"We Do Not Question"

"... I pledge myself to rally the masses to defend the Soviet Union, the land of victorious socialism. I pledge myself to remain at all times a vigilant and firm defender of the Leninist line of the party, the only line that insures the triumph of Soviet power in the United States."

Communism--U.S. Brand, an ambitious hour-long documentary networked by ABC one night this week, led off with this shocker from the U.S. Communist Party's oath of allegiance, never wavered from its main theme: "The evidence will be ours, the conclusions must be yours."

It told the story of frustrated Phil Blake, impatient idealist, and his conversion to active membership in the Communist Party. ("He found answers there . . . some sense of security, of common purpose.") It told of Phil's new creed ("We do not question . . .") and of his development into a perfectionist for the U.S. and an apologist for the Soviet Union. It showed Phil at work in labor unions ("Come early and vote late") and in front organizations that turned and twisted (and took new names) with the whip-cracks of the party line.

The show was the result of a personal crusade by wiry little Robert Saudek, 37, ABC's director of public affairs programs. He got the idea last summer, wrestled it out first with himself, then with other network brains, finally with the writer. After weeks of interviewing ("I wanted someone who knew the inner workings of the Communist Party--I didn't want him to write from textbooks"), Saudek chose 34-year-old Morton Wishengrad to do the script. Wishengrad is a radio writer who also happened to be an anti-Communist veteran of David Dubinsky's successful fight against the Commies in the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union.

Their documentary proved nothing new. It probably cured no addicts of the Communist drug pipe.* But in turning the spotlight of fact into dark corners of methods and basic philosophy, it achieved a notable success.

Communism--U.S. Brand was the fifth in an irregular series of documentaries produced by ABC, all under the supervision of Saudek. Others so far: Schoolteacher--1047 (in three parts) on public education; Slums (in two parts) on substandard housing; 1960? Jiminy Cricket, on America's future needs and resources; and VD, on the problem of social diseases. Saudek's next for ABC: The Marshall Plan, a ^1 1/2hour television documentary scheduled for fall. Says Saudek: "I hope it will be completely compelling."

* On June 1, when work on the script had just begun, the show received a sizzling salute from the Daily Worker: "An inaccurate, slanderous, and distorted series."

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