Anti-communism

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Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the October Revolution brought the communist Bolsheviks to power in Russia in 1917.

Contents 1 Objections to communist theory 2 Various groups and movements 2.1 Anarchists 2.2 Capitalists 2.3 Council of Europe and European Union 2.4 Ex-communists 2.5 Fascists 2.6 Religions 2.6.1 Buddhists 2.6.2 Christians 2.6.3 Falun Gong 2.6.4 Muslims 3 Literature 4 Performing arts 5 Evasion of censorship 6 Anti-communism in different countries 6.1 Albania 6.2 Baltic countries 6.3 Czechoslovakia 6.4 Hong Kong 6.5 Hungary 6.6 Moldova 6.7 People's Republic of China 6.8 Poland 6.9 Romania 6.10 South America 6.11 United States 6.12 Vietnam 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Objections to communist theory

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Most anti-communists reject the concept of historical materialism, which is a central idea in Marxism. Anti-communists reject the Marxist belief that capitalism will be followed by socialism and communism, just as feudalism was followed by capitalism. Anti-communists question the validity of the Marxist claim that the socialist state will "wither away" when it becomes unnecessary in a true communist society.

Many critics see a key error in communist economic theory, which predicts that in capitalist societies, the bourgeoisie will accumulate ever-increasing capital and wealth, while the lower classes become more dependent on the ruling class for survival, selling their labor power for the most minimal of salaries. Anti-communists point to the overall rise in the average standard of living in the industrialized West and claim that both the rich and poor have steadily gotten richer. Anti-communists argue that former Third World countries that have successfully escaped poverty in recent decades have done so because of capitalism, most notably the Asian Tigers, India and China. Anti-communists cite numerous examples of Third World Communist regimes that failed to achieve development and economic growth, and in many cases led their peoples into even worse misery, for example the Mengistu regime in Ethiopia.

Opponents argue that Communist parties (sometimes combined with left socialist parties as workers' parties) which have come to power have tended to be rigidly intolerant of political opposition. These opponents claim that most Communist countries have shown no signs of advancing from Marx's socialist stage of economy to an ideal communist stage. Rather, Communist governments have been accused of creating a new ruling class (called by Russians the Nomenklatura), with powers and privileges far greater than those previously enjoyed by the upper classes in the pre-revolutionary regimes.

Anti-communists argue that the repression in the early years of the Bolshevik regime, while not as extreme as that during Stalin's reign, was still severe by any reasonable standards, citing the examples such as Felix Dzerzhinsky's secret police, which eliminated numerous political opponents by extrajudicial executions, and the brutal crushing of the Kronstadt rebellion and Tambov rebellion. According to them, Trotsky could hardly claim any moral high ground, having been one of the top-ranking Bolshevik leaders during these events. Trotsky was later to claim that the Kronstadt rebels were early harbingers of the bureaucratisation which he associated with Stalinism. Some anti-communists refer to both communism and fascism as totalitarianism, seeing similarity between the actions of communist and fascist governments. Robert Conquest, a former Stalinist and British Intelligence officer argued that Communism was responsible for tens of millions of deaths during the 20th century.

The view of human nature usually expounded by anti-communist Objectivists is that while an egalitarian society could be looked at as ideal, it is virtually impossible to achieve. They state that it is human nature to be motivated by personal incentive, and point out that while several communist leaders have claimed to be working for the common good, many or all of them have been corrupt and totalitarian.

Sociobiologist Edward O. Wilson said "Karl Marx was right, socialism works, it is just that he had the wrong species", meaning that while ants and other social insects appear to live in communist-like societies, they only do so because they are forced to because they lack reproductive independence. Worker ants are sterile, and individual ants cannot reproduce without a queen, so ants are forced to live in centralised societies. Humans possess reproductive independence, so they can give birth to offspring without the need of a "queen". According to Wilson, humans enjoy their maximum level of Darwinian fitness only when they look after themselves and their families, while finding innovative ways to use the societies they live in for their own benefit.^[1]

[edit] Various groups and movements

[edit] Anarchists

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Although many anarchists describe themselves as communists - spelled with a lower case c, all anarchists criticize authoritarian Communism. They argue that Marxist concepts such as dictatorship of the proletariat and state ownership of the means of production are anathema to anarchism. Some anarchists criticize communism from an individualist or anarcho-capitalist point of view.

