Communist infiltration of Hollywood motion-picture industry : hearing before the Committee on Un-American activities, House of Representatives, Eighty-second Congress, first session (1951)

132 COMMUNISM IN MOTION-PICTURE INDUSTRY Mr. Tavenner. During the period when you operated with the un- derground in Yugoslavia, will you tell us just how close your relation- ship was with the leaders and the rank and file of that movement? Mr. Hayden. Well, of course, being a very junior officer myself, I was a second lieutenant at that time, most of us were lieutenants, we didn't actually come in contact on an operative level with the so-called brass. We established a tremendously close personal feeling with these people. We had enormous, I would say unlimited, respect for the way they were fighting. I think that respect was reciprocated. We tried to do the best we could. We got quite steamed up by it. I myself was steamed up considerably by it. I had never experienced anything quite like that, and it made a tremendous impression on me. We knew they were Communist-led, we knew they had commis- sars, but there was very little discussion of that. We couldn't discuss those things very much because we didn't know the language. Mr. Tavenner. And you were fighting a common foe at that time? Mr. Hayden. That we were, and I think we conducted ourselves fairly well. Mr. Tavenner. You say your relationship with the Partisan move- ment had a deep effect upon you. What do you mean by that? Mr. Hayden. Precisely this: As I have, I believe, mentioned, in 1040, when I was still an actor, and in 1041, I had had conversations with this man Tompkins. I wish I could describe my first reaction, because I think it would be typical of the experience so many people have had. I was appalled at the idea of what he was telling me about, but I did listen. He would give me literature, propaganda, and I would scan it briefly and burn it up. When this Yugoslavia thing came up, I wrote to him. I began writing, "Maybe you were not so wrong. These people are doing a magnificent job." I thought I had better figure this thing out. He, in turn, reciprocated by, I would say, bombarding me with Communist literature—People's World, Daily Worker, New Masses, and others I can't remember. I was impressed by the fact that the reports of that thing printed in the United States in this literature were accurate as regards the Partisans in Yugoslavia. Apparently the people in the States knew this. This had an effect on me be- cause it made me conscious of what these people knew that ap- parently the rest of us didn't know. That was about the size of it at that time. I engaged in quite a lot of correspondence with Tompkins at that time. I was all steamed up. We all were. I can remember in the interior of Yugoslavia when the crews of planes would leave their shoes, anything they could spare, with the Partisans, they were that impressed, and I don't think a GI impresses too easily as a rule. This had a strong emotional impact on all of us. Mr. Tavenner. Did you have political discussions with the Par- tisans or any groups of them? Mr. Hayden. No. I would honestly say not at all; not at all. Once in a while when we were back in Italy we would sit around and a few at Bari headquarters would talk a little bit about what was going on, but we never got very much involved in it. I remember a couple of times when I would have a story in some of this literature Tomp- kins sent me, I would show it to them, and they were very pleased.