– Youth Wants To Know – Senator Hubert Humphrey, guest – June 2, 1957 – NBC-Monitor – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
Of all the Sunday political chat shows which dominated the American airwaves in the 1950s, the most popular was a program called Youth Wants To Know. It consisted of High School students, between the ages of 15-17, with a new group chosen each week from a different high school to fire questions in the manner of Face The Nation or Meet The Press, only these are history and/or Journalism students.
An example of this is from June 2, 1957 featuring Senator Hubert Humphrey. He had just returned from a fact-finding mission to the Middle East and Southern Europe and no doubt was prepared to talk at length about American Foreign Policy in the Middle East and the one-on-one discussions between Humphrey and Nassar which took place.
No such luck. The vast majority of questions dealt with our Cold War policy towards Red China and the issue of UN recognition of the Beijing government of Mao-Tse Tung, to the exclusion of the Taipei government of Chiang Kai-shek.
General consensus of opinion was that America needed to recognize Red China sooner rather than later, because it stood to be of great benefit to the U.S. in the area of trade – China having a population of some 450 million, something that Great Britain and Japan saw the potential of. Humphrey is adamant in saying the U.S. will not recognize Red China until it refutes its stance as an aggressor nation (i.e. the Formosa question). The kids were adamant in saying we recognize first and work on refuting later.
The program gives a good example of where we were in the area of Foreign Policy during the Cold War period, and of early Hubert Humphrey, who was considered an up-and-coming figure on Capitol Hill. It also gives an example of how our education system was working in the 1950s, that 15 year olds were well versed in the area of Foreign Policy and Capitol Hill machinations; going toe-to-toe with seasoned politicos and holding their own.
Something of an eye-opener on several levels. Here is Youth Wants To Know from NBC Radio on June 2, 1957.
