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Each side is stating a pratial [partial] truth and creating harmful misunder-
standing in a tense, cold-war atmosphere.

Where then do we observe the dangers of Communism, if not in their
abuse of international propaganda issues or their "reign of terror"
over the people? It seems to me that their threat is even greater because
it is subtler. The danger as I see it, lies in the integration of all
activities under a central government authority. We saw this in the refugee
interviews, as the State passed little, ordinary laws which graduslly [gradually]
bring the economy to full socialization and central control, so that
decisions on production on price are made according to national policy
goals, rather than the demand of the consumers. In the sphere of personal
action, the restrictions are just as subtle and unspectacular-
the right of the police to take people off subways and demand to see their
identification cards (to catch refugees or smugglers), the little signs
in the stores and cafes which require showing your identity card before
purchasing, the development of "sport clubs" etc so that more and more
of the individual's time is spent in activity guided by the state. In the
sphere of information and propaganda, it is the same story. On the main
streets of East B. are permanent loud speakers (about every 100 yards at
least on top of lamp posts) through which the people may be contacted and
influenced at will without their own consent (they cannot even "turn off
the radio"). In book stores we saw more; there were obvious propaganda
books, on the virtues of Socialism, the progress of Sovier [Soviet] culture and
science, militarism in West Germany etc. Shelf after shelf of such stuff.
But more ominous is the presence of distortion and lie in seemingly
innocent books on world geography, history, children's stories etc.
There is no way for people to suspect this sort of distortion and they
can only grow up believing it. Furthermore, I doubt that any central
figure guides the publishing of all such lies- rather they are sort of
passed on from author to author, from newspapers to books, in a vicious
circle of ignorance breeding more ignorance.

As I realized the subtle, gradula manner in which the Communist system
extends its authority over its citizens- passing minor laws, raising
taxes etc.- I began to draw associations to our situation in the USA.
For the Communists (in east germany at least) hold secrret [secret] ballot elections,
have a national legislature, as we do. And we too have recently
(over the last 60-70 years really) experienced increasing power and
authority in our central gov't iver [over] more and more areas in our activities
as human beings. There are really similarites in the two situations-
east and west- and they may cause us to ask "Can this happen to us in
the United States, too?". We see that freedom is just as effectively
diminished through undramatic, steadywhittling as through great sweeping
wars and revolutions. But it si [is] just as important to observe the dif-
ferences between US and East Germany for it is on some of these differences
that we can build the defenses of freedom for the individual. Ideologically,
we out the welfare of the individual on top, over that of the state, and we
don't overlook the individual to protect the "class", i. e. worked or
farmer. We still count people one at a time, not by groups alone. Our le-
gislature continues (at least to some degree) to represent the will of
the people, or of the majority at least in most cases. Because it doesn't
try to represent all of them at once- rather each representative jealously
defends the particular interests of his constituents. Out of the competition
of such factions, we form laws which generally do justice to more people
than could a panel of planners trying to cinsider [consider] everything at once.
It is then exactly when we disagree and fight for our own interests that