This one called "The Soviet World of American Communism" by Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes and Kyrill M. Anderson. Yale University Press. 378 pp. $35.00. (Reviewed by Paul Hollander in the June/July issue of First Things, 1998)OK Peanut Gallery!! Here's another one. Another devastating critique of the Communist Party in the USA and their lickspittle obedience to orders from Moscow.
"The Soviet Union itself was a singular embodiment of falsehoods, its legitimacy resting, uneasily and precariously (as it turned out), on massive and determined misrepresentations of its own character, goals, and accomplishments."
Sounds somewhat like present day Socialists/Communists/Liberals/Greens.
Let's see what else we can find out...
"...Finally, the unpopularity of the system led to a reflexive official mendaciousness whose endless efforts to persude via propaganda further institutionalized the culture of the lie."
The more things change, the more...
"...It is an ironic twist of history that Senator Joseph McCarthy and his anti-Communist crusade stimulated an enduring sympathy toward the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) on the part of academic intellectuals, liberal opinion makers, Hollywood celebrities, and segments of the educated public...quite often, though, those who claimed to be victims of "red baiting" actually were card-carrying Communists."
Oh yeah, Stalin's 'useful idiots'.
"The Secret World of American Communism (1995), a predecessor to this book, documented the clandestine links between the CPUSA and the Soviet authorities, including the Soviet intelligence agency, the NKVD..."The Soviet documents also revealed that "The CPUSA was...a conspiracy financed by by a hostile foreign power that recruited members for clandestine work, developed an elaborate underground apparatus, and used that apparatus to collaborate with espionage services of that power...This is how the authors summarize that relationship: 'The ties that existed between the two organizations, those of subordinate to superior, existed on every level. The Soviets established the ideology, provided the money, chose or appointed leaders, and monitored the tactics of the Americans. With only a few exceptions, American Communists did not question the Comintern's right to exercise control.'"
Bunch of little mind numbed robots. I have a friend who says that only the despicable deserve to be despised. Was this crew despicable or what?
"...The 1941 "Draft Resolution on the American Question" exemplified the deceptive tactics of the CPUSA and its Soviet sponsors. Produced in Moscow the resolution stated that "it is necessary the the party act still more effectively as a truly national party of the American working class, as the best defender of the happiness, welfare, and peace of its people and its nation, as an independent American party guided by the teachings of Marxism-Leninism."
I'll skip the part about the 2,000 CPUSA officials who attended a conference in NYC to give their unconditional support of the Soviet-Nazi pact in 1939.
Ever hear about the thousands of American Communists who moved to the workers paradise in the 20's and 30's, and were later arrested as spies and saboteurs? They were given show trials and then executed. The CPUSA supported that.
"When the Soviet Union executed thousands of Trotskyists," the authors report, "the American Communists cheered them on." The New York branch of the party went so far as to pass a resolution to expel not only accused Trotskyists and Lovestonites but even those who were married to one; they could remain in the party only if they seperated from their politically contaminated partner."
Nice people, eh? But the last sentence is the one that I found to be most prescient, knowing some of the debaters in this room;
"While this volume and its predecessor have conclusively demystified the CPUSA, for those who need to believe in the unique evil Americal represents and who feel compelled to idealize all radical critics of American society, these findings are likely to be dismissed."
I know Qx and a few other of the 'liberal' minded folks will come back whining, "Oh, but that's all history, just things that happened decades ago. Who could be interested in that? Your such a rigid Capitalist."
Let's see if the reviewer and I are right...
