Marshall Knew Riots Likely, House Unit is Told
Intelligence Chief Tells of 'Stream' of Warnings to State Department
By Ferdinand Kuhn, Jr.
Post Reporter
April 16, 1948 The Washington PostA stream of warnings of trouble in Bogota reached high government officials long before the uprising on April 9, it was disclosed yesterday.
Some of the warnings were read to a House subcommittee by Rear Admiral Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter, director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Others were made public belatedly nast night by Press Officer Lincoln White of the State Departmen, who said Secretary Marshall had gone to Bogota knowing the Communists might commit acts of violence.
Truman Surprised
It still was far from clear whether anyone in high office expected the bloodshed and destruction that actually occurred. President Truman told his news conference yesterday that he was as surprised as anyone by the outbreak in Bogota, although he had been warned in advance that there might be picketing and rioting on his visits to Brazil, Mexico and Puerto Rico.
HIllenkoetter's testimony was brought out by a House subcommittee under Representative Clarence Brown (R., Ohio), appointed to find out whether the Government had advance knowledge of the danger facing its delegages in Bogota.
The intelligence director insisted that "we did know of unrest in Colombia, that we did know there was a possibility of violence and outbreaks aimed primarily at embarrassing the American delegation and its leaders, and that the information was transmitted to officials of the Department of State.
One May Have Failed
One one of his agents' warnings may have failed to get through, he said. This was a message dated March 23, a week before the conference began, saying that Colombian Communists were planning to "humiliate" the American delegates by "manifestations and personal molestation."
He said the warning was delivered to Lieut. Col. Orion J. Libert of the Department's division of international conferences, who was then in Bogota, making advance preparations for housing the delegates. But, according to his story, Libert did not think it "advisable" to forward the message because he did not want to alarm the delegation.
Hillenkoetter told the subcommittee that his agency must get the permission of the ambassador or ranking American official before sending any intelligence reports from a foreign country. At the State Department last night an official said it was inconceivable that Libert would have had enough authority to prevent transmission of such a report.
Whatever the fate of this warning, the CIA director told of many others that reached their destination in Washington.
One message, on January 29, quoted "Mr. G., a leading Colombian Columnist," as boasting that he could count on planes and artillery when necessary to overthrow the government, and said the Communists had stored arms, explosives and uniforms like those of the Colombia Army. The "Mr. G." was reported to be the intermediary between the Soviet Embassy the the liberal leader, Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, "to whom he furnished money supposedly for his liberal movement."
Another message, dated March 10, said "Mr. S., an official of a Latin American country in Bogota, aided Gaitanistas in bringing contraband arms into Colombia for a revolutionary coup," and had urged Gaitan's followers "to stike the blow as soon as possible."
Program of Agitation
Still another, dated March 30, when the conference opened, said "The Colombian Communist Party has agreed upon a program of agitation and molestation against the United States, Chilean, Brazilian and Argentine delegations to the ninth Pan American conference. It was planned to embarrass imperialist delegations and Colombian government by turning off lights and hurling miscellaneous objects at delegates during important conference sessions."
Hillenkoetter was emphatic, however, in saying Gaitan's assassination was "purely personal reprisal." He identified the assassin as Jose Sierra, a nephew of a Colombian army officer who was killed in 1933. He said Gaitan was the lawyer for the man accused of killing the uncle, and got an acquittal shortly before noon on April 9.
An hour later on April 9 Gaitan was murdered, and the uprising began soon afterward.
In addition to the warning from Hillenkoetter's agency, the State Department received a steady flow from its own sources in Bogota, reporters were told last night.
There were many signs that the Communists and left-wing Liberals in Colombia would try to sabotage the conference and demonstrate against incoming delegates from the United States. On March 22 it was reported that Gaitan, the assassinated Liberal leader, knew of the plans but deplored them and opposed them.
Before leaving for Bogota Secretary Marshall was said to have expressed himself in "salty language" over the reported plans to disrupt the conference. His attitude was that delegates from 21 sovereign governments could meet where, and how they chose, without letting their plans be upset by Communist threats of brickbats and rotten eggs.
An eyewitness account of the mob violence was told on the House floor yesterday by Representative Donald L. Jackson (R., Calif.), who had attended the conference as congressional observer with the American delegation. Jackson flew back from Bogota especially to tell his story to Congress, and it was a story that earned him a standing ovation when it ended.
"The proportion of Communists and Communist sympathizers in the maddened throngs which for three days looted and burned their own national institutions and facilities in Colombia probably did not exceed 5 per cent of the population," he said.
But under the prodding and harangues of the Red leaders, they lost their sense of direction and purpose, and turned from a possible legitimate expression of national dissatisfaction with the conservative government to violence, bloodshed, arson and looting.
"Grief for the untimely death of Gaitan turned in a single hour to unrestricted mob violence which spared neither shop, church, public utility or institutions of public service.
"Inflamed by initial success, the mobs milled in the streets, armed with whatever weapons they could obtain, smashing windows and doors, overturning streetcars and buses, looting shops, markets and stores and then setting the torch to the shambles remaining. What could be carried was taken, what could not be lifted was smashed."
Jackson said he was lunching in the restaurant of the flag-bedecked Capitol in Bogota on the day of the riot. "Within minutes" of Gaitan's murder at 1 o'clock, he said, mobs were surging through the plaza outside.
"The unarmed police were powerless to cope with the situation and were brushed aside by the rioters as they streamed into the building. red flags were in profusion and I personally saw hammer and sickle flags.
"Using stones, bricks, machetes and boards, the mob commenced a methodical tour of destruction which was to render the first floor of the Capitol building a shambles within a matter of minutes. The police reorganized and in a short while managed to eject the rioters from the building. Delegates were herded to the upper floors and were told they would be evacutated by Army convoy within an hour."
Outside the building, Jackson went on, the surging mobs went on with their work of destruction while pillars of black smoke rolled over the city.
"In every group," he said, "there appeared to be a leader with a plan. Orators harangued the mobs and the most frequently heard phrase was 'Abajo' which means 'down with.'" Later, when he left the building by a back street, he picked up some of the orators' phrases, including "imperialism" and "arise workers!"
The young Congressman, a marine veteran, praised "the courage and high morale" of all members of the United States delegation during the three-day ordeal.
"What happened in Bogota," he declared, "can and will happen again in such places as New York City, Chicago and San Francisco unless we, who still remain free and unfettered, gird ourselves for all-out battle with the enemy. This is war as truly as if we were opposed by armed might and a physical enemy.
"To block the Communists in their quest for power here at home may conceivably infringe upon some small measure of the individual rights of those who are not themselves Communists, but whose actions lend every aid and comfort to the enemy. In the interest of the vast majority of the American people this becomes our sworn duty."