Edward Clark Carter (June 9, 1878 – November 9, 1954) worked with the International

Y.M.C.A. YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...

in India and in France, during World War I, from 1902 to 1918, but was best known for his work with the

Institute of Pacific Relations The Institute of Pacific Relations (IPR) was an international NGO established in 1925 to provide a forum for discussion of problems and relations between nations of the Pacific Rim. The International Secretariat, the center of most IPR activity o ...

(IPR), of which he was secretary from 1926 to 1933, secretary general from 1933 to 1946 and executive vice-chairman from 1946 to 1948. A graduate of

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

(Class of 1900), he worked to increase knowledge and dialogue with the countries of the Pacific Rim, but he also promoted interests and groups which critics charged were communist fronts or communist dominated. In 1948, he left the IPR under pressure and became Provost and then Director of International Studies of the New School for Social Research in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. Carter became a main target of the

McCarran Committee The United States Senate's Special Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, 1951–77, known more commonly as the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee (SISS) and sometimes the M ...

as part of a general investigation of the

U.S. Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other ...

by Senator Joseph McCarthy. In 1940, he helped organize the

Russian War Relief Russian War Relief (RWR) (also known as the Russian War Relief Fund and The American Committee for Russian War Relief) was the largest American agency for foreign war relief. It had the "express and exclusive purpose of giving succor to the Russian ...

Fund, was chair (1941-1945); United States Service to China, director, (1948); United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East, consultant (1948); and a member of the United China Relief. For a brief period in the early 1940s he also served as Editor of the journal ''

Pacific Affairs ''Pacific Affairs'' (''PA'') is a Canadian peer-reviewed scholarly journal that publishes academic research on contemporary political, economic, and social issues in Asia and the Pacific. The journal was founded in 1926 as the newsletter for th ...

'', the primary publication of the IPR. He was decorated an Officer of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

, Officer of the French

Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

, received into the

Order of the Crown of Siam The Most Noble Order of the Crown of Thailand ( th, เครื่องราชอิสริยาภรณ์อันมีเกียรติยศยิ่งมงกุฎไทย; ) is a Thai order, established in 1869 by King Rama ...

and the

Order of the Red Banner of Labour The Order of the Red Banner of Labour (russian: Орден Трудового Красного Знамени, translit=Orden Trudovogo Krasnogo Znameni) was an order of the Soviet Union established to honour great deeds and services to th ...

(USSR).

Allegations

According to Carter's replacement as IPR Secretary General, Clayton Lane, Carter "was requested to resign" his leadership of the IPR "because of Carter's favorable attitude toward Russia." Among the positions he held were: *

Secretary General Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...

of the

, an alleged "

Communist front A communist front is a political organization identified as a front organization under the effective control of a communist party, the Communist International or other communist organizations. They attracted politicized individuals who were not p ...

group" * Chairman of the National Committee for Medical Aid to the Soviet Union, according to the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...

organ ''

Daily Worker The ''Daily Worker'' was a newspaper published in New York City by the Communist Party USA, a formerly Comintern-affiliated organization. Publication began in 1924. While it generally reflected the prevailing views of the party, attempts were ...

'' * Chairman of

, which, according to the FBI, was "infiltrated with known Communists, Communist leaders, fellow travelers, and

front organizations A front organization is any entity set up by and controlled by another organization, such as intelligence agencies, organized crime groups, terrorist organizations, secret societies, banned organizations, religious or political groups, advocacy ...

" * President of the Board of Directors of the American Russian Institute, which was listed by Attorney General of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Thomas C. Clark on the

Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations The United States Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations (AGLOSO) was a list drawn up on April 3, 1947 at the request of the United States Attorney General (and later Supreme Court justice) Tom C. Clark. The list was intended to be a c ...

for 1948, in accordance with

President Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...

Executive Order 9835 President Harry S. Truman signed United States Executive Order 9835, sometimes known as the "Loyalty Order", on March 21, 1947. The order established the first general loyalty program in the United States, designed to root out communist influence ...

. Andrew Avery, ''Chicago Journal of Commerce'' (July 1, 1946), alleged that Carter had been associated with such

as the

International Workers Order The International Workers Order (IWO) was an insurance, mutual benefit and fraternal organization founded in 1930 and disbanded in 1954 as the result of legal action undertaken by the state of New York in 1951 on the grounds that the organizatio ...

. Carter was alleged to "actively uphold

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

's policies", for example, in 1938, when many other formerly loyal friends of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

were becoming disillusioned by

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...

