Banister and Hunter

[David Boylan]

One of Banister's contacts. Hunter was known as the originator of the term

"Brainwashing." See Dick Russell's The Man Who Knew Too Much for more on Hunter.

Memorandum for the File

By : Guy Banister

RE: Foreign Propaganda Importation

On December 15, 1961, a telephone call was received from Mr. Edward Hunter,

who stated that he had been in New Orleans checking up n the foreign propaganda

coming into this country from Communist sources. Mr. Hunter stated that he was

extremely interested in the amount of this foreign propaganda which was relayed

from New Orleans to other parts of the country or to foreign countries. He said

that he had very little on that phase of the operation.

Mr. Hunter was asked if he had made checks of college libraries and he said

that he had checked some of them but that he was intensely interested in what a

student walking around in the library would pick up and read. A brief

description of the pamphlet or booklet picked up by a particular student and

the date on which this was done would be extremely important to him in

preparation of his book. He said he wanted the activities of a typical student

and particularly a thumbnail sketch, very short, of the particular booklet.

Mr. Hunter said that he had made contact with the Customs service and was

getting along very well until officials of the Customs service came around to

inquire as to what he was after and were extremely unhappy about his being

there. He contacted Mr. Constantine V. Cooley 4714 Banks Street, New Orleans

19, La. He was transferred to New Orleans from Chicago some time ago and he was the translator of this material. Apparently he is very unhappy sitting around

with nothing to do at this time, because everyone is afraid of the President’s

order. I asked him if this was not similar to the order by the President

muzzling the military and he said it was very like it. Mr. Hunter said that Mr.

Cooley had fought with Wrangel in the White Russian Army in the Bolshevik

Revolution. Mr. Hunter gave his address as 320 North George Mason Dr, Arlington

Virginia.

[James Richards]

Hi David,

Edward Hunter's daughter is Tatiana Seelinger. I believe she is still alive and probably not too difficult to track down. She may offer a unique perspective on Hunter.

FWIW.

James

[David Boylan]

Thanks James.

A few years ago I came to the conclusion that this is what LHO was doing for Banister aka "The Chief." Passing out pamphlets and such, visiting Tulane, hanging out with Tulane Professor Leonard Reissman.

[James Richards]

Hi David,

There is no doubt that Leonard Reissman is an interesting character. So was a contemporary named John Rohrer who along with Reissman wrote and edited pieces concerning social psychology which covered influences like class structure, race and societal make-up.

There was also Muzafer Sherif whose work on inter group conflict revealed human traits which I'm sure interested groups like the Agency.

Add Leon Festinger and James Carlsmith with their work on cognitive consequences of forced compliance and I submit that the MK/ULTRA program had a solid research base to work from. This groundwork could have been used to find direction in mind control and how to administer command over human behavior.

FWIW.

James