Anarchist Mikhail Bakunin debated with Karl Marx in the First International, arguing that the Marxist state is another form of oppression.^[2] He loathed the idea of a vanguard party ruling the masses from above. Anarchists initially participated in, and rejoiced over, the 1917 revolution as an example of workers taking power for themselves. However, after the October revolution, it became evident that the Bolsheviks and the anarchists had very different ideas. Anarchist Emma Goldman, deported from the United States to Russia in 1919, was initially enthusiastic about the revolution, but was left sorely disappointed, and began to write her book My Disillusionment in Russia. Anarchist Peter Kropotkin, proffered trenchant criticism of the emergent Bolshevik bureaucracy in letters to Vladimir Lenin, noting in 1920: "[a party dictatorship] is positively harmful for the building of a new socialist system. What is needed is local construction by local forces ... Russia has already become a Soviet Republic only in name."

[edit] Capitalists

This section requires expansion.

The communist principle of redistribution of wealth acquired in capitalist accumulation is held by anti-communists to be opposed to the principle of voluntary free trade.

[edit] Council of Europe and European Union

Resolution 1481/2006 of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), issued on January 25, 2006 during its winter session, "strongly condemns crimes of totalitarian communist regimes".

The European Parliament has proposed making 23 August a Europe-wide day of remembrance for 20th-century Nazi and communist crimes.^[3]

[edit] Ex-communists

Many ex-communists have turned into anti-communists. Mikhail Gorbachev turned from a communist into a social democrat. Leszek Kołakowski was a Polish communist who became a famous anti-communist. He was best known for his critical analyses of Marxist thought, especially his acclaimed three-volume history, Main Currents of Marxism, which is "considered by some^[4] to be one of the most important books on political theory of the 20th century."^[5] The God That Failed is a 1949 book which collects together six essays with the testimonies of a number of famous ex-Communists, who were writers and journalists. The common theme of the essays is the authors' disillusionment with and abandonment of Communism. The promotional byline to the book is "Six famous men tell how they changed their minds about Communism." Another notable anti-communist was Whittaker Chambers, a former Soviet Union spy who testified against his fellow spies before the House Un-American Activities Committee.^[6]

[edit] Fascists

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Many historians^[who?] view fascism as a reaction to communist and socialist uprisings in Europe. They consider fascism to be a movement that both tried to appeal to the working class and divert them from Marxism, and also appealed to capitalists as a bulwark against Bolshevism.^{[citation needed]} Italian fascism, founded and led by Benito Mussolini took power with the blessing of Italy's king after years of leftist unrest led many conservatives to fear that a communist revolution was inevitable. Throughout Europe, numerous aristocrats and conservative intellectuals, as well as capitalists and industrialists, lent their support to fascist movements. In Germany, numerous far right nationalist groups arose, particularly out of the post-war Freikorps, which were used to crush both the Spartacist uprising and the Munich Soviet.

Initially, the Soviet Union supported the idea of a coalition with the western powers against Nazi Germany, as well as popular fronts in various countries against domestic fascism. This policy was largely unsuccessful, due to the distrust shown by the western powers (especially Britain) towards the Soviet Union. The Soviets changed their policy and negotiated a non-aggression pact with Germany, known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in 1939. Stalin did not expect the Germans to attack until 1942, so he was taken by surprise when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, with Operation Barbarossa. Fascism and communism then reverted to their relationship as enemies.

[edit] Religions

[edit] Buddhists

Thích Huyền Quang was a prominent Vietnamese Buddhist monk and anti-communist dissident. In 1977, Huyền Quang wrote a letter to Prime Minister Phạm Văn Đồng detailing counts of oppression by the Communist regime.^[7] For this, he and five other senior monks were arrested and detained.^[7] In 1982, Huyền Quang was arrested and subsequently put into permanent house arrest for opposition to government policy after publicly denouncing the establishment of the state-controlled Vietnam Buddhist Church.^[8] Thích Quảng Độ is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk and anti-communist dissident. In January 2008, the Europe-based magazine A Different View chose Ven. Thích Quảng Độ as one of the 15 Champions of World Democracy.

