representatives of Bechtel, which would be responsible for providing the technology and equipment necessary for the building of the coal slurry pipeline.
Commenting on the project, Peter Almond of the Washington Times staff said that when "asked whether Occidental or Bechtel officials had contacted the administration for its views about the pipeline, a Commerce Department spokesman said, 'Private industry contracts with us must remain confidential. In the whole realm of export controls, we deal in confidentiality.' The pipeline, running some 3,000 miles from Siberia to Moscow, was suggested in Moscow on Wednesday by Armand Hammer, chairman of Occidential Petroleum, who was in the Soviet Union along with two Bechtel officials. He said Bechtel, 'a leader in the field of building slurry,' would be joined by the Italian firm of ENI in doing the engineering work for the pipeline... A Bechtel Corp. spokesman in San Francisco confirmed yesterday that Peter Behr, a vice president of Bechtel, and Richard Hill, head of the company's slurry division, were in Moscow at the invitation of Occidental Petroleum. Gordon Reese, an Occidental spokesman in Los Angeles, told the Washington Times that Bechtel and ENI have together been considering the pipeline with the Soviets for some years. He said Occidental came along later as overseer of the project. However, a Bechtel spokesman said the company first was contacted about the project less than a month ago. He declined to say what alternatives Occidental had for such a project other than to team up with Bechtel and ENI, adding any inquiry about Bechtel's possible influence with high-ranking members of the Reagan administration was not worthy of an answer. 'We know where to turn (for a project of this kind),' said Resse." (Unquote).
Ever since the 1920s when Armand Hammer was commissioned to "handle" imperial Russian art treasures on behalf of the Bolshevik government, and he and his brother Victor opened the Hammer Galleries in New York City for the "handling" of the same, Comrade Hammer has been quite a "culture buff." Accordingly, while engaged in Communist deals in oil, gas, coal, phosphate, educational activities, and various other industrial and commercial projects with the Communist countries, Hammer also is presently engaged in plans for the importation and showing of motion pictures, television programs, and other "cultural events" from the Soviet Union and Communist China.
It all began with his father, Julius Hammer, who was of Russian origin, came to the United States and helped to organize the Communist Labor Party. When Ludwig C.A. Martens was named official representative of the U.S. party in January 1919, Julius Hammer financed the operation, established its national headquarters at 108 East 12th Street, NYC, in a house purchased for the Party by Dr. Julius Hammer. In 1921 father Julius and son Armand were granted the first concession in the Soviet Union: the Allied American Corporation. This was a fifty-fifty company; half American, half Soviet, with Armand serving alongside a Soviet director.
Troubles arose when Julius, still practicing as a doctor, was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in Sing Sing for criminal abortion. So son Armand took charge of the entire operation. In 1921 Lenin granted a monopoly asbestos concession to Armand, who had moved to Russia and lived there for the next ten years. During this time Hammer's Allied American Corporation acted as the Russian agent of 32 major U.S. firms, including Ford Motor Co., U.S. Rubber, Allis-Chambers, and Oliver Plow. During this same time, Armand was granted the monopoly operation of a pencil factory in Russia. He is said to have made $1.25 million on this operation, as did the Soviet Union becuase of the fifty-fifty slipt. In 1929 Hammer tired of the pencil business, sold his half of the concession to the Soviet government, and went seeking other fields of operation. Among his other acts of "charity" Hammer bought the Franklin D. Roosevelt estate at Campobello and offered it as a shrine in FDR's memory. Then in 1955 Hammer bought Occidental Petroleum for about $100,000. And that was when Comrade Hammer really became important to the USSR. Occidental became a "vast funnel for the transfer of U.S. technology and know how to the USSR, from the 60s on through the 70s to today, when Occidental ties in with ENI of Italy to build the coal slurry pipeline from Siberia to Moscow.
In 1979 Hammer was able to join up with the British royal family. The late Lord Mountbatten had this dream of, after the manner of Cecil Rhodes, establishing a series of United World Colleges to train future world leaders. But, even as the extremely wealthy Rhodes still sought additional financial help from Lord Rothschild, Mountbatten also sought outside assistance for the development of his project. It was Mountbatten's nephew, Prince Charles, who suggested Hammer as the proper man to help develop the World Colleges idea.
