[Fiji Hill]

There's more to the story. In the 1930's, Dewey joined the anti-Stalinist Left and became a sharp critic of Stalin. Read here for more information.

[x]

True. Look up the Dewey Commission, which investigated the Moscow Trials and Stalin's charges against Trotsky.

Some of the members of the commission who had been pretty far left along with Dewey in the Thirties ended up writing for National Review in the Fifties, Sixties, and Seventies.

[VR-21]

Thanks for the article FH, and I do acknowledge that Dewey turned against Stalin. The message of the American Thinker article hasn't so much to do with Stalin as it did with Dewey's statist impulses. As the article you sent me states...

"Yes, Dewey did considerably better when it came to the Trotsky trials, which is a complicated subject, and didn’t necessarily put Dewey in the camp of stalwart anti-communist — though it did make Dewey anti-Stalin. The professor’s actions were more in protest of Stalin rather than communism in general. Where Dewey stood on communism by the end of his life is another of those maddening aspects of Dewey and his writings that’s exasperatingly difficult to pin down.

It's my opinion that Dewey was very much in the mold of early 20th century American Progs, who were very statist and totalitarian in their mindset, and who regarded public education to be one vehicle in their quest to move American society away from the founding principles. Good to hear from you...take care.