December 22, 1960: Communist Youth to Gather in Chicago, Hoover Warns

"The Communists are completing final arrangements for a conference to be held in Chicago beginning Dec. 31 to formulate plans for a new national youth organization," FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover said today. The Communist Party is the largest subversive organization in the country and has strengthened ties with the Soviet Union and Cuba, he said. "In addition the Communists hope to repeat the success which they achieved on the West Coast last May in spearheading mob demonstrations by college students and other young people against a committee of Congress," Hoover said in reference to a demonstration in San Francisco at a hearing of the House Committee on Un-American Activities. A municipal judge dismissed riot charges against 62 demonstrators saying they were protesting what they believed to be an undemocratic hearing.

A State Department spokesman said today that the Soviet aid to rebels in Laos was "a sinister factor" and that the US had "serious concern" about Soviet aid for pro-Communists in Laos. The Southeast Asian country could become "a second Korea," a Soviet commentator also said today.

The State Department said today that an Israeli nuclear reactor "does not represent cause for special concern." The US received reassurances from Israel that the reactor would be used for peaceful purposes.