[edit] Christians

The Catholic Church has a history of anti-communism. The most recent Catechism of the Catholic Church states: "The Catholic Church has rejected the totalitarian and atheistic ideologies associated in modem times with 'communism' or 'socialism.' … Regulating the economy solely by centralized planning perverts the basis of social bonds … [Still,] reasonable regulation of the marketplace and economic initiatives, in keeping with a just hierarchy of values and a view to the common good, is to be commended."^[9]

Pope John Paul II was a harsh critic of communism,^[10] and other popes shared this view as well, for example Pope Pius IX issued a Papal encyclical, entitled Quanta Cura, in which he called "Communism and Socialism" the most fatal error.^[11] During the Spanish Civil War, the Catholic Church opposed the left-leaning Republican forces due to their ties to communism and atrocities against Catholicism in Spain, and in many churches and schools prayers were made for the victory of Franco and the Nationalists.^{[citation needed]}

Lúcia Santos, a visionary of the Marian apparition at Fátima, Portugal was known for her anti-communist beliefs, as well as the message of Fatima in general.

From 1945 onward Australian Labor Party leadership^[12] accepted the assistance of an anti-Communist Roman Catholic movement, led by B.A. Santamaria to oppose communist subversion of Australian Trade Unions (Catholics being an important traditional support base). To oppose communist infiltration of unions Industrial Groups were formed to regain control of them. The groups were active from 1945 to 1954, with the knowledge support of ALP leadership^[13] until after Labor's loss of the 1954 election, when federal leader Dr H.V. Evatt, in the context of his response to the Petrov affair, blamed “subversive” activities of the "Groupers", for the defeat. After bitter public dispute many Groupers (including most members of the NSW and Victorian state executives and most Victorian Labor branches) were expelled from the ALP and formed the Democratic Labor Party (historical). In an attempt to force the ALP reform and remove communist influence, with a view to then rejoining the “purged” ALP, the DLP preferenced (see Australian electoral system) the Liberal Party of Australia, enabling them remain in power for over two decades. Their negative strategy failed, and after the Whitlam Labor Government during the 1970s it, the majority of the DLP decided to wind up the party in 1978, although a small Federal and State party continued based in Victoria (see Democratic Labor Party) with state parties reformed in NSW and Qld in 2008.

After the sovietic occupation of Hungary During the final Stages of the Second World War, many clerigs were arrested. The case of the Archbishop József Mindszenty of Esztergom, head of the Catholic Church in Hungary was the most known. He was accused of tradition to the communist ideas and was sent to trials and tortured during several years between 1949 and 1956. During the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 against the communism he was set free and after the failure of the movement he was forced to move to the United Estates' ambassy on Budapest. There he lived until 1971 when the Vatican and the communist government of Hungary pacted his way out to Austria. In the following years Mindszenty travelled for all over the world visiting the Hungarian colonies on Canada, United Estates, Germany, Austria, South Africa and Venezuela. He led a high critical campaign against the communist regime denouncing the atrocities committed by them against him and the Hungarian people. The communist government accused him and demanded that the Vatican remove him the title of archbishop of Esztergom and forbid him to keep giving public speechs about the communist torture ways and freedom privations. After a lot of polithical interventions, the Vatican was forced to accomplish what the sovietic regime demanded. However Mindszenty kept travelling all over the world being a real symbol of unity, cultural preservation, and hope for the Hungarian people, no matter their religion (Lutherans, Calvinists, Catholics, etc.).^[14]

