Mr. ICHORD. In the riots that have occurred in the cities, we seem to have the gathering of the crowd at certain places; then you have prolonged periods of just hoodlums looting and burning, rather than really being motivated by what occurred back at the gathering of the crowd.

Mr. JONES. Yes. This is true. I didn't explain what I meant previously by booster incident. This is an incident that tends to keep the riot going. One of the very favorite types of booster incidents is looting. Many people who have poor social control are drawn into the looting situation. It is difficult to tell at this time if it is necessary for someone to say let us start looting, follow me, or if at this particular time the people have a certain psychological set whereby when they see a store or group of stores they spontaneously start to loot. Mr. ICHORD. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. TUCK. Mr. Watson.

Mr. WATSON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I want to join with you and my colleague from Missouri in thanking Mr. Jones. It is obvious that you have made a very thorough study of this. I think it is a very fine statement you have given us.

You say you are in the process now of writing a book, reducing this to booklet form or something? Did I understand correctly?

Mr. JONES. The information upon which this testimony is based is already published in the form of a research document which is called "Combating Subversively Manipulated Civil Disturbances." I am presently in the process of writing a research report on rioting which has taken place in the United States during the period 1964, 1965, and

1966.

Mr. MCNAMARA. Do I understand correctly, Mr. Jones, that that is your doctoral thesis?

Mr. JONES. That is correct.

Mr. WATSON. I think it would be helpful in giving us a clearer insight into various characteristics that you have outlined here. Have you gone in depth far enough to classify the particular riots that we experienced last summer?

Mr. JONES. No, I have not. Let me add this: What I was attempting to do here is to create an analytical device which would allow an evaluation of the riots for that period, for any period, for any country, for that matter.

Mr. WATSON. I think you have done a good job in that regard. That is why the chairman and I were discussing, if we could get these four phases that you outlined, then perhaps it would help the committee Îater, as we have witnesses describe these riots, to approach it and try to intelligently characterize the various riots that we have had based upon your detailed study as outlined in the four phases.

Mr. JONES. I think it will be a good use to which this analytic device can be put. Some of the information when viewed within the framework of this particular scheme might be very revealing.

Mr. Tuck. We thank you very much.

The committee will recess until tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock. Mr. JONES. Thank you, sir.

(Whereupon, at 5:45 p.m., Wednesday, October 25, 1967, the subcommittee recessed, to reconvene at 10 a.m., Thursday, October 26, 1967.)

SUBVERSIVE INFLUENCES IN RIOTS, LOOTING, AND

BURNING

Part 1

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1967

UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE

COMMITTEE ON UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES,

PUBLIC HEARING

Washington, D.C.

The subcommittee of the Committee on Un-American Activities met, pursuant to recess, at 10:25 a.m., in Room 311, Cannon House Office Building, Washington, D.C., Hon. William M. Tuck presiding. (Subcommittee members: Representatives Edwin E. Willis, of Louisiana, chairman; William M. Tuck, of Virginia; Richard H. Ichord, of Missouri; John M. Ashbrook, of Ohio; and Albert W. Watson, of South Carolina; also John C. Culver, of Iowa, in absence of Mr. Willis.)

Subcommittee members present: Representatives Tuck and Ichord. Staff members present: Francis J. McNamara, director; Chester D. Smith, general counsel; and Alfred M. Nittle, counsel.

Mr. Tuck. The committee will come to order.

Mr. McNamara, will you call the first witness.

Mr. MCNAMARA, Mr. Herman Lerner.

Mr. Tuck. Come around and raise your right hand.

Do you solemnly swear the testimony you will give the committee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, to the best of your knowledge and belief?

Mr. LERNER. I do.

TESTIMONY OF HERMAN D. LERNER

Mr. MCNAMARA. Will you state your full name and address for the record, please?

Mr. LERNER. Herman D. Lerner, 6825 Laverock Court, Bethesda, Maryland.

Mr. MCNAMARA. What is the place and date of your birth?

Mr. LERNER. Baltimore, Maryland, 1923.

Mr. MCNAMARA. What is your educational background, Mr. Lerner? Mr. LERNER. I attended public schools in Baltimore. In 1942-43 I attended the University of Maryland, where I began studies in the physical and social sciences.

My studies there were interrupted for several years for military service. I resumed study at the University of Maryland in 1946, concentrating in sociology and political science, and was graduated with an A.B. in 1948.

I continued my professional education that year with graduate work at Columbia University in sociology, anthropology, and psychology. From 1948 to 1952 I did graduate work in a doctoral program in social relations at Harvard University, where I specialized in social change and national character studies and where I was a teaching fellow in social change.

Since that time I have had additional graduate education periodically in social and behavioral science, including sociology of science, criminology, and other subjects at the American University.

Mr. MCNAMARA. What is your professional or employment background?

Mr. LERNER. My first employment was in administrative work with the U.S. Maritime Commission. I was in the U.S. Army from 1943 to 1946, serving first as a combat infantryman and later as an administrative assistant in the war rooms of the general staff of the 103d Infantry Division and the 3d Armored Division during operations in the European theater-in France, Alsace, Germany, and Austria.

From 1951 to 1952 I was employed by Harvard University and shortly thereafter began my career as a researcher and consultant in behavioral and social sciences.

For the past 14 years I have conducted many studies of military systems, research planning and utilization, social and economic issues, and political trends.

In recent years I have been interested in relating scientific knowledge to the needs of those who support scientific research. I am currently engaged, as one of several contractors, in a study at the Office of Naval Research on the utility of research for the Navy.

I have conducted research for Government agencies and private organizations, including the Navy, the Army, and the Air Force, Department of Commerce, Radio Corporation of America, General Electric Company, International Business Machines Corporation, national associations, and research firms.

