You Can Trust the Communists (to be Communists)
Chapter 1 - Trust the Communists?
Trust the Communists?
The thesis of this book is very simple. It is that Communists are Communists. I intend to show that they are exactly what they say they are; they believe what they say they believe; their objective is the objective they have repeatedly proclaimed to all the world; their organization is the organization they have described in minute detail; and their moral code is the one they have announced without shame. Once we accept the fact that Communists are Communists, and understand the laws of their thought and conduct, all the mystery disappears, and we are confronted with a movement which is frightening in its superb organization, strategic mobility and universal program, but which is perfectly understandable and almost mathematically predictable. In the battle against Communism, there is no substitute for accurate, specific knowledge. Ignorance is evil and paralytic. The best intentions allied with the most sincere motives are ineffective and futile if they are divorced from adequate knowledge. Consider a mother who has a small daughter to whom she is devoted. For this daughter she is determined to do all that a mother may do. She feeds her a well-balanced diet to build a healthy body; she provides the finest education to develop her mind; she cares for her spiritual well-being, and gives her a lovely home. In the environment of this young girl, there are men who specialize in gaining the confidence of little girls by giving them candy and enticing them into automobiles to molest them. If the mother neglects to give her child the specific information to meet such a situation, she will fail in her duty, and all her loving care will count for nothing when the crisis comes. There is no substitute for specific knowledge.
It is the purpose of this book to give that knowledge. Some of it is a little technical. Some of it may seem a long way from the everyday needs and activities of life. Nonetheless, the information contained in it is essential to survival.
The statement is frequently heard: "You cannot trust the Communists!" This is incorrect; you can trust the Communists.
They are extremely trustworthy. You can trust a cancer cell to obey the laws of its lawless growth. You can trust an armed bank robber to take the money and try to escape. Similarly, you can trust the Communists to act in accordance with the laws of their being.
When people operate according to clearly defined principles, they are both trustworthy and predictable. While we continue to believe that the Communists think, feel and believe as we do, the Communist movement is, as Winston Churchill described it, "a riddle wrapped in an enigma." The movements of the heavenly bodies appeared mysterious and unpredictable till Copernicus discovered the governing laws. When we understand the philosophy of Communism, the unifying purpose concealed in their frequently chaotic and contradictory conduct is revealed.
Marxism-Leninism
Nikita Khrushchev said: "Anyone who thinks we have forsaken Marxism-Leninism deceives himself. That won't happen till shrimps learn to whistle." We can trust the Communists to practice Marxism-Leninism. What is Marxism-Leninism? Stripped to its barest essentials, Marxism is the doctrine of the universality of class warfare, and Leninism is the doctrine of the historic role of the Communist Party to consummate the universal class war in world Communist victory. The basic doctrine of Marxism-Leninism is that a state of war exists and that the Communist Party has been created to win this war. The war was originally discovered, not declared, by Karl Marx. It is between two classes of society which he called the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie is the class of property ownership, the class that owns the means of production. The proletariat he defined as the class of wage labor. Between these two classes, Marx claimed to discover a state of war . The bourgeoisie desires profit; the proletariat desires high wages. If wages go up, profits come down. If profits go up, wages come down. Thus there is a fundamental conflict between these two classes. This conflict Marx called the class war.
Marx taught that the bourgeoisie is the established class in Capitalist society. It has created the State as an instrument to oppress and exploit the proletariat. In reaction the proletariat creates the Communist Party to wage war against the State. Thus the class war manifests itself as war between the Communist Party and the State. With the progress of history, the Communist Party has come to power in Russia, China, and Eastern Europe. The bourgeoisie remains in power in America and her associated allies. Thus the class war has transferred itself from the national to the international plane. The fundamental doctrine of Marxism, therefore, is that Russia and America are at war; that China and America are at war-- not that they could be at war; not that they might be at war; not that they will be at war; but that they are at war. This war is historically declared; it is universal; it encompasses every aspect of society; in it there can be no vestige of truce. The Communists did not choose it; they simply recognized it. Their duty is to prosecute the war to total and complete victory.
