Book tells all: Western liberals are 'useful idiots'

The Deseret News ^ | 2/23/2003 | Betsy Hart

[Utah Girl]

As America sits on the edge of war with Iraq, I find myself thinking of all the liberals who still demand, in spite of the evidence of Saddam Hussein's horror machines arrayed against the West, that we give "peace" — or in this case "inspections" — a chance.

They may be today's "useful idiots," the term once used by Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin to describe Western liberals he rightly foresaw as, knowingly or unknowingly, helping his Communist cause.

That's also the title of syndicated columnist Mona Charen's just-released book, "Useful Idiots: How Liberals Got It Wrong in the Cold War and Still Blame America First" (Regnery). In her fast-paced, comprehensive and oh-so-satisfying account of how American liberals advanced the Soviet cause and prolonged the Cold War, she inevitably foreshadows the many American liberals who today profoundly undermine our war effort against Iraq and the larger assault on terrorism.

What's so satisfying? Charen pulls no punches. She largely lets American liberals — who hated Ronald Reagan as he stared down the Soviet Union but today typically claim to have been "Cold Warriors" all along — speak for themselves. And they do. In rich, full-toned, clear whole notes, thanks to the hundreds of quotes from them which Charen has unearthed.

She serves up a feast of one delicious "gotcha" after another, finally holding these people accountable for what is, in the end, their treachery.

Charen examines the Soviet Union itself, Vietnam, China, Cambodia, Cuba, and Communist Nicaragua and carefully recounts how American liberals cozied up to them all. She names names, including Ted Koppel, Katie Couric, Hillary Clinton, Peter Jennings, Ted Kennedy, William Sloane Coffin, Barbara Boxer, Jimmy Carter, Phil Donahue, organizations like the National Council of Churches and the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and so many others.

To these folks and their ilk, it really was better to be a Communist than an anti-Communist.

From Coffin, who prayed at his elite New York City pulpit during the height of the Cold War " . . . were we to repent of our self-righteousness . . . we would realize that if we are not yet one with the Soviets in love at least we are one with them in sin . . . " to the CNN Moscow correspondent who wasn't exactly prescient when he declared in 1986, "If suddenly a true, two-party or multiparty state were to be formed in the Soviet Union, the Communist Party would still win in a real free election" — it's all here.

From respected MIT economist Lester Thurow who as late as 1989 praised the "remarkable performance" of the Soviet economy, to Newsweek writer Eleanor Clift who much later was still able to say of little Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez, " . . . to be a poor child in Cuba may in many instances be better than being a poor child in Miami . . . " — Charen chronicles the whole story.

It was leading American liberals who actively rooted for a Communist victory in southeast Asia. But when the atrocities of the millions massacred in Cambodia by the Communists finally made the light of day — no thanks to New York Times' Cambodia correspondent Sydney Schanberg who mocked fears of a Khmer Rouge bloodbath — liberals shifted the blame to American policy. (Schanberg won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting.)

It was also the New York Times correspondent, Walter Duranty, who in the 1930s knowingly sent back glowing, and utterly false, reports of life under Stalin. (Turns out he was being blackmailed.) He too won a Pulitzer. Some newspaper "of record."

Like I said — this is satisfying stuff.

What's not satisfying is realizing that American liberals have not changed. Their first impulse is always to "blame America first" no matter how evil the sins of its adversary. And why? It's not just that they are so often loath to condemn collectivism in any form, including Communism. It's not just that some simply hate America.

As Charen says, liberals find condemning America is easier and less frightening than facing up to the fact that there really is good and evil in the world, with all the implications that go along with that truth, and that mankind is not perfectible in spite of their best social engineering attempts.

Thankfully, this fear wasn't overwhelming to those Americans who looked communism in the eye during the Cold War, recognizing its carnage of a hundred million innocent lives extinguished, and who finally defeated the Soviet Union.

But sadly every time a liberal today claims that when it comes to Islamic terrorists we really should stop, focus on America first, and ask "but why do they hate us?" — it's clear the useful idiots are still with us.

[Utah Girl]

I bought this book last week to read. It is excellent, I highly recommend it, even though it will leave you with a pit in your stomach at the duplicity of the Left.

