Immersed In Red Read online

  Huberman was a prolific writer on socialist and communist revolutions with particular interest in China, Cuba and South America. He was called to testify before the McCarthy Senate Committee in regard to communist-related activities and State Department overseas information centers. Orville often cited Huberman’s book, Man’s Worldly Goods, as a good primer for young people to understand socialism. In addition, Huberman was a close friend of communist Sol Adler, who fled to China to work with Mao and Chinese Intelligence. Orville’s comment about Huberman was that he was “a hell of a guy.”

  Commentary: It was no idle move for Orville and his communist friends and associates to join the Communist Party in the 20s through the 50s and even later. Specifically, one had to pledge oneself to revolution and the overthrow of capitalism; to give up your life, if required; to pledge to defend Leninist socialism; and pledge to work for the triumph of Soviet power in the U.S. The full text of the above abbreviated statements, authored by J. Peters in the Manual of Organization, is found in the section entitled “House and Senate Investigations of the 40s and 50s.”

  I have to laugh when I hear people today try to minimize Communist Party membership in the past as youthful folly or casual involvement. Pledging one’s life in the fight to erase capitalism and install Soviet power in the U.S. is no small decision. It was deadly serious, traitorous behavior, and one had to prove oneself to attain and retain that membership card.

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  PART IV

  COMMENTARY ON OUR LEFTIST LIVES

  CHAPTER 5

  ORVILLE’S VIEWS ON A MULTITUDE OF TOPICS

  Orville’s political ideology dominated the atmosphere in the home, in all of its bizarre permutations, while my tight-fisted mother directed the day-today operations and kept the lid on the powder keg that was the family. However, her own rigidity and concepts of political righteousness combined with Orville’s political severity to create an environment where no independent thinking outside of their narrow little box was acceptable.

  Patriotism: I was taught early on about the strictly held beliefs that would inform my thinking through my developing years. Regarding the founding fathers, Hamilton was out; Jefferson and Paine were in. Jefferson and Paine were often quoted, albeit selectively, excluding references to the Almighty, religion in general, slavery, and other topics which might have complicated Orville’s vision of history (“his-story”). His fertile mind created a curious blend of Jeffersonian thinking with communism. In fact, freely using Jefferson quotes to justify his line of thinking, Orville often described himself and other communists as patriots. He also believed that if Jefferson and Jesus (the man, not the deity) had lived in the present, they would certainly have been ardent communists and, by his definition, would be supporters of Joe Stalin in Soviet Russia and Mao in China. One can only imagine Jesus and Jefferson conspiring to produce the inhumanity of Stalinist Russia.

  The American military: By Orville’s reckoning, the American military was an organization with a shameful reputation; absent from this characterization was any recognition of courage and sacrifice in the American Revolution, World War I, or World War II. This was always contrasted with the Russian and Chinese armies that were formed to fight the injustice of the past royals and corrupt capitalist leaders and were, consequently, purer. When a uniformed American soldier was encountered on the streets or in film, Orville was hardly able to conceal his contempt. He went even further regarding the Korean and Vietnam Wars, praising both the North Koreans, Ho Chi Minh, and the Vietcong, and deriding the “corrupt” American army efforts.

  The military’s treatment of the American Indians was always front and center with communist propaganda campaigns and I heard an earful over the years. It was a regrettable collision of greatly different societies, with the Indians coming up the losers … suffering through broken treaties, death, displacement, and degradation in many areas of the country. While America can be criticized for its actions in this regard, communists attacking America for its treatment of the Indians is the pot calling the kettle black; their propaganda programs conveniently overlooked their own Russian extermination program of indigenous tribes. Anne Applebaum states in her 2003 book Gulag, “At some level, the Bolsheviks, like all educated Russians, would have been aware of the Russian Empire’s subjugation of the Kirgiz, Buryats, Tungas, Chukchi, and others. The fact that it didn’t particularly concern them---they, who were otherwise so interested in the fate of the downtrodden---itself indicates something about their unspoken assumptions.”

  Compassion: Orville personified a phrase I have often heard when describing the left: “They love the masses and hate the individual.” That sounds like an oxymoron, but well describes my stepfather. Foreshadowing the “identity” politics we see emphasized today, the “loved” people were the downtrodden of society who were exalted in all aspects of daily life; the Jews, the Negroes, the anti-war students who were being persecuted in the universities across the land, the dock workers, the Chinese, the Russian workers, political exiles, farmers, the poor, those behind bars, as well as anyone who had an axe to grind with the establishment, and possibly the most significant of all, the “humiliated” workers who “toiled for a decent wage.” If you tuned in, Orville surmised, and examined the rotten underbelly of the nation, you could hear the suffering and yearning for a new order.

  Compassion for those in need of assistance and representation is indeed important. But Orville’s focus was purely political and accompanied by indignant anti- US pronouncements and hand waving. If it furthered “the cause,” then these groups served that purpose.