The weapons of this warfare are not merely the classical weapons of guns, tanks, bombs, and aircraft. The weapons are universal. Education is a weapon; language is a weapon; trade is a weapon; diplomacy is a weapon; religion is a weapon; cultural interchange is a weapon. The Communists view every act and judge every situation as part of the class war. When the Bolshoi Ballet performs in the United States, that is an action in the class war; when a group of American clergymen visits Russia, that is an action in the class war; when the Soviet participates in negotiations for "peace," they fight a battle in the class war. Their participation in the United Nations is part of this warfare. The basic Communist doctrine is: "We are at war!" This is the frame of reference within which every action and thought must be assessed and judged.
It does not take two to make a fight. An idea in the mind of one is enough. Let me illustrate. During the war against Japan, I was a doctor in the Brisbane General Hospital. Brisbane, capital city of the state of Queensland in north-eastern Australia, was the headqarters of General MacArthur and the American troops for the advance to the Philippines and Japan. Into the hospital, there came one day a man who told me that he had put his finger down his throat to make himself vomit because the Americans were going to poison him. I looked at him in some astonishment.
"How do you know they are going to poison you?" I asked.
"I saw them watching me as I was having my dinner."
"Why are they going to poison you?"
"I don't know."
I sought for an explanation of his attitude. "Has your wife been running around with the Americans?"
That was the only time he showed any emotion. He became quite indignant and said , "Oh, no, nothing like that!"
"They are not going to poison you."
"Yes they are."
"I know they're not."
"I know they are."
He was not angry. He was not yelling, shouting, or screaming. He did not have piercing, staring, penetrating eyes. He had none of the external characteristics of insanity. He looked perfectly normal. Nonetheless, I diagnosed him as a mental case and sent him down to the mental ward. However, he was not a bad case. His wife came in and took him home.
Some days later, an American officer went into a public rest room in Queen Street, Brisbane, and was shot dead with a sawed-off shot gun. His assailant ran away. The police, assuming that the criminal was a man like unto themselves, thinking as they thought, and moved by their motives, investigated without success. They considered the normal motives for murder-- robbery, jealousy, revenge, alcoholic fury-- but they could not find one clue.
A week later in a suburb of Brisbane, another American officer was killed by the same sawed-off shot gun. This time they caught the assailant. It was the man whom I had treated at the hospital.
He had been working on a baker's delivery van, going from house to house delivering bread to the housewives, handling the money, giving the change, playing with the children. Apparently he was quite normal. But deep down in his conscious and unconscious mind, he believed a lie. He knew the Americans were going to kill him. He wished they were not so determined but he knew they were. A man must protect himself. He took a shot gun, sawed off the barrel, sawed off the stock, and carried it around with him for self-protection. He walked into the rest room. He saw the American officer. He knew his life was in danger. He pulled out the gun, shot the officer dead, and ran for his life. A week later he repeated the same process. He was taken, convicted of criminal insanity, and sentenced to an asylum for the insane.
It did not take two to make a quarrel. An idea in the mind of one was enough. Those American officers had never seen the man in their lives. Towards him they had no attitude except goodwill. But he believed that they were bent on his destruction. Suddenly a gun flashed and a man died. It does not take two to make a quarrel. An idea in the mind of one is enough.
The Communists believe that they are at war with us. This conviction will never be changed in the slightest degree by any action of the Free World. If, tomorrow, the leaders of the Free Nations were to accede to every demand made by the Communist leaders, if they were to neutralize every Strategic Air Command base, if they were to grant the demands on Germany, if they were to neutralize Formosa, if they were to recognize Red China and admit it to the United Nations, if the United States were to withdraw every serviceman and weapon within the borders of continental United States, the Communists would merely believe they had won massive victories in the class war. A step towards our final conquest and destruction would have been taken. We must either recognize this and defend against it, or ignore it and be destroyed. We have no other choice.