A brief comparison of two powerful and unrivaled monopoly capitalists who have extensive dealings with communist countries should be made. The Rockefeller family established oil relationships with the Bolshevik Government almost as soon as there was a Bolshevik Government. The association has expanded until the second largest branch of Chase Manhattan Bank is in Red Square in Moscow. But there is a certain formalism between the Rockefellers and the Communist leaders. On the other hand, Julius Hammer was born in Russia, was a Communist leader as well as a businessman throughout his life. While Armand was born in New York City, he lived in Communist Russia for at least ten years, spoke Russian fluently, and was looked upon by all Communist leaders, from Lenin to Brezhnev, as a Comrade. In fact, in Hammer's office in the Occidental Petroleum headquarters building in Los Angeles, there hands a large, framed photograph of Lenin, autographed with the words, "To Comrade Armand Hammer." In short, David Rockefeller remains an Eastern Establishment Ivy League elitist; while Armand Hammer is one of them, not only speaking Russian, but understanding Russian. This gives him a decided advantage over Rockefeller, and we may expect that Hammer will always have more influence than even Rockefeller in developing this "movement for merging."
This makes Hammer's influence in Washington a dangerous situation. While Hammer has never had the control over Washington that Rockefeller maintains, Hammer has had access to and considerable influence over every U.S. President from Roosevelt to Carter, beginning with the Campobello purchase. It is said that in the Reagan administration, certain precautions are taken to ensure that Hammer is never alone with any high level official. Witnesses are always present. However, the Reagan administration has done what no previous administration has ever done: Hammer was given an official position with the administration. Not an important position, merely chairman of the President's Cancer Panel. Still, this gives him the necessary standing and credibility so that he can hob-nob with White House aids on a social basis. However, there is another connection. David Gergen is assistant to the Office of Communications, of the presidential speech writing staff and of some press briefings. And this communications assistant is a friend and associate of Armand Hammer. This could mean that everything that passes from the President to the American pubilc is filtered through a friend of Armand Hammer. Guilt by assocaition? Perhaps.
One thing is sure: Hammer boasts that Lenin was one of the finest men he ever met. In a book by the late Bob Considine praising Hammer, Hammer is quoted as describing Lenin in this manner: "To talk with Lenin was like talking with a friend one knew and trusted, a friend who understood. His infectious smile and use of colloquial expression, even slang, his sincerity and natural ways, put me completely at my ease. He has been called ruthless and fanatical, cruel and cold. I refused to believe it. It was his intense human sympathy, his warm personal magnetism and utter lack of self assertion or self-interest that made him great and enabled him successfully to hold together and produce the best from the strong and conflicting wills of his associates."
But the American Legion Magazine for April 1970 tells a different story: "Once in power he founded the oppressive dictatorship of the workers and peasants, the Cheka or secret police, the Revolutionary Tribunals, the four year civil war, the concentration camps, the cult of the modern dictator and the International Communist revolutionary apparatus. All of these deeds were accomplished by Lenin in the short space of six years, from 1917 until 1924 when he died .... The toll of lives stemming from those six Lenin years was a staggering twelve million victims. The brutal suppression of the Russian people, from which Armand Hammer has profited so handsomely, even being paid at one point in art objects stolen by the Bolsheviks from the murdered aristocracy, has continued to the present day. The Senate Internal Security Subcommittee reported in 1971 that 'Bolshevik policy has been responsible for the deaths of 45 million as a probable estimate,' ... all at the hands of Dr. Hammer's good friends."
Aleksander Solzenitsyn told an audience in Washington, D.C., on June 30, 1975, that there is an "alliance between our Communist leaders and your capitalists. This alliance is not new. The very famous Armand Hammer, who is flourishing here today, laid the basis for this when he made the first exploratory trip into Russia, still in Lenin's time, (providing) Western capital (that was) used to crush our movement for freedom in the Soviet Union...."
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