I am a member of various professional associations in operations research, sociology, management, and general science.

Mr. MCNAMARA. In what fields of study-related to organized rioting-have you concentrated in the past 10 years?

Mr. LERNER. Over a period of about 10 years I have done studies periodically of national cohesion, military strategy, general and limited warfare, political rioting, crime, and internal security, with special reference to military-civilian relations, force, propaganda, and strategy.

In 1961 I prepared and gave a 20-hour course with two colleagues on the psychology of group behavior in emergencies, which dealt primarily with behavioral aspects of rioting. This course was given to police officials who came from Greece, Colombia, Venezuela, and Vietnam. It was based on the study of open literature-books and articleson_rioting.

In 1963, while with the Applied Psychology Corporation, I took part in a study for the Office of Naval Research on the recuperative

capacity of the Navy and the Marine Corps in the event of thermonuclear war. During that study I analyzed various problems connected with internal security during general warfare and I prepared a on "Psychological Aspects of Political Rioting and Its Control."

paper

For the past few years I have been a visiting lecturer at the International Police Academy, Agency for International Development, on causes and characteristics of riots and on crowd and mob psychology. At the IPA I have given numerous lectures and seminars to hundreds of police officers from South America, Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. During this time I have exchanged a great deal of information regarding causes and control of rioting, with emphasis on political disturbances and their significance for internal security and international relations.

As part of my background for this testimony, I have been reviewing open literature on recent rioting in the U.S.

Mr. MCNAMARA. Referring to the study you made in 1963, undertaken for the Navy and Marine Corps, would it be correct to deduce from the nature of that study that, at that time, two of our defense agencies were looking to the future for any contingency they might have to face and were taking steps to be prepared, and then, second, that one of the possibilities they anticipated was that in the event of a thermonuclear attack on this country, in conjunction with that attack or immediately after it, the foreign powers which launched the attack might attempt to use their agents in this country to incite political rioting in their efforts to bring about the defeat of the United States.

Would that be a fair inference from the nature of the study you mentioned?

Mr. LERNER. In reply to the first part of your question-whether the Navy and the Marine Corps were concerned about various contingencies the Office of Naval Research is an agency of the Marine Corps and the Navy which does take very long-range views. The Army and the Air Force also have comparable agencies. ONR is interested primarily in what may happen 15, 30, or 40 years from now. It helps develop the physical and behavioral sciences in ways that will improve our naval security and power.

As for the possibility of rioting as a tactic in general warfare, this was a problem which the study team looked into since it was believed that there would be enormous destruction during a thermonuclear war and that military units might be required to cope with many emergencies, including threats to naval installations and internal security which might arise from political rioting and insurgencies.

Mr. MCNAMARA. In addition to your studies and lectures, have you engaged in the writing of articles, papers, and reports on the subjects in which you have specialized?

Mr. LERNER. Yes. Since 1958 I have prepared approximately 38 articles, reports, and papers on various subjects in the fields of social science, research and development management, public affairs, and national policy.

Not all are in the public domain. Some of these are classified material. I also have written approximately 18 articles, reports, and papers on human factors engineering, technology, and industrial psychology since 1954.

During the same period I have published several dozen reviews and commentaries on studies and papers in criminality, delinquency, and other forms deviant behavior in urban areas.

Mr. MCNAMARA. What, Mr. Lerner, do your studies reveal or indicate are the basic subjects or problems which must be considered in any discussion of urban political rioting?

Mr. LERNER. There are five or six major sets of problems which can be subdivided further into many categories, depending on our interests. For an analysis of recent urban rioting in the United States, I believe it is convenient and meaningful to consider these problems under the headings of: urban disorganization and poverty; community conflict (social, religious, economic, ethnic, racial, et cetera); criminality and delinquency; domestic subversion; and foreign subversion.

Mr. MCNAMARA. Would you describe what you mean by "urban disorganization and poverty"?

Mr. LERNER. "Urban disorganization and poverty" refers to all those physical, cultural, social, and economic characteristics of city life which are associated with slums or ghettos.

Among these are crowded population; substandard health conditions; uncomfortable and demoralizing living quarters; inadequate food and clothing; feelings of estrangement and hopelessness ("no one cares about us"); unemployment; educational deficiencies; lowincome jobs with high drudgery content; and the presence of what might be called "pathological cultures," such as criminality, delinquency, drug addiction, alcoholism, and other kinds of behavior which spoil, weaken, or pervert the quality of life-even for those persons who are not participants in these cultures, but who must experience them because they are neighbors.

Mr. MCNAMARA. And what do you mean by "community conflict"? Mr. LERNER. "Community conflict" refers to any strife between two or more groups within a community over social, religious, economic, ethnic, racial, or political issues.

Even if the problems of urban disorganization and poverty could be solved overnight, the ethnic and racial contention which has been generated over the past 10 to 15 years probably would itself be sufficent to cause periodic eruption of rioting by Negroes and Caucasians, although by no means on the scale which we have witnessed in recent

years.

The pressures for segregation and for integration, the provocative demonstrations, the blacklash, the separatist propaganda and agitation, and the rapid growth in acceptance of white and black racial myths while related to urban disorganization and poverty-are sufficiently independent and powerful to constitute a distinct set of problems or "pathologies" requiring its own set of remedies.

Mr. MCNAMARA. Would you elaborate on the subject of "criminality and delinquency," which you have indicated as another matter? What must be considered in the study of this problem?

Mr. LERNER. The category of "criminality and delinquency" refers to the various forms of antisocial behavior which are in violation of the law. These forms of behavior range from professionally and chronically criminal acts as a way of life-that is, as a full-time or part-time occupation or avocation-to incidental, impulsive, opportunistic, or symbolic acts.