Peace
Since the Communists are at war, they naturally desire peace. Wherever you find a Communist, you find an advocate of peace. "Peace" is one of the golden words of their vocabulary. They have "peace" movements of every kind; they have peace campaigns, peace prizes, peace conferences, peace processions. Every Communist is a devotee of peace. Most people, watching the military preparations of the Communists, noting the enormous percentage of their budget devoted to military objectives, observing their ruthless, brutal repression of any attempt by their captive nations to secure freedom, classify the Communists as blatant hypocrites. This is far from the truth . The Communists are not hypocrites. They are sincerely and genuinely dedicated to peace. If you gave a mature Communist a lie detector test and asked him if he desired peace with all his heart, he would pass with flying colors. They live for peace; they long for peace; they would willingly die for peace.
What is this peace which they desire? During the war against Japan, most Americans undoubtedly wanted peace. Peace was the thought that comforted mothers whose sons were in danger on distant battlefields; peace was the word which sustained wives, lonely and anxious without their husbands; peace was the goal that motivated servicemen who knew the boredom, the loneliness, and the danger of war. Had they been asked to define peace, they would doubtless have described it as the termination of hostilities in the defeat of the enemy by the allies. Not under any circumstances would victory by Japan have been termed peace. To the American people, peace meant only one thing-- American victory. The Communists believe they are at war. They desire "peace" with all their hearts. But to them, peace is that golden consummation when the progressive force of Communism totally overwhelms American imperialism and climaxes in Communist world conquest. By definition , "peace" is Communist world conquest.
Since this is true, any action that advances Communist conquest is a "peaceful" action. When the armies of the Communist Chinese encompass the Tibetans, robbing them of their land and food, stimulating them to frantic, hopeless revolt, and then massacring them, they are consummating peace. When Khrushchev ordered Russian tanks into Budapest to fire into the apartment buildings, reducing them to rubble, entombing man, woman and child, in his heart he had a song of peace.
The Communists use the word "peace" in their own sense with total sincerity. We interpret it in our sense. We are the victims, not of their hypocrisy, but of our own ignorance.
The Communists are not hypocrites. They suffer from paranoid delusions of an intense sincerity. They are so enmeshed in the delusions of Marxism-Leninism that they are beyond the scope of rational argument and conviction. All observed phenomena are interpreted within the framework of their preconceived conclusions. If they were hypocrites, it would be much easier to deal with them. You can make a bargain with a hypocrite; you can scare a hypocrite. When you are dealing with paranoics of highly organized delusional patterns, your sole recourse is to acknowledge and understand these patterns and take appropriate measures to protect yourself against the conduct which results from the delusions.
Truth
The Communists invariably tell the "truth," but it is the Marxist-Leninist "truth". Those who believe that the Communists will lie in the interests of Communism are mistaken. In fact, it is not possible for a Communist to lie in the interests of Communism. By definition, if a statement is in the interests of Communism, it is the truth. Jesting Pilate asked the question: "What is truth?" Christians believe that God is Truth. Truth is a quality of God Himself. An absolute God created an absolute Truth. Truth is. The Communists affirm that this is nonsense. There is no God; there are no absolutes; everything is relative; Truth itself is a relative of the class struggle. Lenin said: "The Communist Party is the mind, the conscience, and the morals of our epoch. Proletarian morality is determined by the exigencies of the class struggle." Truth is a weapon of the class war, and any statement that advances Communist conquest is "true." We can trust the Communists always to say that which will advance Communist conquest. We can trust them always to tell the Marxist-Leninist "truth."
Millions of dollars are being spent on the production of beautiful literature telling this "truth." The truth, according to their literature, is simple: Where Communism comes to power, everyone is happy, prosperous, and free; America, on the other hand, is the vilest, most evil, most degenerate nation the world has ever seen.
