Communist Influence Quotes
Commenting on student demonstrations protesting the House Un-American Activities Committee:
Hoover gave this report to President Lyndon Johnson. It was 11 pages long and provided no data or proof of the many accusations. Hoover viewed the entire Civil Rights Movement as part of the Communist initiative to weaken and undermine the United States. There were no Black FBI agents and Hoover himself was an inveterate racist. The FBI worked hand in hand with local police in the South and most agents supported legal racial segregation. Hoover’s definition of a Communist varied from time to time. Johnson worked closely with King after he had read this report and discussed it with some of his staff, so it may have been that Johnson didn’t believe the conclusions. Later historical analysis showed that there were two key people that were close to King who had early communist connections earlier. Both were active socialists at the time but neither was then involved with the Russian controlled American Communist party. The Official Position of the Communist Party was a strong anti-segregation program, and Hoover and most Southern Segregationists believed that all opponents of legal segregation—including demonstrators and marchers--were Communists or were organized and Controlled by the Communists.
This intelligence analysis turned out to predict exactly what happened. Less than 3 years after this report, the Communists overran South Korea and the Korean War began. See {584008} for another remarkable foreign policy prediction.
He like many others had signed petitions for good causes that were circulated by Communist organizations. Racists then used that fact to claim that desegregation, voting rights and anti-lynching laws were communist ideas. With the Red Scare operating in the 1950s, Terkel, like so many others were Blacklisted and denied opportunities to earn a living. Many claimed that they had been duped and don’t really believe in these causes. Some like Terkel would not. He opposed most of the Communist programs, but agreed with some. Ironically, ideas like anti-lynching and voting rights which were then labeled as Communist ideology, are today supported by the vast majority of Americans.
The logic of the Southern leaders and some Northern racists like FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was to fight the Civil Rights Movement using the Red Scare. The Communist Party called for an end to legal segregation and discrimination against Negroes. Therefore, those who advocated an end to segregation were either Communists or dupes of the Communists was their “logic”.
Welch was a conspiracy theorist paranoid and gave the legitimate conservatives of the time a bad name. The quotation was in the first version of the book, and then it was removed.
There are few national organizations who would keep a director who made statements as vicious and racist as this about anyone much less the President of the United States. The use of the Nazi slogan of “subhuman mongrels” was stunning at the time. However, the National Rifle Association is a single issue organization and of the racists and neo-Nazis in America many have affiliated with the NRA so forcing Nugent out would have caused a split in their ranks. The larger problem was for Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, running for Governor, who kept campaigning with Nugent and even refused to repudiate Nugent’s language or facts. He too wanted the votes of the racists, KKK and Nazis of Texas and did not want to anger them. However, many of the independents and conservative Democrats who otherwise might have supported Abbot will likely not. One of the biggest problem for every candidate is what to do when one of his extreme supporters makes extreme and reprehensible statements. The strongest candidates repudiate them right away and if that loses a few votes from the base, so be it. The weaker candidates try and play the middle and remain silent. A month later, after a huge press story covered the media, Nugent made a half-hearted apology.