  Further illustrating Orville’s focus on the generalized population, those in prison were not really guilty of their crimes, but were, instead, victims of oppression, likely having had to steal bread to survive. A crime committed by a leftist or a poor person, particularly a black or a Mexican, couldn’t be a true crime either. After all, the whites had enslaved the blacks, and the US had stolen much of Mexico from the Mexicans. These groups had a right to strike back. The society was to blame for making the person or persons commit the acts, and the society should be on trial. In our home, American society was on trial each and every minute of every day.

  There is an inevitable downside to the unqualified “love for the masses” view, which simply lumps countless “downtrodden” groups together; there is no room for discussing variations among individuals or circumstances; complexities of societal or political behavior, poor choices made by governments or individuals; or anything short of blanket assessments. If you aren’t seen as wholeheartedly on the side of the “oppressed,” you are an unfeeling and less-than-intelligent nobody. (I am struck, in describing this that it pertains quite well to the current leftist narrative about “cold and uninformed” conservatives as well.)

  Trust: When faced with the individual, Orville’s tone changed. He trusted few and was suspicious of anyone whose politics he couldn’t affirm. For Orville to engage in a discourse, the person had to be vetted and found to be “politically good.” Even then, there would likely be shortcomings. For example, a person might be liberal, but if they weren’t pro-Russia or pro-Mao, they might have good intentions, but they probably weren’t too bright. For example, Hubert Humphrey was a liberal; however, he was reviled for his anti-communist politics, and Kennedy was in the same league. Anyone supporting revolution, and displaying vilification of the United States, was “very political,” meaning morally and politically righteous. Dealing with individuals was problematical; keeping them from straying outside Orville’s prescribed comfort zone required a lot of energy.

  As for friendships for Orville and my mother, there were basically no other candidates beyond the political ones; few people passed the test. Using round numbers, removing Republicans represented 35% of the adult, voting population. Religious people who weren’t Republicans caused another 20% reduction. Most southerners accounted for an additional 20% or so (not counting blacks), and the additional percentages of soft-headed
liberals, businessmen, wealthy people, military personnel, Catholics … my, the figures do add up, possibly even 100%. Who was left? Practically no one, with the exception of four or five close friends, and when you looked closely, they too had a few chinks in their armor.

  Pursuit of the ideal: To Orville, in line with Stalin’s and Mao’s methodologies, anybody and anything that stood in the way of the pursuit of the cause had to go; be it people or institutions, it was all fair game. This rotten society had to have its eyes gouged out, its carcass flayed, before being crushed under heel and burned. The new communist empire under Joseph Stalin would build its foundations on the ash heap of Western Civilization. Any way to get that message out was acceptable. Lying, cheating, and fabrication were all acceptable to achieve the end (“The ends justify the means.”). Lenin’s own quote is also apropos, “a lie told often enough becomes the truth.” The communists were consummate experts at the art of the lie, with disinformation programs that were state of the art.

  As the years went by, though, Orville realized it likely wouldn’t happen during his lifetime. But it surely would come, he believed, and be the ultimate historical vindication for his and his friends’ boundless work; in a way, he saw himself as an apostle.

  Who’s “in” and who’s “out:” Within our proscribed home life, the Russians were always praised, as were those who opposed the perceived vile US domestic and international policies, and the enslaved and oppressed multitudes clamoring for liberation all around us. The heroes were Joseph Stalin, Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, The Hollywood Ten, Paul Robeson, and even black boxers such as Joe Louis, Ezzard Charles and Archie Moore. The same was not true for white boxers. According to Orville, Rocky Marciano, the undefeated Heavyweight Champion (49-0, with 46 knockouts), was an imposter and never would have beaten any of the blacks in their prime. The same was true in baseball: Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, and Willie Mays were all great, and far superior to Ruth, DiMaggio, etc. Being white somehow tainted and diminished them as athletes and men.

  Not surprisingly, people not included in this list were the towering figures of Eisenhower, Churchill, and Marshall. Eisenhower was characterized as a buffoon, a low-IQ idiot who ascended to the position of Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces during WWII only because of the Peter Principle. In addition, the fact that America demanded that the Allied forces be commanded by an American, as a condition of entering the war, was seen by Orville to be patently unfair. To leftists, the real leaders were Montgomery and the Russian generals, who did the dirty work in the battles in Africa, and battling the Germans in the Russian winter. While that cannot be diminished, the Americans battling to regain the islands in the South Pacific, the invasion of Normandy, and the dreadful fighting across Europe, was downgraded in importance. The American generals, Patton and McArthur, were sub-par generals and egomaniacal nut cases.

  The post-war rebuilding of Japan and Europe: The version of post-World War II history that I was taught concerning Japan held little resemblance to reality. In Orville’s mind, and within Soviet propaganda, the reality of Japan’s unprovoked attack on the United States, and all that followed, was now overlooked, and the Americans were substituted as the villains.

  In the aftermath of World War II, the rebuilding of Japan presented a problem for leftists, namely because the hated McArthur spearheaded US efforts and performed so well in converting Japan from a feudal war-like society to a modern democratic nation with strong support even inside Japan. He promoted the development of democracy; suspended Japanese laws restricting political, civil and religious liberties; ordered the release of political prisoners; and abolished the secret police. He announced a general election to be held in April 1946, only seven months following the surrender. He also called for the Japanese Diet (Parliament) to pass a new election law to provide for free democratic elections, including, for the first time in the history of Japan, the right of women to vote. In addition, under MacArthur’s direction, the growth of labor unions was encouraged, large landholdings were broken up and the education system was reformed. All of this was unheard of in the history of post-war relations.

