Customer Reviews

Useful Idiots: How Liberals Got It Wrong in the Cold War and Still Blame America First

5 star:		(88)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(42)

 

 

No doubt, the liberal apologists for America will attack this book from every direction. It can hold its own, nonetheless. If you're old enough to have watched U.S. political drama from Korea to September 11, Mona Charen's analysis is crystaline in clarity. Exceptionaly well researched and documented, it is also riveting... and scary. But it's a book that might make a difference. It's a book that should make a difference. If you loved Mondale and admire Fidel Castro, well, you'll not be pleased with it. If you liked Ronald Regan you'll probably do some cheering. If you are half-way objective it may scare the hell out you. How U.S. foreign policy has evolved and been reported in the main-stream press over the past 50 years is not a pretty picture. As this book underscores, blaming the world's problems on America has become a drum beat for many of our own "leaders" and too many of our "journalists." Both, by the way, take a beating in "Useful Idiots." And the book makes a powerful case they deserve it.

Charen gives an impassioned defense of Cold Warriors by pointing out the lingering blindness of most liberals to the evils of Communism. Quick. How many movies can you name that portray the horrors of Stalinism? As Charen says, this is not a failure of imagination, but a moral meltdown. There are hundreds of movies of varying quality that demonize Hitler and Nazism. Yet, Communism, a wholly comparable evil, gets a pass from Hollywood.

As I perused the customer reviews here, I was not surprised to see the invective hurled at Mona and her work by people who have either not bothered to read the book, or decided not to comment on its substance. Can there be a better indirect proof of Charen's thesis?

She does differentiate among liberals, citing and quoting a number of anti-communist liberals. She points out some startling and heartbreaking word pictures of suffering and death taken from the recently opened Soviet archives. She does criticize the elder Bush. So this is not just one-sided hate mongering as the other reviewers may have you believe. In fact, it is clearly on a more serious and sensitive level than the Ann Coulter book.

From Moscow to Havanna to Cambodia to North Korea, liberals just don't get it. And, unlike people whose reputations were ruined for their lack of judgement about the Nazis (Chamberlain and Lindbergh for example), liberals have just gone merrily on their way without suffering a loss of credibility. Hmmm, could it be that they largely control the media? Ah, but that's another book review!

What seperates this book from other simliar neoconservative books is the lack of inflamatory rhetoric. Ms. Charen lays out her case through extensive research and quotes. She does not demonize her opponents. She does does not pull quotes of context. She does not twist facts to make a point. She simply quotes those who hate America and yet defend the bankcrupt system of communsim. Only the title could be misconstrued as name-calling, but once you read the full quote, you understand why she chose it.
Communism must never be defended. It is a system that denies man's nature and has consequently led to the brutal death of tens of millions of people, and the enslavement of over a billion people. (Not to mention the devastation of the environment.) This book should be required reading.
The only way to deny Ms. Charen's arguement is to ignore it and instead resort to the tired game of name-calling. (Read the nagative reviews.) Both conservatives and liberals would benifit from Mona Charen's approach.

This book examines the American Left's farcical inability to accept the notion that not only was the Cold War real, but the United States won and the Soviet Union (although not the Russian people) really was the bad guy. The Left just can't just come out and admit that the world, especially formerly enslaved Eastern Europe, is better (not perfect but better) subsequent to the USSR's demise.

Hollywood pumps out film after film about the alleged evils of United States domestic and international shortcomings (of which there are many) and one-sided sympathetic portrayals of left wing heroes, but Charen says "Quick: try to think of a single movie about the horrors of Stalinism. This is not a failure of imagination. This is moral meltdown."

Charen provides a memorable metaphor for American liberals' inability to realistically perceive the relative successes and moral positions of the United States and its Cold War adversaries. She points out that liberals turn the Lords' New Testament words inside out to the effect that liberals couldn't see past the speck of sawdust in the United States' eye in order to see the plank in the Soviets' eye.

Useful Idiots is well written and makes its points, but for many readers Charen will be preaching to the converted. I recommend challenging your left-oriented friends to read and discuss this book with you.

Having lived through and witnessed much of the liberal arrogance cited, I applaud Charen as grossly direct and honestly to the point with her facts. I find this book refreshing in it's fact based information. Liberals are really taking a hit here, so here's a warning: if you are leaning extremely left, you won't want to read this book. It reflects a sinister side of the liberal left, which is frighteningly real.

While some in every society will always have a tendancy to turn their cheeks and heads blindly to man's inhumanity to man, seeking blame elsewhere, Charen keeps the issues focused.

Charen masterfully creates a sensitive and patriotic novel well needed in a time of our unsung heroes. Liberals have stepped on our culture for too long, and now Charen has taken them to task. Before you rest to judgement, you must read this book.