An excellent example of the Marxist-Leninist truth is contained in a beautiful, photographic magazine published in English by the Communists in North Korea. Most of the magazine is given over to the portrayal of the radiant happiness and glorious prosperity of North Korea under Communism. Towards the end, however, they present the picture of America. On a page entitled "Massacre Committed by American Brutes," there are six photographs of bodies taken from a mass grave lying side by side upon the ground. Their relatives weep over them. Underneath, is the following text:
Mankind remembers the shocking atrocities the Hitlerites perpetrated in the concentration camps in Majdanek and Oswiencim. Recently another case of atrocities by the American murderers which exceeds in its cruelty the atrocities by the Hitlerites was discovered in Korea. In a shaft of the Rakyun Mine, Jangyun County, South Hwanghai Province, some 800 dead bodies were discovered. During their temporary occupation of Jangyun County during the Korean War, the American murderers rounded up miners of the Rakyun mine and the peasants in the nearby villages and put them through severe torture. Then the American devils kicked the tortured miners and peasants into the shaft 100 meters deep. In the shaft corpses were piled up on top of one another, and the torn pieces of the bodies bore bullet holes and scars made by the bayonets. Many mothers had their babies tied on their backs. The shaft presented a most gruesome scene. Honest-minded people can not but hate and condemn the American Imperialist murderers whose lust for blood knows no end. Funeral services for the murdered took place in the Rakyun mine in the midst of children's crying for their lost fathers, old women wailing over their dead sons. The people's enmity and curses upon the American devils rent the air. 'Avenge us of the American imperialists!" This was the cry of the 800 murdered. But even at the moment in South Korea, the American murderers are slaughtering our brothers and sisters. This we can not tolerate. American cannibals get out of Korea immediately.(1) This is the Marxist-Leninist truth. The objective truth is, of course, quite different. When the Communists retreated in North Korea, they took with them all the able-bodied personnel to serve as laborers. Those who could not stand the rigors of the northward journey-- old men and women, pregnant women, very young children and babies-- they massacred and buried in a mass grave if they belonged to the untrustworthy social classes. The advancing American troops time and again found mass graves filled with the bodies of those murdered by the Communists. The Communists merely disinterred one of their own mass graves, and, with moral indignation, indicted America for it before the conscience of the world. Their moral indignation was real, not simulated. This is almost incomprehensible. Hitler worked on the principle: Tell a lie, make it big, repeat it often, and the majority of the people will believe you. The Communists have further developed this concept. Any lie that advances Communist conquest is, by definition, not a lie but the Marxist-Leninist truth. The maturity of a Communist can be judged by the extent to which he can divorce himself from the evidence of his senses and totally identify himself with the verdict of the Communist Party. When confronted with a choice between the evidence of his eyes and the verdict of the Communist Party, the mature Communist will believe with such conviction what the Party has said that, were he given a lie detector test, he would pass it with flying colors. He would experience all the emotions associated with truth when he thought of the decision of the Party.
We are astounded when we see evidence of this. An American plane was shot down over Soviet Armenia. The American forces recorded the conversation of the Russian pilots as they shot down the plane. When Mikoyan, visiting America, was confronted with the evidence, he was not confounded in the least. He did not believe it. It was not true. He was a Communist, a Marxist-Leninist. The Communist Party had said that it did not happen, and the verdict of the Party is the Marxist-Leninist truth.
All Communists do not attain this maturity. Many of them would possibly feel a slight element of doubt in such a situation. Final maturity is attained with the ability to identify one's emotions completely with the verdict of the Party.
Communist scientists finally derive their "truth" from the verdict of the Communist Party. Laboratory experimentation is secondary and must be interpreted in accordance with the policy outlined by the Party.
In the late 1940's there arose in Russia a great debate in the realm of Biology. It concerned the question of transmissibility to offspring of characteristics acquired during the life of the parent. Most reputable biologists teach that such characteristics cannot be transmitted.
The Communists attribute this theory to Mendel and Morgan and call it Mendal-Morgan genetics. A Russian biologist, Michurin, developed a theory at variance with this. His theory was advocated by a plant breeder called Lysenko.