[edit] Falun Gong

In April 1999, over ten thousand Falun Gong practitioners gathered at Communist Party of China headquarters, Zhongnanhai, in a silent protest following an incident in Tianjin.^[15][16][17] Two months later the Chinese government banned the practice through a crackdown and began a large propaganda campaign.^[18][19][20] Since 1999, Falun Gong practitioners in China have been reportedly subject to torture,^[21] illegal imprisonment,^[22] beatings, forced labor, organ harvesting, and psychiatric abuses.^[23][24] Falun Gong has responded with their own media campaign, and have emerged as a notable voice of dissent against the Communist Party of China, by founding organizations such as the Epoch Times, NTDTV and the Shen Yun Performing Arts to publicize their cause.^[25]

[edit] Muslims

After the taming of Central Asian Muslim Khanates by the Soviet Union, Soviet-style Communists did not have any largescale interaction with Muslim populations until the Saur Revolution in Afghanistan, 1978. Before this, traditional Muslim clerics railed against Communist influences in Muslim societies, but any action beyond the sermons was rare. After the declaration in Kabul of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, a Civil War began that spiralled into the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union. This event elevated the ideology of Islamism, which was rooted in Afghanistan's anti-Communist struggle, into a regional influence throughout South West Asia.

[edit] Literature

Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn was a Soviet and Russian novelist, dramatist, and historian. Through his writings he made the world aware of the Gulag, the Soviet Union's forced labor camp system — particularly The Gulag Archipelago and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, his two best-known works. For these efforts Solzhenitsyn was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970, and exiled from the Soviet Union in 1974.

Herta Müller is a Romanian-born German novelist, poet and essayist noted for her works depicting the harsh conditions of life in Communist Romania under the repressive Nicolae Ceauşescu regime, the history of the Germans in the Banat (and more broadly, Transylvania), and the persecution of Romanian ethnic Germans by Stalinist Soviet occupying forces in Romania and the Soviet-imposed communist regime of Romania. Müller has been an internationally-known author since the early 1990s, and her works have been translated into more than 20 languages.^[26][27] She has received over 20 awards, including the 1994 Kleist Prize, the 1995 Aristeion Prize, the 1998 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the 2009 Franz Werfel Human Rights Award. On 8 October 2009 it was announced that she had been awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Ayn Rand was a very famous 20th century writer. She wrote We the Living about the effects of communism in Germany.

[edit] Performing arts

The Love-Girl and the Innocent (also translated The Tenderfoot and the Tart) is a play in four acts by Russian author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. It is set over the course of about one week in 1945 in a Stalin-era Soviet prison camp. As in many of Solzhenitsyn's works^{[citation needed]}, the author paints a vivid and honest^{[citation needed]} picture of the suffering prisoners and their incompetent but powerful wardens. Most of the prisoners depicted in the play are serving 10 year sentences for violations of Soviet Penal Code Article 58. In this play, the author first explores the analogy of the camp system to a separate nation within the Soviet Union, an analogy which would dominate his later work, most clearly in The Gulag Archipelago.

[edit] Evasion of censorship

Samizdat was a key form of dissident activity across the Soviet-bloc; individuals reproduced censored publications by hand and passed the documents from reader to reader, thus building a foundation for the successful resistance of the 1980s. This grassroots practice to evade officially imposed censorship was fraught with danger as harsh punishments were meted out to people caught possessing or copying censored materials. Vladimir Bukovsky defined it as follows: "I myself create it, edit it, censor it, publish it, distribute it, and get imprisoned for it."

During the Cold War, Western countries invested heavily in powerful transmitters which enabled broadcasters to be heard in the Eastern Bloc, despite attempts by authorities to jam such signals. In 1947, VOA started broadcasting in Russian with the intent to counter Soviet propaganda directed against American leaders and policies.^[28] These included Radio Free Europe (RFE)), RIAS (Berlin) the Voice of America (VOA), Deutsche Welle, Radio France International and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).^[29] The Soviet Union responded by attempting aggressive, electronic jamming of VOA (and some other Western) broadcasts om 1949.^[28] The BBC World Service similarly broadcast language-specific programming to countries behind the Iron Curtain.

In the People's Republic of China, people have to bypass the Chinese Internet censorship and other forms of censorship.

