219 Students Join 2nd International Leadership Seminar in Barrytown, New York

Reverend Moon addresses international seminar students on “The Hope of Youth”; Col. S. K. Han interprets

The Second International Leadership Seminar drew 219 students from Europe and the Far East for a forty-day summer program at the Unification Church’s International Training Center in Barrytown, New York, July 15-August 23, 1974.

Students from England, France, Germany, Japan, and Korean residents in Japan arrived on July 14 for the opening of the program. Featuring lecture series, group experiences, travel, and sports, the program focused on three subjects: The Divine Principle, Unification Thought, and Communism: A New Critique. Distinguished professors from nearby universities also gave special lectures.

Last summer the First International Leadership Seminar drew students from major universities in Great Britain and Japan for similar forty-day programs in Tarrytown, New York and San Francisco, California. This year, students came from a greater number of countries in order to provide a more truly international experience and multiply the impact of this new approach to leadership training.

In its statement of purpose, the seminar expressed its aim “to build a bond of understanding among all of the participants that will enable them to lead their countries to world peace.” This is to be accomplished “by the study of principles that transcend particular national, religious and racial barriers and by the sharing together of common experiences.

This study will be supplemented by a group living situation and practical activities designed to create situations that allow unity to occur.”

The seminar was sponsored by the International Cultural Foundation, with the cooperation of the Unification Church and the Freedom Leadership Foundation. Each student was interviewed prior to his acceptance into the program and was required to attend an introductory weekend seminar on the Divine Principle in his country. Students also promised to live by a high moral code and paid a $200.00 deposit, which was to be returned upon satisfactory completion of the program.

Lecturers for the European students included Michael Warder, Joe Tully, and Takeshi Furuta. Japanese lecturers included Hideo Oyamada, Gentaro Kajikuri, and Kenji Nomura. Yong Suk Choi, Ok Jyo Yang, and Sung Ho Kwha gave lectures to the Korean students who are residents of Japan.

Mr. Michael Warder and Mr. Takeshi Furuta gave lectures to the European seminar students

Eight professors from nearby universities gave special lectures on subjects of international interest: Prof. David N. Rowe (Yale University) on “Far Eastern Foreign Policy of the United States”; Prof. Norman Isaacs (Columbia University); Prof. Roger Hilsman (Columbia University) on “The Politics of Policy- Making: How U.S. Foreign Policy is Made”; Prof. Amitai Etzioni (Columbia University) on “Basic Human Needs and the International Community”; Prof. Samuel Huntington (Harvard University) on “After Watergate: The Future of the American Political System”; Prof. Samuel Beer (Harvard University) on “Politics of Watergate”; Prof. Franco Modigliani (M.I.T.) on “Prospectives for World Trade: The Lessons of 1973-1974”; and Dr. John Eccles (University of New York at Buffalo) on “The Human Person.”

Executive Director of the seminar, Michael Warder, commented on the international experience of the program. “In the beginning, the Koreans and the Japanese were in the majority and the Europeans a minority. The Europeans were shocked at being outnumbered, since they were accustomed to thinking of Europe as the cultural center.”

According to Mr. Warder, the Orientals did things like exercises in a unified manner, while the Europeans stood around watching. “The Europeans saw group cooperation in action by the Japanese, and at first thought of them as sheep following a leader blindly. But they began to realize it is not as simple as that.”

Language barriers were something of a hindrance, some of the French not being too conversant in English and most of the Japanese knowing almost no English. Students from the various countries came with differing expectations for this year’s program, so Mr. Warder expects that for the third seminar next summer, each of the participating countries will make more uniform preparations. About half of the students were graduate students and about twenty percent were women. Mr. Warder noted that the women helped keep group interactions on a higher level than last year, when all students were men.

In an interview one week before the end of the program, Mr. Warder said that many of the students had developed a good understanding of the Divine Principle; four French students scored exceptionally well on tests. In two fifteen-hour cycles of lectures he had covered most of the topics of the Principle, and in the final cycle of lectures he expected to cover the historical sections intensively, since the students were the most interested in them.

Many of the students came to the program without much faith in God. Most of the French were Roman Catholics in name only, although some have had a deep personal faith. “The lectures on the creation, fall,

and redemption really opened their eyes,” Mr. Warder added. “But Unification Thought and Communism: A New Critique were less easy for them to grasp.”

The students were very eager to meet Reverend Moon, and some of them stood in the windows to listen to him speak to the 600 Americans who came to Barrytown to organize for the three-day prayer and fast. The others asked to be invited to sit in on his talks, so when the 600 fasters returned to Barrytown after the three days, the international seminar students were invited to listen to Reverend Moon’s opening speech, “The Hope of Youth.” Their response was strong and deep.

“A number of the students were deeply affected by seeing 600 Americans sitting on the floor for six days to listen to Reverend Moon and then to Mr. Ken Sudo’s lectures on the Divine Principle and on the life of faith,” Mr. Warder reported.

Meeting the 600 Americans and later the 700 International One World Crusade members who came for a training session prior to the Madison Square Garden campaign gave the students a perspective on the scope of this movement.

The Japanese and Koreans were impressed with Americans listening to an Oriental, but many Europeans, especially the French, were brought up not to like Americans, and so were not as interested. “They are not used to our wider perspective, but to a more selfish one,” Mr. Warder observed. “The students were generally impressed with the thoroughness and togetherness of our ideas and programs.”

The Korean students participated in the first fourteen days of the program. When asked why they wanted to come to this seminar, a number of them mentioned first that they wanted to meet Reverend Moon. Their visit to the United States concluded with a trip to Washington, D.C. for sightseeing, a reception at the Kennedy Center hosted by Korean Embassy official, and entertainment at the Lincoln Memorial by the Korean Folk Ballet.

Field trips included sightseeing in New York City, Boston, West Point Military Academy, and Washington, D.C. Since an opportunity to visit the United States was a major motivation for many of the students, the field trips were very popular. But sometimes the students got more than they expected.

In Washington some students, wishing to meet a congressman, visited Congressman Williams from California. They were astonished to see a copy of the Divine Principle on his desk.

In Boston, after Professor Samuel Beer’s lecture on the Watergate crisis, one student sarcastically asked him what he thought of the idea of forgiving, loving, and uniting. Professor Beer replied that if Nixon would repent and bare his heart to the nation, it seemed like a good idea. It would be one way, he thought, to save the country.

American staff members saw their own country through different eyes. At West Point the students were shown the second largest pipe organ in the world, costing more than $1,000,000. One student observed that in America, people think that if something costs a million dollars it must be good!

Mr. Warder commented that the seminar was as much an experiment in international leadership for the staff members as for the international students. “It made them develop their leadership and gave them experience in working with international groups of people,” he observed.

After the seminar ended on August 23, the students returned home, hopefully to participate in local activities of the International Cultural Foundation and the Collegiate Association for the Research of Principle.

Next year the seminar will be intensified and the program condensed to 21 days. Students from Holland and Italy will be invited as well.