...plus, they had snappy uniforms.
Fascists always seem to have good uniforms - Blackshirts in Italy, Brownshirts in Germany and Silvershirts here in the USA. Saddam even hired a fashion designer to his army's uniforms...
Actually the commies tried to come up with snappy uniforms, but they only issued their troops one greatcoat - so the poor guys had to cut off and replace the shiny brass dress uniform buttons with plastic field buttons when they went into the field and replace them when they went back into garrison... Still, they had great hats!