A nice companion piece to Richard Pipes' Communism: A history, Mona Charen provides an extensive catalog of quotes, facts, and events to illustrate the manner in which people have been duped by communist rhetoric. The trials and tribulations of Russia, Cuba, Cambodia, and Vietnam get a second review, this time under a critical light. There are plenty of people who must now be saying to themselves: I hope no one remembers what I said about ______. Reading the discredited quotations leaves the reader sadder but wiser.

Using her thoughtful work, here is a list of ways to become a useless idiot:

1. Blame America first.
2. Extol enforced, pervasive, subsistence equality rather than progress or wealth creation.
3. Enjoy freedom but don't understand it and allow it for others.
4. Forget how wrong critics were about nuclear freezes, the benefits of communism, and the long-term success of Marxism.
5. Believe communist rhetoric, ignore communist reality.
6. Discount governments that murder its dissidents, throttle its people, and drive millions into exile.
7. Deny the value of private property and wealth, usually while having plenty of your own.
8. Make positive predictions or analyses as to the economic power and success of communist countries.
9. Holding capitalism to be standards of perfection while glossing over wholesale problems in communist countries.
10. When in doubt, hate America.

Sure, America has its problems. One of its beauties is the country's ability to accept and absorb critics and self-criticism. Bu those who see communism or socialism, here or abroad, as a better way, are just missing the picture. With all America's faults, it's the place where people seek refuge and a better life, and where both can be found.

Mona Charen revisits the Cold War era in light of the events of 9-11 and draws a parallel between those dupes, like Walter Duranty, who lauded the former Soviet Union during the 1930's as a "worker's paradise" in the midst of Stalin's vicious purges, and those in the media and public life today, who, in the wake of 9-11-01 insist on blaming "American foreign policy" for those attacks.

Charen hasn't shied away from controversy in the past and this book is no exception. Liberals who purport to "love America and criticize it only to improve it," will despise this work for lumping all Leftists in with those nefarious folks whose real agenda has been to undermine the cornerstone of American prosperity, private property rights, and would like to see our republic (government action limited by our Constitution) replaced with some form of "pure democracy."

I believe that Mona Charen is right though, in at least most of her assessment of the Left (especially "the true believers"), that much of American Liberalism has been anti-American and anti-freedom. I also believe that her title is also right on the money - those who espouse anti-American sentiments while living in the freest, most prosperous nation on earth, who condemn American government without considering the broader worldview (2/3 of the "modern world" still practices chattel slavery), or decry "American Imperialism" in the face of America's history of liberating and rebuilding nations from Grenada to Kuwait to Serbia - are indeed "useful idiots," for any anti-American cause.

If you believe in the founding principles of Americanism (private ownership, free markets and a Constitutional Republic) you're going to love this book, if not, you may very well hate it.

Thank God for Mona Charen! She reminds us, in this, her book, Useful Idiots, of the wrong-headed things that members of the liberal far-left said and did; things that some of us have apparently forgotten.

In the Vietnam era alone, just to name one example in which they took the side of an enemy that was busily killing our servicemen, they abused the United States with their chants of "Ho,Ho,Ho Chi Minh! The Viet Cong are going to win!" while waving the enemies' flag.

Many of the anti-war "Political Pilgrims" went to North Vietnam and posed, smilingly looking through the sights of the NVA anti-aircraft guns,the purpose of which was to kill our airmen (Jane Fonda) and sneered at the suggestion that our POWs were being badly treated, while praising the "gentleness" of the enemy and comparing the United States (unfavorably) with the communist regime. Were they punished, upon their return, for their treachery and traitorous behavior? Far from it! In the case of Fonda, she went on to a lucrative career as an admired actress and exercise guru.

One such "war protester" who led anti-American rallies in London, and made an admiring trip to the socialist paradise, the Soviet Union, was rewarded by his countrymen by being elected President of the United States. He admittedly "loathed" the armed services of which he became Commander-in-Chief!

Who needs enemies, with friends like these?

This book is not a diatribe, as some reviewers on the political left are fond of saying. Nor is it filled with invective, or name-calling. It is, rather, a history of many of the quotations of those who ALWAYS have taken the part of the communist regimes against our country, and always, always, always placed the blame on the country that nourished them and blessed them with privilege, wealth and comfort.