[edit] Anti-communism in different countries

[edit] Albania

In 1945, Mit'hat Frashëri compiled a political platform proposing the formation of a coalition government including, members of nationalist Legaliteti, Balli Kombëtar, and other anti-communist movements in addition to the winning communist group. Stemming was the unsuccessful Western-backed campaign of toppling the communist government through the infiltration of dissidents into the country that was made possible from the unification of the four anti-communist groups Legaliteti, Balli Kombëtar, Independents' Block, and the Kosovars' Group and the creation of an anti-communist committee in 1949.

In 1946, an armed uprising took place in Postribë whereby more than a dozen participants were killed and others imprisoned. In 1973, a number of prisoners at Spac concentration camp staged a rebellion where the non-communist flag was raised. In 1984, a similar rebellion took place at the prison of Qafë Bar.

Albania has enacted the Law on Communist Genocide with the purpose^[30] of expediting the prosecution of the violations of the basic human rights and freedoms by the former communist governments of the Socialist People's Republic of Albania. The law has also been referred to in English as the "Genocide Law"^[31][32][33] and the "Law on Communist Genocide".^[34][35]

[edit] Baltic countries

The Singing Revolution is a commonly used name for events between 1987 and 1990 that led to the restoration of the independence of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.^[36][37] The term was coined by an Estonian activist and artist, Heinz Valk, in an article published a week after the June 10–11, 1988 spontaneous mass night-singing demonstrations at the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds.^[38]

[edit] Czechoslovakia

Uprising in Plzeň was an anti-communist revolt by Czechoslovakian workers in 1953.

The Velvet Revolution or Gentle Revolution was a non-violent revolution in Czechoslovakia that saw the overthrow of the Communist government.^[39] It is seen as one of the most important of the Revolutions of 1989.

On November 17, 1989, a Friday, riot police suppressed a peaceful student demonstration in Prague. That event sparked a series of popular demonstrations from November 19 to late December. By November 20 the number of peaceful protesters assembled in Prague had swollen from 200,000 the previous day to an estimated half-million. A two-hour general strike, involving all citizens of Czechoslovakia, was held on November 27. In June 1990 Czechoslovakia held its first democratic elections since 1946.

[edit] Hong Kong

Hong Kong has had numerous anti-communist protests. Some are even opposed to the end of the HKSAR on July 1, 2047, the day on which Hong Kong is scheduled to be fully assimilated into communist China.

Memorials for the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 are held every year in Hong Kong. Tens of thousands people have attended the candlelight vigil.^[40]

[edit] Hungary

The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was a spontaneous nationwide anti-communist revolt in the People's Republic of Hungary, lasting from 23 October until 10 November 1956. The revolt began as a student demonstration which attracted thousands as it marched through central Budapest to the Parliament building. A student delegation entering the radio building in an attempt to broadcast its demands was detained. When the delegation's release was demanded by the demonstrators outside, they were fired upon by the State Security Police (ÁVH) from within the building. The news spread quickly and disorder and violence erupted throughout the capital. The revolt spread quickly across Hungary, and the government fell. After announcing a willingness to negotiate a withdrawal of Soviet forces, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union changed its mind and moved to crush the revolution.

[edit] Moldova

The Moldovan anti-communist social movement emerged on April 7, 2009, in major cities of Moldova after the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM) had allegedly rigged elections.

The anti-communists organized themselves using an online social network service, Twitter, hence its moniker used by the media, the Twitter Revolution^[41][42] or Grape revolution.

[edit] People's Republic of China

The Chinese democracy movement is a loosely organized anti-communist movement in the People's Republic of China. The movement began during Beijing Spring in 1978 and played an important role in the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. The 1959 Tibetan Rebellion had some anti-communist leanings.^[43] In the 1990s, the movement underwent a decline both within China and overseas, and is currently fragmented and not considered by most analysts to be a serious threat to power to the Communist Party's rule.

