This response encouraged prospective anti-Communist delegates. Moreover, the prospect of a free city as a forum for argument was attractive. The American methods for achieving the twin objective were fourfold: the efforts for free election with the U.S. delegation; personal contacts with other youth; outspoken participation in the seminars; and disruptions of Festival proceedings and otherwise.

What began as an attempt to freely elect a committee for the American group ended in a publicized demonstration of the Communists' method of insuring their idea of "peace". The anti-Communist participants sought to win the election as a matter of principle, and to prevent the small group of Communist Americans working with the Festival organizers from controling the the seminar tickets. Though the Communists never really did effectively control attendance at the seminars, their occasionally clever but mostly crude obstruction earned them an undemocratic brand at the Festival.

In retrospect it seems unbelievable that such an election took nearly four days to achieve. Part of the difficulty was physical--the widely separated quarters of the men and women, the Communists' refusal to provide a meeting place, the scheduling of intriguing cultural events all day, and more, subtly, the invitations to all-night parties. Communication of meeting times and places (even when those were finally settled) was nearly impossible, and the direct action of goon squads made it no easier. At West Station, for example, a teaching fellow in anthropology, Karl Heider, was roughed up for carrying an information sign.

To meet such opposition first hand is shocking, and yet it was brought even into the meetings. The Festival Chairman, French Communist Jean Garcia, shoved anti-Communist Malcolm Rivkin from the table Rivkin was standing on to bring the meeting under control. The Festival organizers also used a list of technical obstructions that would look as detailed as a railway timetable if printed.

The final election was less important than the message the efforts to bring it about provided to other Festival delegates, and to outside sources reached through television and press. In conclusion, the Communists freely use two contrasting techniques in negotiation to achieve their goal. On one side they will be so surly and unreasonable that the least unfreezing may look like a concession. As one negotiating member burbled after nearly a week of argument, "Garcia was so nice to us today. He even gave me a Chinese cigarette--it really was mild."

More dangerous is the other approach, a smiling cordiality. Belief that sensible compromise will result when two viewpoints clash carried over to meetings with the Communists. Forewarned, we are wary of the Communists as a whole, but there is a