"The Black Book of Communism"

We should be wary of believing that communism is a dead issue. A book that created a sensation when it was published in France is now available in English. I can't think of any book that would be more important for Americans to read. If you are going to read only one book this year, make it "The Black Book of Communism".

This is an 800-page history of the terror, repression and killings of communism stretching from the Bolshevik Revolution to the present. Written by scholars who are ex-communists or former fellow travelers, the book establishes beyond doubt that communism is the greatest crime against humanity in the 20th century. Harvard University Press published the book.

The conservative estimate of the number of people killed by communists is 100 million, or four times the number estimated to have been killed by Nazism. Yet 50 years after the destruction of Nazism, Americans still are regaled with its horrors while the worst horrors of communism are ignored. Worse yet, American leftists and amoral businessmen are still trying to paint a human face on the communist monster.

Both systems killed people not because of what they had done but because of who they were. The Nazis killed people by race; the communists, by class. Furthermore, the authors dispel the myth that the horrors of communism were the result of good communism gone bad or some particular person betraying communism. Communism is, in and of itself, a criminal enterprise in which the modus operandi is terror, repression and homicide.

This is shown consistently in every regime from the Soviet Union to China to Vietnam to North Korea to Cuba and to other countries where communists gained a foothold. Unlike the Nazis, the communist killers benefited from the propaganda of their comrades and fellow travelers living in the democracies. And still do. These unrepentant communists are a cancer in every free country where they live.

By coincidence I recently talked with a professional woman who had the opportunity to live in Cuba with some Cuban professionals. She described herself as a liberal Democrat. She described her experience of the reality of Cuba as "horrendous." Though not a Cuban, she came back convinced that it would be a crime for the United States to force Elian Gonzalez, the little boy rescued from the sea, to return to Cuba.

"It would be exactly the same thing as returning a Jewish boy to Nazi Germany," she said. She wishes to remain anonymous to protect her Cuban hosts from reprisals. If you will read the section in the Black Book on Cuba, you will agree with her. It is a hideously criminal regime that spies on and controls every aspect of people's lives. It is fueled by hatred. It is supported by repression, censorship, propaganda and killing.

Americans should be wary of believing that communism is a dead issue. It thrives in Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam and China. Because of President Clinton's incredible blundering, the Russian Federation has renewed its interest in and support of Cuba. It is financing a nuclear power plant. It maintains its large intelligence-gathering stations in Cuba. There is no question that if the North Atlantic Treaty Organization ever put nuclear weapons into Poland, Russian nukes would show up in Cuba. The war with communism won't be over until the last fat commissar sings his death song.

Col. Stanislav Lunev, a defector, recently wrote, "Normalization -- i.e., accommodation of Castro despotism -- means big bucks for profit-hungry businessmen in the short term but would seriously weaken the United States in the long run. In the latter case no one wins for no one will prosper in the second rate, subjugated America that will be the final result."

Americans are vulnerable to subjugation because they are so naïve. Remember, mass murderers and wannabe mass murderers are still among us on this planet.

Orlando Sentinel Editorial

Charley Reese
Commentary

Published in The Orlando Sentinel on February 13, 2000
OSOreese@aol.com

Logo

Organización Auténtica