Charter 08 is a manifesto signed by over 303 Chinese intellectuals and human rights activists to promote political reform and democratization in the People's Republic of China.^[44]

As a document of Chinese origin, it is unusual in calling for greater freedom of expression and for free elections. It was published on 10 December 2008, the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and its name is a reference to Charter 77, issued by dissidents in Czechoslovakia.^[45]

Since its release, more than 8,100 people inside and outside of China have signed the charter.^[46][47]

[edit] Poland

Lenin saw Poland as the bridge which the Red Army would have to cross in order to assist the other communist movements and help bring about other European revolutions. Poland was the first country which successfully stopped a communist military advance. Between February 1919 and March 1921, Poland's successful defence of its independence was known as thePolish–Soviet War. According to American sociologist Alexander Gella, "the Polish victory had gained twenty years of independence not only for Poland, but at least for an entire central part of Europe."^[48]

After the German and Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, the first Polish uprising during World War II was against the Soviets. The Czortków Uprising occurred during January 21–22, 1940, in the Soviet-occupied Podolia. Teenagers from local high schools stormed the local Red Army barracks and a prison, in order to release Polish soldiers who had been imprisoned there.^[49]

In the latter years of the war, there were increasing conflicts between Polish and Soviet partisans, and some groups continued to oppose the Soviets long after the war.^[50] Between 1944 and 1946, soldiers of the anti-communist armed groups, known as the cursed soldiers, made a series of attacks on communist prisons immediately following the end of World War II in Poland.^[51] The last of the cursed soldiers, members of the militant anti-communist resistance in Poland, was Józef Franczak, who was killed with a pistol in his hand by ZOMO in 1963.^[52]

Poznań 1956 protests were massive anti-communist protests in the People's Republic of Poland. Protesters were repressed by the regime.

The Polish 1970 protests (Polish: Grudzień 1970) were anti-Comintern protests which occurred in northern Poland in December 1970. The protests were sparked by a sudden increase in the prices of food and other everyday items. As a result of the riots, brutally put down by the Polish People's Army and the Citizen's Militia, at least 42 people were killed and more than 1,000 were wounded.

Solidarity was an anti-communist trade union in a Warsaw Pact country. In the 1980s, it constituted a broad anti-communist movement. The government attempted to destroy the union during the period of martial law in the early 1980s, and several years of repression, however, in the end, it had to start negotiating with the union. The Round Table Talks between the government and the Solidarity-led opposition led to semi-free elections in 1989. By the end of August, a Solidarity-led coalition government was formed, and in December 1990, Wałęsa was elected President of Poland. Since then, it has become a more traditional trade union.

[edit] Romania

The Romanian anti-communist resistance movement lasted between 1948 and the early 1960s. Armed resistance was the first and most structured form of resistance against the communist regime. It wasn’t until the overthrow of Nicolae Ceauşescu in late 1989 that details about what was called “anti-communist armed resistance” were made public. It was only then that the public learnt about the numerous small groups of "haiducs" who had taken refuge in the Carpathian Mountains, where some resisted for ten years against the troops of the Securitate. The last “haiduc” was killed in the mountains of Banat in 1962. The Romanian resistance was one of the longest lasting armed movement in the former Soviet bloc.^[53]

The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a week-long series of increasingly violent riots and fighting in late December 1989 that overthrew the Government of Nicolae Ceauşescu. After a trial, Ceauşescu and his wife Elena were executed. Romania was the only Eastern Bloc country to overthrow its government violently or to execute its leaders.

[edit] South America

During the 1970s, the right-wing military juntas of South America implemented Operation Condor, a campaign of political repression involving assassinations and other intelligence operations. The campaign was aimed at eradicating alleged communist and socialist influences in their respective countries, and control opposition against the government, which resulted in a large number of deaths.^[54] Participatory governments include Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, with limited support from the United States.^[55]

[edit] United States

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The first major manifestation of anti-communism in the United States occurred in 1919 and 1920, during the First Red Scare, led by Attorney General Alexander Mitchell Palmer.

Following World War II and the rise of the Soviet Union, many anti-communists in the United States feared that communism would triumph throughout the entire world and eventually be a direct threat to the US government. This fear led to the domino theory, which stated that a communist takeover in any nation could not be tolerated because it would lead to a chain reaction that would result in worldwide communism. There were fears that powerful nations like the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China were using their power to forcibly assimilate other countries into communist rule. The Soviet Union's expansion into central Europe after World War II was seen as evidence of this. The US policy of halting further communist expansion came to be known as containment.

