Letter to the Washington Times [27 August 1995]
Sir:
On 27 August, one of your editorials endorsed the idea of a monument to the victims of Communism. Unfortunately, you misrepresented history when you talked about how "the United States... spent a good part of the past 50 years trying to prevent more slaughter...." Through acts of commission and omission, the United States bears a share of the responsibility for every last one of Communism's 100 million or so murders.
During the Russian civil war after the Bolshevik revolution, the United States and Great Britain supported the [anti-Communist] Whites. First the half-heartedness of that support and then its withdrawal led to the victory of the Reds and the consolidation of Communism in Russia. During World War II, Roosevelt and Churchill displayed their cynicism and folly by consigning their allies in Eastern Europe to the domination of "Uncle Joe" Stalin, thus laying the foundations of the Cold War. After the German surrender, in a replay of scenes from the Holocaust, American and British soldiers used gun butts, bayonets, and bullets to force former Russian prisoners of war and Russian emigres, including women and children, into the rail cars which would take them to Russia for liquidation. After the Cold War had started, the Chinese Nationalists in 1948, the Hungarians in 1956, the Cubans at the Bay of Pigs in 1961, and the Vietnamese in 1973 were added to the list of those whom the United States betrayed to Communism.
"Communism still exists, though it's clearly dying...." Think again. Communism and liberalism have always been branches of that same tree whose roots are secularism, historicism, naturalism, and rationalism. This kinship explains why so many liberals were so half-hearted in their opposition to Communism. Today, despite the fall of the old Soviet Empire, every major country in the world, including Russia and the United States, is governed on the basis of the premises of secularism, historicism, naturalism, and rationalism. In the United States, many so-called conservatives have joined the liberals in elaborating the idea of a "new world order." In Russia, men whose mentalities and values were formed by Communism compete to rule the country and to command the nuclear-tipped missiles with which Russia might still hope to impose its own version of a "new world order." If, in our folly, we allow our defenses to degrade to the point that this does happen, we ourselves will join the ranks of Communism's victims — and it will serve us right.
In the meantime, that monument might allow us to atone in some slight measure for our own record. Perhaps the inscription should read as follows: "In memory of the millions who suffered and died under Communism. Grant them light and rest, O Lord, and forgive us our complicity."
Sincerely yours,
Waclaw Bakierowski.