[CyberAnt]

Well ... the pit in the stomach should match the pain in the a$$.

[Capitalism2003]

I'm getting behind on my book list...This one goes on the to-buy list, along with Savage's new book and Ann Coulter's upcoming title "Treason" Time to log back into Amazon ;)

[KaiserofKrunch]

I read somewhere that "as one ages he has a tendency to become more mellow or moderate in his thinking." Unfortunately for my blood pressure, I just hate socialists more and more!

[piasa]

"as one ages he has a tendency to become more mellow or moderate in his thinking."

Only if Alzheimer's sets in!

[Atchafalaya]

You know if 25% of the effort to screw the other side was put to solving a real problem. The saddest thing is the waste of time, money, rescources, etc.. If I was God, I'd be pissed.

[The Raven]

I used to live right between two far-left neighbors. Now I know where they got their silly "facts."

Anyway....Here's a clip from today's Andrew Suillivan blog on Iran:

My friend, Michael Ledeen, has long argued that the theocratic mafia in Tehran is by far the gravest threat in the Middle East. He's right. No surprise that the mullahs are trying to go nuclear. And no surprise that the people they oppress see the looming liberation of Iraq as a godsend. A rare piece of good reporting from Iran in the Los Angeles Times yesterday captured the effect a successful removal of Saddam could have on its more powerful neighbor:

Some Iranians, particularly the young, say they would actually welcome a U.S. presence in Iraq because it would increase pressure on both their country's conservative Islamic regime and the fractured reformers who oppose it. The regime's efforts to portray the U.S. as the "Great Satan" have failed to sway young people, who are a clear majority of Iranians. About 70% of the country's 70 million people are younger than 30. Young people in particular associate the U.S. with the opportunities and freedoms that Iran, with its sluggish economy and stern moral code, lacks. They believe that better relations with the U.S. would revitalize Iranian life and help the country shed its pariah status.

Then my favorite quote in the story:
"Are they changing their mind?" Goli Afshar, a 23-year-old student, asked as she alternately tightened and loosened her grip on a mug at a cafe on Gandhi Street. "Can they hurry up with Iraq already, so they can get on with attacking us?"

My feelings entirely, Goli. We've already dawdled for far too long.

[George W. Bush]

I think I'll buy it. Maybe get a second copy for the local school library.

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

You're repeating yourself: useful idiots.

[Utah Girl]

I sure am... Thanks for the catch. My excuse was it was late last night. I think we need a search for authors on FR, it would sure eliminate a lot of duplicate posts...

[ZULU]

The Middle Ages had its Flagellants, modern civilization has liberals.

"..to Newsweek writer Eleanor Clift who much later was still able to say of little Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez, " . . . to be a poor child in Cuba may in many instances be better than being a poor child in Miami . . . " — Charen chronicles the whole story.


Leftist liberal B#tch Clift appears on the McGlocklen report and her studied contempt for all things conservative and Republican well illustrates the bias of Newsweek and similar leftist journals. Her constant strained expression has nothing to do with bowel constipation, but everything to do with the recent rise of conservatism in America and the end of the monopoly on news broadcasting by the Bolshevik left, thanks mainly to the INternet, talk radio and FOX News on Cable T.V.

[CPT Clay]

Thanks for the tip.

[George W. Bush]

I think we need a search for authors on FR, it would sure eliminate a lot of duplicate posts...

What would be very handy is for FR software to compare the URL of a new thread to threads created in the last week. Or even the last few days.

JohnRob, just an idea. It would be a help for everyone including your moderators...

[Utah Girl]

Except these were different URLs. My first post was from a Minneapolis newspaper, the 2nd from a Utah newspaper. And Jewish World Review has the same article under a different title. That is why I would like to see us be able to search by authors also. :)

[dennisw]

btttttttttttttttttt

[Stultis]

Iranian Student: "Can they hurry up with Iraq already, so they can get on with attacking us?"

That quote is going out to all the left leaners on my email list today!

[Leto]

Did Mona talk about Algore and his daddy and their business
with Hammer and their complicity with the Solviets

[Utah Girl]

I'm still reading the book, so, not so far. I'll try and remember to ping you if she mentions the dealings of Al Gore and his father with the Soviets and Hammer.