The 1950s saw a dramatic increase in anti-communism in the United States, particularly due to McCarthyism. Thousands of Americans were accused of being communists or sympathizers, and many became the subject of aggressive investigations by government committees such as the House Committee on Un-American Activities. As a result of sometimes vastly exaggerated accusations, many of the accused lost their jobs and became blacklisted, although most of these verdicts were later overturned.

During the 1980s, the Ronald Reagan administration pursued an aggressive policy against the Soviet Union and its allies by building up weapons programs, including the Strategic Defense Initiative. The Reagan Doctrine was implemented to reduce the influence of the Soviet Union worldwide by providing aid to anti-Soviet resistance movements, including the Contras in Nicaragua and the Mujahideens in Afghanistan. The downing of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 near Moneron Island by the Soviets on Sept. 1, 1983 contributed to the anti-communism of the 1980s. KAL 007 had been carrying 269 people, including a sitting U.S. Congressman, Larry McDonald.

The US government usually argued its anti-communist policies by citing the human rights record of communist states, most notably the Soviet Union during the Joseph Stalin era, Maoist China, North Korea, North Vietnam and the Pol Pot-led Khmer Rouge government and the pro-Hanoi People's Republic of Kampuchea in Cambodia. Those states allegedly killed millions of their own people and continued to suppress civil liberties of the surviving population. During the 1980s, the Kirkpatrick Doctrine was particularly influential in American politics; it advocated US support of anti-communist governments around the world, including authoritarian dictatorships.

Anti-communism became significantly muted after the fall of the Soviet Union and Eastern bloc communist regimes in Europe between 1989 and 1991; the fear of a worldwide communist takeover was no longer a serious concern. Remnants of anti-communism remain, however, in US foreign policy toward Cuba and North Korea. In the case of Cuba, the US continues to maintain economic sanctions against the country. Tensions with North Korea have heightened as the result of reports that it is stockpiling nuclear weapons, and the assertion that it is willing to sell its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile technology to any group willing to pay a high enough price. Much of the US foreign policy establishment does not regard the People's Republic of China as communist in any meaningful sense. Nevertheless, there is some hostility toward the Chinese government, particularly among conservative Congressional Republicans. For example, national security issues were raised during Chinese state-owned CNOOC Ltd.'s takeover bid for Unocal, an American energy firm.

[edit] Vietnam

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In Vietnam, anti-communist movements, including those from pro-democracy and pro-human rights groups, had largely been limited before the advent of the Internet. This was due to repression of dissidents as well as the Vietnamese government's efforts in censorship and propaganda regarding foreign and domestic policies, including examination of personal mails (especially those sent from overseas), and a heavy censorship of foreign media broadcasts.

Prior to the arrival of the Internet, much of the global anti-communist activities directed towards Vietnam were religious in nature. Clerical North American and European organizations voiced concerns about religious oppressions. Of particular robustness were the organizations of Monsignor Tran Van Hoai, the first Director of the Vatican's Center of Pastoral Apostolate for Overseas Vietnamese.

In recent years, there have been many Vietnamese bloggers who, with the aid of the World Wide Web, have disseminated information critical of Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnamese government's relations with the People's Republic of China, the most controversial of which are deals struck between the two communist countries' leaders, such as territorial claims of islands in the South China Sea. These have sparked intense nationalism and led to much outrage felt even on the part of many Vietnamese themselves. The culmination of the sentiments can be seen in many recent protests held in both former North Vietnam's capital Hanoi and former South Vietnam's capital Saigon.

Frequent arrests of some democracy advocates by the government have also led to activism among many Vietnamese who demand an release of all political dissidents as well as greater clarity in their trials. Recently, there have also been protests against the government blocking access to free networking and blogging services such as Facebook, Wordpress, as well as calls for a unified effort in boycotting government sanctioned blogging services like the so-called "Yahoo! Việt Nam 360plus".

