Cold War History Recaptured

By Matthew Murphy

When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, most members of the graduating class of 2007 were in kindergarten. In August this year, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro temporarily relinquished power to his brother for the first time in his forty-seven-year reign over the country. This has caused many to wonder, is Communism truly dead?

For one thing, one-fifth of the entire world population still lives under a communist regime. Frank Calzon of the Center for a Free Cuba said that he was “a little optimistic about Cuba,” but admits that “despite Castro’s illness, little has changed” in the island country.

“Most people don’t know that American companies can trade with Cuba,” Calzon pointed out at the Heritage Foundation in August. The catch is that Castro is forced to pay for such trading, Calzon said at Heritage.

Calzon stressed to the audience that “while it is easy to take for granted the freedoms you have,” it is important to think about what children in Cuba and China go through every day. Harry Wu, who serves as Executive Director of the Laogai Research Foundation, who survived nineteen years in the Laogai, or Chinese labor camps, explained that the deaths of the innocent Chinese at the hands of the communist leaders were acts of what he calls “classicide”—or, the killing of people as a result of their social class.

Mr. Wu believes that “the ideology is not a crime,” but acting upon it and killing many innocent people all in the name of the ideology is a crime.

Dr. Lee Edwards who is Chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation reported that “after a number of years” the Memorial is going to break ground on Capitol Hill in August. The bronze, ten-foot tall statue of the Goddess of Democracy is based on the statue created by Chinese protesters in Tiananmen Square, who, in turn based their design on America’s Statue of Liberty.

The reminder is a necessary one, Dr. Edwards believes. Twenty-one million people died in the Soviet Union at the hands of Communist officers, Dr. Edwards notes, “surpassing all of the 20th Century wars combined.” The Soviets created the international terrorist network of the 1960s and 1980s that still plague this world today, Dr. Edwards added.

Paul Goble, formerly of Voice of America, is an authority on the Baltic States.

On his daily commute in Estonia, he hears the anthem of the former Soviet Union, which is now the official Russian anthem. Russia has failed to reach our expectations, so we just turn a blind eye to them, Goble avers. “Proclaim victory then look away,” he said.

He argued that if Russian President Putin “violates the Constitution” of Russia by trying to run for a third term, it would be “one more failure” on the part of America.

“I find it troubling that we have forgotten so quickly,” Mr. Goble told the audience.