The biological section of the Russian Academy of Sciences met to discuss this issue. The Foreign Languages Press of Moscow published a full report of the conference under the title, "Proceedings of the Academy of Science on the Teaching of Academician Lysenko." The verbatim speeches of the leading Russian scientists were published. Many of these, on the basis of their long laboratory experience, contended that the Michurin-Lysenko school was in error. As scientists, they detailed the evidence on which they based their conclusions.
The issue was resolved very simply. Near the end of the report there is a chapter entitled, "Concluding Remarks of Academician L. D. Lysenko." He reports: "Comrades, the question is asked in a note handed to me: 'Has the Central Committee of the Party adopted any position with regard to your report?' I wish to state that the Central Committee of the Communist Party has read my report and has approved it." (Prolonged ovation. Great applause. All rise.)
A strange sequence ensues. The leading Russian scientists who had opposed the Lysenko position on the basis of their laboratory experience, had a crisis revelation during the night. The following day, they asked permission to make statements. When permission was granted, they rose and indicated that the error of their way had now been revealed to them. They repented of their former service to imperialist biology and dedicated themselves to true proletarian biology.
The cynic may say: "That is easy to understand. They were scared. They know what would happen to them if they did not agree with the Party line." However, the question goes deeper than that. They were scientists and they were Communists. They were Communists first and scientists second. As Communists they believed the Communist Party to be "the mind of our epoch," the fountain of all "truth." The verdict of the Party must take precedence over the experience of the senses, even in the scientific experiment.
It may be argued that this situation no longer exists, that things have changed. Russian scientists do not all agree with Lysenko now.
The question at issue is not the rightness or wrongness of the Lysenko theories, but the right of the Communist Party to determine scientific truth by edict. That situation has not changed. Russian scientists may have changed their views, but only because they have been permitted to do so by the Party. "Truth" remains the exclusive province of the Party.
Righteousness
The Communists demand and develop characters of "righteousness," that is, Marxist-Leninist righteousness. In the book, How to Be a Good Communist, Liu Shao-chi, President of Communist China and brilliant theoretical writer says: But if sacrifice has to be made for the Party, for class and national liberation, that is, for the emancipation of mankind, for social evolution and for the interests of the greatest majority of mankind embracing countless millions of people, countless Communist Party members will face death with equanimity and make any sacrifice without the slightest hesitation. To the majority of Communist Party members, it will be accepted as a matter of course 'to lay down one's life for a noble cause' or 'to die for righteousness,' if necessary.(2) What is this righteousness for which they are ready to die? Righteousness is conduct which will advance Communist world conquest. According to this definition, Joseph Stalin was the very personification of Marxist-Leninist righteousness. The many who believe that Khrushchev attacked and condemned Stalin missed the point of his speech entirely. Khrushchev did two things: He described Stalin, and he condemned him. His description depicted a man so vile that most folk took it for condemnation. What he said, in effect, was this: Stalin was a murderer; he was not a reluctant murderer, but an enthusiastic murderer. He enjoyed murder. He got a thrill out of the torture of his own friends. When the Jewish doctors were arrested and accused of poisoning Zdanov, Stalin called in the man responsible for examining them and indicated the type of torture to be given to each one. He gave three fundamental rules for getting confessions: "Beat, beat and beat again." He said: "If you don't get a confession by this date, we will shorten you by a head!" Khrushchev indicated that Stalin was a stark, raving madman. "When you went in to see him in the morning, he would look at you and say, 'What have you been up to? You have a shifty look in your eye today.' You never knew whether you would leave as his friend or under armed guard to be shot." He presents a picture of a murderer of limitless appetite, a picture of megalomaniacal, sadistic madness. But he concludes by saying: "Don't misunderstand me. Stalin was a good man. He was a Marxist-Leninist. He did these things as a Marxist-Leninist.: No higher praise could have been given by Khrushchev."