[edit] See also

• Anti-communists
• Anti-Stalinist left
• Charter 08
• Chinese democracy movement
• Criticisms of communism
• Criticisms of Communist party rule
• Reagan Doctrine
• Solidarity (Polish trade union)
• Soviet dissidents

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Foundation for the Investigation of Communist Crimes
• Global Museum on Communism
• The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation
• Museum of Communism
• The Black Book of Communism, by Stephane Courtois
• Russians In Support of the Idea of International Condemnation of Communism, an open Letter from Leaders of Russian Anti-communist Organizations to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
• Industrial Workers of the World, The IWW Shattered – an excerpt from Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States
• Zmag.org, Hirata Tetsuo and John W. Dower, "Japan's Red Purge: Lessons from a Saga of Suppression of Free Speech and Thought"

v • d • e Fall of Communism Communism · Anti-communism · Criticism of communism Internal conditions Brezhnev stagnation · Cultural Revolution · Eastern Bloc · Eastern Bloc economies · Eastern Bloc politics · Eastern Bloc information dissemination · Eastern Bloc emigration and defection · KGB · Nomenklatura · Samizdat · Shortage economy · Totalitarianism International relations Active measures · Cold War · List of socialist countries · Predictions of Soviet collapse · Reagan Doctrine · Soviet Empire · Terrorism by the Soviet Union  · Vatican opposition Reforms of socialism Socialism with Chinese characteristics · Perestroika · Glasnost · Demokratizatsiya · Sinatra Doctrine Events by country Eastern Bloc countries: Albania · Bulgaria · Czechoslovakia · East Germany · Hungary · Poland · Romania · Soviet Union · Yugoslavia Former Soviet Republics: Armenia · Azerbaijan · Belarus · Estonia · Georgia · Latvia · Lithuania · Kazakhstan · Kirghistan · Moldova · Russia · Tajikstan · Turkmenistan · Ukraine · Uzbekistan Other countries: Afghanistan · Angola · Benin  · Burma · Cambodia · China · People's Republic of the Congo · Ethiopia · Mongolia · Mozambique · Nicaragua · Somalia · South Yemen Communist leaders Daniel Ortega · Denis Sassou Nguesso · Erich Honecker · Fidel Castro · Heydar Aliyev · Kim Il-sung · Mathieu Kérékou · Mengistu Haile Mariam · Mikhail Gorbachev · Milouš Jakeš · Ne Win · Nicolae Ceauşescu · Ramiz Alia · Saparmurat Niyazov · Siad Barre · Slobodan Milošević · Todor Zhivkov · Wojciech Jaruzelski · Yuri Andropov · Konstantin Chernenko · Enver Hoxha · Hua Guofeng · Deng Xiaoping · Pol Pot · Tôn Đức Thắng · Kaysone Phomvihane · Phoumi Vongvichit Anti-communist leaders Boris Yeltsin · Aung San Suu Kyi · Helmut Kohl · Pope John Paul II · Lech Wałęsa · Margaret Thatcher · Ronald Reagan · Sali Berisha · Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj · Václav Havel · Vladimir Bukovsky · Violeta Chamorro · Zhelyu Zhelev · Zianon Pazniak · Augusto Pinochet Democracy movements Chinese democracy movement · Civic Forum · Sąjūdis · Solidarity · Popular Front of Latvia · Popular Front of Estonia · Belarusian Popular Front · National League for Democracy · National Opposition Union · National Salvation Front · Union of Democratic Forces Events Revolutions of 1989 · April 9 tragedy · Black January · Baltic Way · 1988 Polish strikes · Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 · Removal of Hungary's border fence · Polish Round Table Talks · Hungarian Round Table Talks · Pan-European Picnic · Monday demonstrations in East Germany · Fall of the Berlin Wall · Malta Summit · German reunification · January 1991 events in Lithuania · January 1991 events in Latvia · 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt · Yemeni unification · 1973 Chilean coup d'état Post-collapse Colour revolution · Communism remembrance · Decommunization · Democratization · Economic liberalization · Economic reforms after the collapse of socialism · Neo-Stalinism · North Korean famine · Oslo Accords · Post-Communism · Putinism · Special Period · Yugoslav Wars