Forgetting Communism's Crimes
While strolling down the streets of Manhattan the other day I saw a shirt which declared: “Communism Killed 100 Million People And All I Got Was This Stupid T-Shirt.” After immediately buying it, I reflected on what I had learned when my life briefly brushed up against those who had actually lived under the red jackboot.
I was standing at the Brandenburg Gate months after the Berlin Wall came down and had the chance to speak to AK-47-toting Russian soldiers (boys really) first hand. It was a surreal moment for me as a young American abroad for the first time. And it left an indelible impression on my political psyche as I saw with my own eyes what communism was and is, be it Stalin’s brand, Castro’s or Mao’s—a wretched, defunct system best summed up in the six words I heard from these Soviet soldiers again and again between shots of vodka (or was it antifreeze!) under the eerie lights of a newly opened but still moribund East Berlin…”Take us to America with you!”
There seems to be constant debate on what individual was most responsible for the Cold War victory for the West. Was it Reagan? Thatcher? John Paul II? Walesa? Gorbachev even? My answer is all of the above and more. This great triumph belonged to all who participated. This unique war was won over forty years on a thousand fronts all across the globe, from the jungles of El Salvador to the shipyards of Gdansk to the halls of Reykjavik.
Yet, as has already been discussed, it is apparently not a victory that the current president feels is worth his time commemorating. It makes me wonder: what does this say about President Obama’s basic understanding of history? This president is willing to fly to Oslo for a sham prize, or Copenhagen for an Olympic bid, but passes on a chance to commemorate a great victory for humanity? If the fall of the Soviet Union as symbolized by the wall’s collapse is not the event of the second half of the 20th Century, what is?
White House communications director Anita Dunn has taken a drubbing for citing the murderous Mao Tse-tung as her favorite philosopher. Let's take her word for it that she was dryly joking. She'd never have made that joke about Adolph Hitler - or even Jefferson Davis. It's hysterical to accuse this White House of sympathy for communism. But it seems all too sadly apt to accuse it of forgetfulness and indifference to communism's crimes.
The T-shirt fits nicely by the way.