Posted on 03/13/2003 5:10:51 PM PST by genefromjersey
Looking at the number of Communist organizations that oppose American action in Iraq jogged my memory about events that happened some 64 years ago - on September 29, 1939.
Prior to that date, Hitler and Stalin had a series of quiet, de-facto agreements.Although the Nazis and the Communists attacked each other publicly, and although they waged a "surrogate combat" during the Spanish Civil War,both regimes traded extensively : German machinery for Russian grain, for example; and they exchanged intelligence on a regular basis.
In 1939, the two nations took it a step further : entering a formal agreement called The German-Soviet Boundary and Friendship Pact. This pact, which relieved Hitler of the risks of a two front war, called for the division of Poland, and the takeover by Russia of certain desirable Baltic states. The two dictatorships agreed to cease public criticism of one another. The Russians were more than happy to agree.
Soviet leaders began to depict Germany as a "victim of Anglo-French aggression". Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov declared : " It is criminal to wage such a war "for the destruction of Hitlerism" under the false flag of a struggle for democracy. "
In the United States, as in all countries in which the Communist Party had public access, "peace rallies" were conducted,neutrality was praised as a virtue, and all possible pressure was brought to bear on academia and the government to " avoid entangling alliances " with the nations being overrun by Hitler.
Does any of this begin to sound familiar ?
On June 22, 1941, Hitler invaded Russia...and the tune suddenly changed !
The peace protestors vanished overnight,and the anti-war signs were burned. Now Party members in the United States began calling attention to the plight of Europe under Nazi attack : held back only by our " gallant Russian allies ". Once Pearl Harbor was attacked, and America was at war, the Communists began demanding we open a "second front" to relieve the suffering Russians.
The plans they proposed would have subjected our troops to monstrous casualties, but the Communists were so adamant, people began calling them " Second Fronters" - a description I remember seeing in The Daily News ... but not The New York Times .
There is a lesson in all this : Be very suspicious of anything and everything the Communist Party is involved in !
To paraphrase Patrick Henry :
Communists may cry " Peace ! Peace ! "
When it suits the needs of the Party !
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