Granite State to Honor Stalinists?
by William Norman Grigg
"I thought the Cold War was over," protested New Hampshire
state Senator Burton Cohen on February 12th after a ceremony
intended to honor Granite State veterans of the Abraham
Lincoln Brigade (ALB) was postponed pending a legislative
hearing. Cohen and his associates apparently believed that
Marxist assumptions have become so deeply embedded in our
culture that an unabashedly pro-Communist display could be
erected in the capitol building of the "Live Free or Die" state.
Last year the state legislature’s Joint Historical Committee
voted to purchase a plaque displaying the names of 12 New
Hampshire residents who enlisted in the Communist-controlled
Brigade during the 1930s. The plaque contains a depiction of
the Communist clenched-fist salute and an inscription that
reads, in part: "You Are History, You Are Legend. 40,000
international volunteers came to the defense of the Spanish
Republic when Franco, Hitler and Mussolini attacked. Among
them were some 3,000 young Americans, the Abraham Lincoln
Brigade, and nearly half of them lie buried in Spanish soil. Their
dedication to freedom and democracy is an inspiration to future
generations."
The plaque was to be unveiled on February 12th, to coincide
with Lincoln’s birthday. However, after the Manchester
Union-Leader publicized the planned event, "a coalition of
legislators and veterans formed quickly, leading to the
postponement announcement," reported the paper on February
19th. "The legislative leadership ordered the ceremony to be
held up until a hearing could be held."
Cohen insisted that Brigade volunteers were motivated by
"idealism" rather than "ideology." Ralph Rosen, a World War II
Navy fighter pilot who referred to Senator Cohen as "Comrade
Cohen" in a news conference, riposted that while some
non-Communists enlisted out of a sense of perverted idealism,
"the Abraham Lincoln Brigade was, from start to finish, a
communist organization." Among the 12 New Hampshire ALB
veterans whose names are listed on the plaque are Homer and
Van Chase, whose mother Elba served as president of the
state’s Communist Party.
Cohen and other supporters of the plaque dutifully recited the
Soviet party line that the ALB was established to fight fascism,
rather than to promote Communism. "The issue of
‘anti-Fascism’ proved to be a bonanza for the Comintern
[Communist International] and for the Communist Party of the
United States," Francis X. Gannon points out in his definitive
Biographical Dictionary of the Left. "The strategy of fighting
fascism through a united front naturally attracted the dedicated
Communists and their inveterate fellow travellers. It also served
as a magnet to attract the support of hundreds and even
thousands of individuals who had never before joined – or
joined with such enthusiasm – in Communist fronts."
New Hampshire state representative Tony Soltani points out
that Americans who joined the Brigade "violated U.S. law and
directly contravened U.S. foreign policy." While they defied U.S.
law, they eagerly complied with the Kremlin’s mandates and
readily submitted to Soviet discipline. "The ALB, as all other
International Brigades in Spain, functioned under the domination
and control of the Comintern [Communist International,"
reported the Subversive Activities Control Board in 1955. "Its
members were subject to, and the recipients of, Communist
discipline for political dissidence; a Political Commissar system
organized under the leadership of Comintern agents Andre
Marty and Luigi Longo, and dominated by Communists,
functioned throughout the International Brigades, including the
ALB, for the purpose of maintaining the political reliability of
troops from the Communist viewpoint and of dispensing
Communist indoctrination.... ALB members recruited Americans
in Spain to be Soviet agents and were trained by Soviet
personnel there and so functioned."
Celebrating Red Atrocities
According to Cohen, the plaque would provide a "history
lesson" and offer inspiration for young people: "The courage
demonstrated by these brave Americans should stand as a role
model for young generations to come." A brief history lesson
regarding the Spanish "civil war" – in fact, a Soviet-led effort to
communize the Iberian peninsula – is certainly called for, and it
would of necessity highlight the unfathomable anti-Christian
atrocities committed by the "Republicans," with the ALG’s
enthusiastic involvement.
In 1934, the Spanish left, under the leadership of Francisco
Largo Caballero (who called himself the "Spanish Lenin"),
decided to forsake "evolutionary" progress in favor of a violent
rebellion. Within two years Spain’s political culture had
disintegrated into near-anarchy, and a Soviet-constructed
"Popular Front" was preparing to conduct a reign of terror. It
was at this point – with the nation in mortal peril of descending
into Communism – that Franco mounted the coup. For the Left,
support for the "Republican" – that is, Communist – faction in
the conflict became a grand crusade, one that was motivated
not by a desire to establish "democracy" or freedom in Spain
but rather to annihilate that nation’s Christian institutions and
culture.
The Spanish "Republicans," like Communist insurrectionaries
everywhere, focused their wrath on "soft targets." Under
Communist leadership, writes British historian Alan Lloyd,
"gangs of revolutionaries roamed the country burning churches,
torturing and murdering clerics, [and] wantonly terrorizing the
bourgeoisie and the upper classes. In a little over a month, an
estimated 75,000 people would [meet] a senseless death at
the hands of promiscuous and ignorant killers...." Historian Erik
Ritter von Kuehnelt-Leddihn reports that Spanish Communists
butchered at least 6,000 priests, friars, and nuns. Some of the
nuns, he recalls, were "publicly undressed, raped, slaughtered,
and exhibited on a butcher’s hook."
Kuehnelt-Leddihn, a war correspondent assigned to Spain
during the "civil war," recalls a visit he made to the city of
Huesca, which endured a two-year siege conducted by the
Communists. Since the "forces of progress, democracy, and
enlightenment could not take Huesca, they vented their spleen
on the dead," he wrote. "The vulgarities, the obscenities — the
corpses torn out of their graves and assembled in obscene
postures — left an unforgettable impression; they were
appalling witness to the noble spirit so enthusiastically
supported by the American and British left" – and which Cohen
seeks to commend as an example to New Hampshire’s youth.
It is also worth noting that during World War II, Franco
frustrated the efforts of Hitler to seize Gibraltar, which would
have made it possible for the Axis to seal off the
Mediterranean. While he rebuffed Hitler’s efforts to entice
Spain into joining with the Axis, Franco’s government issued
tens of thousands of passports to European Jews. While FDR’s
government was turning away Jewish refugees, "whole
trainloads of [Jews] were welcome in Spain," observes
Kuhneldt-Leddihn, making Franco’s government "the greatest
protector of Jews" during World War II.
By way of contrast, Josef Stalin’s government, which
organized, equipped, and directed the Abraham Lincoln
brigade, entered into the infamous non-aggression pact with
Hitler in 1939 – and the same international "anti-fascist" Popular
Front suddenly became "isolationists" and allies of Hitler. The
Soviet-Nazi gang rape of Poland essentially made the
Holocaust possible. In 1944, while Franco was saving Jews,
the Soviets (who had deployed the Red Army outside of
Warsaw) were allowing their erstwhile Nazi co-conspirators to
mop up potential Jewish resistance in Poland.
Such is the legacy of the "idealists" Cohen and his associates
seek to celebrate in Concord’s State House.