How could he justify both description and designation? Let us project ourselves into the stream of history, and look at Stalin in historic perspective. Stalin assumed power when the Communists were a beleaguered garrison and he brought them to the verge of world conquest. It was Stalin who set up their educational program which today is graduating three times as many engineers and scientists as the American program. It was Stalin who became the patron of scientific research. It was Stalin who established their submarine and missile programs which have caused the shadow of impeding death to fall over the life of every person in the Free World. It was Stalin who organized the conquest of China. It was Stalin who deceived American and Free World statesmen. Stalin brought Communism to the very verge of world conquest. A few generations hence, when Communism has conquered the world, and regenerate mankind lives in perfect happiness and complete abundance, the name of Stalin, who did so much to bring this to pass, will be honored and revered. His personal idiosyncrasies will be ignored and forgotten. Dead men do not complain. Who worries about last year's fallen leaves? Stalin is the superb exemplar of Marxist-Leninist righteousness.
Love
We can trust the Communists to manifest pure, Marxist-Leninist "love." One of the best pictures of Marxist-Leninist "love" was revealed in the boast made by Klementi Voroshilov, now president of Russia, to William C. Bullitt, America's first ambassador to the Soviet Union. At a banquet in Russia in 1934, Voroshilow told Bullitt that in 1919 he persuaded eleven thousand Czarist officers at Kiev to surrender by promising them that, if they surrendered, they, their wives and their families would be permitted to return to their homes. When they surrendered, he executed the eleven thousand officers and all male children, and sent the wives and daughters into the brothels for the use of the Russian army. He mentioned in passing that the treatment they received in the brothels was such that none of them lived for more than three months.(3)
Voroshilov was merely acting in obedience to the dictates of Marxist-Leninist "love." Believing as he believed, he acted in a truthful, righteous, and loving manner. There he stood, one of history's anointed, entrusted with the destiny of world conquest and human regeneration. There stood a group of male and female animals which he could utilize selfishly by keeping his promise to them and making himself feel good in the bourgeois sense, or which he could utitlze for the ultimate regeneration and happiness of all mankind by destroying them. His duty lay clearly before him. As a Communist he had no choice. He was nothing; these people were nothing; the will of history was everything. He saw his duty clear. To the executioners went all the males, and to the brothels went all the females. The Red Army was strengthened, world conquest came a day nearer, human regeneration a little closer, and Voroshilov had a conscience as clear as spring water, and a sense of duty nobly done. He was comforted by an acute awareness of the fulfillment of Marxist-Leninist "love."
Communists believe they have a destiny. Their destiny is to create a new world and regenerate mankind. To do this they must conquer the world, shatter the Capitalist system, and, by Communist dictatorship, establish the regenerative environment of Socialism. This new environment will rear the young to perfection.
An inescapable step of their scientific program for the regeneration of mankind is the elimination of the residual diseased social classes following world conquest. A few years ago, the American Communist Party would openly acknowledge that, having conquered this country, they would need to put to death one third of the American people. This is not punishment; it is Social Science. It is not cruelty; it is "love." It is as though the surgeon took the scalpel in a loving fashion to cut away the gangrenous tissue so that the new and perfect might come to maturity.
Communism is applied godless materialism. St. Paul writes:
Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever.(4) Emerging from its lair of godless materialism, dressed in garments of science, Communism seduces the young and utilizes their perverted religious enthusiasm to conquer the world. Building on the doctrines of godless materialism, Communism has completely reversed the meaning of our basic moral terms. When we, in our ignorance of this fact, insist on interpreting their phraseology as if they believed the Christian philosophy from which we have derived our basic concepts, we aid and abet them in their program for our conquest and destruction. Once it is known what the Communists believe, there is no difficulty in understanding, interpreting, and predicting their conduct. On the foundation of knowledge, and on that foundation alone, may an edifice of survival be built.
- Korea, Vol. 25, 1958, (Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea: Foreign Languages Publishing House).
- Liu Shao-chi, How to Be a Good Communist (Peking: Foreign Languages Press), pp.55-6.
- William C Bullitt, "A Talk with Voroshilov," printed in The Great Pretense, prepared and released by the Committee on Un-American Activities, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C., May 19, 1956, pp.18-9.
- Romans 1:21-25.