's "

Great Purge The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secret ...

", Carter defended the

show trials A show trial is a public trial in which the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt or innocence of the defendant. The actual trial has as its only goal the presentation of both the accusation and the verdict to the public so t ...

, saying the Russian people "are thankful that their government has at last been firm in dealing with what they regard as Fascist-supported intrigue to overthrow the Government of the Soviet Union." This ''apologia'' was reprinted in full in ''Soviet Russia Today'', which identified Carter as a frequent contributor to "our leading periodicals". Carter also endorsed the Hitler-Stalin pact, according to the

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

magazine ''

New Leader ''The New Leader'' (1924–2010) was an American political and cultural magazine. History ''The New Leader'' began in 1924 under a group of figures associated with the Socialist Party of America, such as Eugene V. Debs and Norman Thomas. It was p ...

, but after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, he "proposed a toast to the success of the Soviet resistance to the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...

and referred to Russia as the 'beloved Motherland of so many of us here tonight' and made a speech describing "the fight being waged by the Russian people in the defense of the democracies." In 1938, Carter recommended Communist Party Secretary Earl Browder to a Canadian club as a possible speaker, saying that Browder, "contrary to the public view, is 100% American." In a 1938 letter, IPR Trustee

Owen Lattimore Owen Lattimore (July 29, 1900 – May 31, 1989) was an American Orientalist and writer. He was an influential scholar of China and Central Asia, especially Mongolia. Although he never earned a college degree, in the 1930s he was editor of ''Pacif ...

congratulated Carter: "I think that you are pretty cagey in turning over so much of the China section of the inquiry to Asiaticus, Han-seng and Chi. They will bring out the absolutely essential radical aspects, but can be depended on to do it with the right touch..." “Asiaticus” was the Polish-born Comintern agent Moses Wolf Grzyb, alias M. G. Shippe (or Schiffe), alias Hans (or Heinz) Muëller (or Moëller); “Han-seng” refers to Chen Han-seng, a Comintern recruit and "a member of the well-known

Richard Sorge Richard Sorge (russian: Рихард Густавович Зорге, Rikhard Gustavovich Zorge; 4 October 1895 – 7 November 1944) was a German-Azerbaijani journalist and Soviet military intelligence officer who was active before and during Wo ...

Spy Ring"; “Chi” was Red Chinese secret agent Chi Ch'ao-ting (

Ji Chaoding Ji Chaoding (; 1903–1963) was a Chinese economist and political activist. His book ''Key Economic Areas in Chinese History'' (1936) influenced the conceptualization of Chinese history in the West by emphasizing geographic and economic factors ...

). Louis Budenz, former managing editor of the ''Daily Worker'', told FBI investigators "that he had numerous dealings with Carter, while on the ''Daily Worker'' staff, and that these dealings 'were on a plane based on the fact that he was a member of the Communist Party.'" On April 22, 1948, Budenz advised, "Edward C. Carter was certainly under Communist Party discipline. I recall

Jack Stachel Jacob Abraham "Jack" Stachel (19001965) was an American Communist functionary who was a top official in the Communist Party from the middle 1920s until his death in the middle 1960s. Stachel is best remembered as one of 11 Communist leaders conv ...

, member of the national board of the Communist Party, stating that "Because the Russian War Relief Program is not going right, we will have to order Carter to realize his responsibility and continue his job. He is not running a community fund; he will have to live up to his Party responsibility." One Teletype message in the FBI's IPR file cites a source (redacted) to the effect that there was, since 1936, "a concerted effort to install men who had been screened by rederick Vanderbilt

Field Field may refer to: Expanses of open ground * Field (agriculture), an area of land used for agricultural purposes * Airfield, an aerodrome that lacks the infrastructure of an airport * Battlefield * Lawn, an area of mowed grass * Meadow, a grass ...

or Carter or other members of the IPR into the State Dept.” Another memo in the file, by an IPR regional officer, alleges that Carter "may have been connected with the Communists in some way.... his political views are way to the left.... I have little confidence in his basic honesty.""Memorandum on Communism and the IPR," from Charles P. Rockwood, Executive Director, IPR Pacific Northwest Division, to Dr. Raymond B. Allen, President, University of Washington, November 9, 1948, p. 3 (FBI IPR file, Section 5)

References

External links

Finding aids to the Edward C. Carter Papers at the Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carter, Edward Clark 1878 births 1954 deaths Honorary Officers of the Order of the British Empire Officiers of the Légion d'honneur Harvard University alumni