  But that is not how the American left saw it, nor did their compatriots in Russia. A new focus for hatred of America had to be established. The new line of propaganda was that the Japanese were the suffering scapegoats of the war, the ones on whom the US dropped the atom bomb. And here at home Japanese-American citizens had been exiled to internment camps.

  The reality was that after Pearl Harbor, the west coast was readying for a Japanese invasion. It was a frightful and unnerving period of time. Also not to be forgotten in the historical context was the devastating list of Japanese atrocities that had transpired; the brutal invasion of Manchuria; the death marches; the horrors of the Solomon Islands, Guam and Iwo Jima; the slaughter, torture, and beheading of American prisoners and civilians. To Orville and his comrades, these issues faded into insignificance.

  The Japanese internment camps here at home, set up with unanimous congressional support, were a result of the fear and hysteria of the time. Contributing to this was the inability of Americans, in general, to understand the insular Japanese culture that had evolved in the United States. The total number of those sent to the camps was approximately 110,000. To the honor of the Japanese-Americans, many young men enlisted out of the camps, and there were those who were heavily decorated for bravery in combat and in the air force.

  American society, over the next half-century, recognized the injustice, particularly as no Japanese civilian was ever convicted of espionage. But all of this took time to sort out in the post-war, evolving American culture. The irony of course was the ongoing espionage and clandestine communist activities by the American left that caused them no moral dilemma.

  But seeing the big picture and weighing the complexities was not in Orville’s playbook. He joined in the left’s unending cries of American arrogance over the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; as an unnecessary slaughter of innocent people. Left out of the equation was the calculation of lives that would be saved by avoiding an invasion of mainland Japan (100,000 or more); a calculation based on the understanding and observation of the Japanese war tactics of fighting to the last man. Culturally, they were determined to not let up without something forcefully bringing them to a halt. While the merits of Truman’s decision will always be subject to some amount of second-guessing, the left embraced their indignation as a further rallying cry in the ongoing battle against the United States.

  The rebuilding of Europe by the US after the war, by implementing the Marshall Plan, was essentially an American plan for world domination that radiated evil. The reality was that the US role in rebuilding the war-torn countries was part altruism and part practicality to help bring the world out of poverty and war and avoid the punitive measures of WWI that paved the way for the rise of Hitler. But none of this figured into the ever-present leftist dialogue that turned a blind eye to the Soviet economic take over and subjugation of Eastern Europe. This was deemed justified as a protection against future German invasion and therefore beyond criticism.

  In the years after the war, Orville’s contempt was heaped on anyone who purchased a German product, or car such as a Mercedes or Volkswagen; they were automatically Nazi sympathizers. (Interestingly, the same disdain didn’t apply to buyers of Japanese cars in later years.) The terms fascist or Nazi covered far more people than Hitler’s political ruling party; reactionary was another slur often used. These terms were used to describe people across all facets of American life who opposed the communists.

  Who were the “useful idiots?” Both Lenin and Stalin were reported to have referred to US liberals as “useful idiots,” seeing them as tools in their quests for world domination and destruction of the West. Many in Hollywood and the media played into that scheme wonderfully. In the end, Stalin would have had one solution for all of the western “bourgeois” liberals who worshipped him … elimination once their
usefulness ran out. It is my belief that Orville could never process the idea that he might be in that group. In fact, he treated those he considered lower caliber liberals in the same context … they were no more than simpletons who would vote the right way and could be easily manipulated. It’s quite possible he saw himself as something of a blood brother with his communist friends and the Russians; they would fight the battle together and reign supreme.

  Religion: Friends of mine who were from religious families, particularly Catholics, were frowned upon as deluded imbeciles whose faith was a sham. Christianity was the “opiate of the masses,” the common Marxist/Leninist theme. It was an evil institution that was a worldwide fraud that preyed on old ladies and guilty men readying themselves to meet their maker and wishing to buy their way into heaven with their ample wills. The Catholics were reputed to be the richest institution in the world and were an international financial force in the capitalist world, therefore, their interests were self-serving and their anti-communist history was only to protect their ill-gotten gains. But they would sooner than later receive their due when the inevitable new regime took over. Woe to the church and their ignorant followers.

  Newspapers: Newspapers were politically black or white, with the Daily Worker being the embodiment of truth, while conservative publications were filled with lies. The US military was a despicable collection of misfits who promoted fascism and US imperialism. Gen. George Marshall and his European rehabilitation plan, as discussed, was a favorite whipping boy. Added to the no-count list was the Salvation Army, or anyone involved with a church food program. In fact, any church’s benevolent activity or charitable assistance to havenots or people down on their luck, was jeered at as being nothing more than a feel-good move to salve the guilt of white parishioners. These stupid people were using a garden hose on a forest fire, which their capitalist greed and corruption had ignited in the first place.