The Invisible Government | Page 5

military, the Council can be termed, by those who agree
with its objectives, a "patriotic" organization.
The fact, however, that communists, Soviet espionage agents, and
pro-communists could work inconspicuously for many years as
influential members of the Council indicates something very significant
about the Council's objectives. The ultimate aim of the Council on
Foreign Relations (however well-intentioned its prominent and
powerful members may be) is the same as the ultimate aim of
international communism: to create a one-world socialist system and
make the United States an official part of it.
Some indication of the influence of CFR members can be found in the
boasts of their best friends. Consider the remarkable case of the
nomination and confirmation of Julius C. Holmes as United States
Ambassador to Iran. Holmes was one of the CFR members who served
as United States delegates to the United Nations founding conference at
San Francisco in 1945.
Mr. Holmes has had many important jobs in the State Department since
1925; but from 1945 to 1948, he was out of government service.
During that early postwar period, the United States government had
approximately 390 Merchant Marine oil tankers (built and used during
World War II) which had become surplus.
A law of Congress prohibited the government from selling the surplus
vessels to foreign-owned or foreign-controlled companies, and
prohibited any American company from purchasing them for resale to
foreigners.

The purpose of the law was to guarantee that oil tankers (vital in times
of war) would remain under the control of the United States
government.
Julius Holmes conceived the idea of making a quick profit by buying
and selling some of the surplus tankers.
Holmes was closely associated with Edward Stettinius, former
Secretary of State, and with two of Stettinius' principal advisers: Joe
Casey, a former U.S. Congressman; and Stanley Klein, a New York
financier.
In August, 1947, this group formed a corporation (and ultimately
formed others) to buy surplus oil tankers from the government. The
legal and technical maneuvering which followed is complex and shady,
but it has all been revealed and reported by congressional committees.
Holmes and his associates managed to buy eight oil tankers from the
U.S. government and re-sell all of them to foreign interests, in violation
of the intent of the law and of the surplus-disposal program. One of the
eight tankers was ultimately leased to the Soviet Union and used to
haul fuel oil from communist Romania to the Chinese reds during the
Korean war.
By the time he returned to foreign service with the State Department in
September, 1948, Holmes had made for himself an estimated profit of
about one million dollars, with practically no investment of his own
money, and at no financial risk.
A Senate subcommittee, which, in 1952, investigated this affair,
unanimously condemned the Holmes-Casey-Klein tanker deals as
"morally wrong and clearly in violation of the intent of the law," and as
a "highly improper, if not actually illegal, get-rich-quick" operation
which was detrimental to the interests of the United States.
Holmes and his associates were criminally indicted in 1954--but the
Department of Justice dismissed the indictments on a legal technicality
later that same year.

A few weeks after the criminal indictment against Holmes had been
dismissed, President Eisenhower, in 1955, nominated Julius C. Holmes
to be our Ambassador to Iran.
Enough United States Senators in 1955 expressed a decent sense of
outrage about the nomination of such a man for such a post that
Holmes "permitted" his name to be withdrawn, before the Senate acted
on the question of confirming his appointment.
The State Department promptly sent Holmes to Tangier with the rank
of Minister; brought him back to Washington in 1956 as a Special
Assistant to the Secretary of State; and sent him out as Minister and
Consul General in Hong Kong and Macao in 1959.
And then, in 1961, Kennedy nominated Julius C. Holmes for the same
job Eisenhower had tried to give him in 1955--Ambassador to Iran.
Arguing in favor of Holmes, Senator Prescott Bush admitted that
Holmes' tanker deals were improper and ill-advised, but claimed that
Holmes was an innocent victim of sharp operators! The "innocent"
victim made a million dollars in one year by being victimized. He has
never offered to make restitution to the government. Moreover, when
questioned, in April, 1961, Holmes said he still sees nothing wrong
with what he did and admits he would do it again if he had the
opportunity--and felt that no congressional committee would ever
investigate.
All Senators, who supported Holmes in debate, hammered the point
that, although Holmes may have done something shady and unsavory
during the three-year period in the late 1940's when he was out of
government service, there was no evidence that he had ever
misbehaved while he was in government service.
This