Who are these people? Here are some of the names in this book, along with their own damning words. Let their own quotes condemn them: Ron Dellums, Susan Sontag, Bill Moyers, Jane Fonda, Dick Gregory, Donald Sutherland, Lillian Hellman, Owen Lattimore, George McGovern, David Crosby, John Kerry, Noam Chomsky, Graham Nash, Mary McGrory, Sidney Hook, Hendrick Hertzberg, George Ball, Seweryn Bialer, Corliss Lamont, Peter Collier, David Horowitz, Ramsay Clark, Rev. William Sloan Coffin, Jr., Mary McCarthy, Jonathan Schell, Al Hubbard, Tom Downey, Phil Ochs, and of course Tom Hayden--the list is long.

And, of course, those icons of the left leaning press who pushed their own agenda with more regard for their anti-war views than the truth as they reported the struggle in Vietnam: Walter Cronkite, Peter Arnett, Morley Safer, and many others. This book is full of details that these folks must wish were forgotten

Do I believe Mona Charen? What is not to believe? I remember hearing much of it myself, with absolute dismay at the time.

In my case, I do not condemn the Democrat Party. I know many patriotic Democrats. The people Charen is pointing at are on the far-left. They are the ones who have always admired communism, made excuses for its excesses and failures, and found nothing but guilt and reason to hate the land of their birth.

This book should be an eye-opener for those young people who are not politically aligned as yet, and will benefit from identifying the enemy within, as well as both those in the Democrat and Republican Parties who represent the true values of middle America. Those cynics who believe that this great country is the "World's Bully," and not deserving of their love and allegiance should visit some of the other nations--especially those whose inhabitants are desperate to escape--and come to America.

Joseph (Joe) Pierre, USN (Ret)

author of Handguns and Freedom...Their Care and Maintenance
and other books

Mona Charen has been telling the truth about liberals for quite a few years now. A good measurement of her success is the liberals' reactions to her columns. When the liberal Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World used to run her columns (sadly, Cal Thomas and George Will are the only two conservatives currently included on that newspaper's opinion pages), regular Journal-World columnist and professor emeritus of the "prestigious" White Allen White School of Journalism at the University of Kansas, labeled Charen a "troglodyte." "Useful Idiots" is sure to elicit much more name-calling from the left. Such name-calling is the best evidence that a conservative has made an excellent argument.

When I first saw the cover of Charen's book, and noted the photos of, among others, Phil Donahue, Peter Jennings, Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, and Jimmy Carter, I thought the book was about the war on terrorism. However, the subtitle, "How Liberals Got It Wrong in the Cold War and Still Blame America First," tells us that the book deals with events during the second half of the last century.

Charen details how liberals claimed they helped win the Cold War after that war was over, but were clearly on the other side during the actual battles. In the pages of "Useful Idiots," we find Sen. Chris Dodd lambasting the Reagan administration for fighting against the "tide of history" when it sought to rid Central America of the Marxist Sandinistas. Seven years later, the Soviet Union had fallen and the Sandinistas were voted out of power. This is merely one example of how liberals got it wrong during the Cold War. (Note: Sen. Dodd has been one of President George W. Bush's harshest critics vis-a-vis the Iraq war. Given his poor track record, why does anyone still take him seriously?)

One reviewer noted that, while he liked the book, "Useful Idiots" offered nothing that he hadn't already read elsewhere. It is true that much of the information in this book has been documented in other sources. However, what makes "Useful Idiots" so valuable is the fact that we have all of these cases of the liberals being wrong in one book. I, too, have read about most of these cases before. However, there are many that I had forgotten about. Americans need to be reminded about the outrageous actions of the liberals during the Cold War as the same liberals make similar arguments regarding the war on terrorism.

One of these same liberals is Rep. John Conyers on Michigan. This useful idiot wanted to impeach President Reagan over the invasion of Grenada. The same Rep. Conyers is now talking about impeaching President Bush over the liberation of Iraq. Some clever fellow once observed that Democrats try to impeach Republican presidents when those presidents act presidential, while Republicans impeach Democratic presidents when they act unpresidential.

As I read through "Useful Idiots" and listened to liberals debating the war on terrorism, it struck me that Charen could write another book in several years. The title and photos on the cover could remain the same. Only the subtitle would have to be changed to "How Liberals Got it Wrong in the War on Terrorism and Still Blame America First."

I had to laugh after reading the account of Peter Jennings reading poll results in January 1990 that showed Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas would win big in Nicaragua's presidential election. It turns out that opposition candidate Violetta Chamorro actually won 55 percent of the vote. The same Peter Jennings is on television today telling his shrinking audience that Iraqis are not welcoming Americans with open arms. One would think that Jennings would know by know that oppressed people are too intimidated to express their true opinions. In the privacy and safety of the polling booth, Nicaraguans rejected the communists. Once Saddam and his regime are clearly out of power, Iraqis will express what they truly feel. Jennings will once again have egg on his face, but that won't stop him from continuing to be a useful idiot.

One minor problem with "Useful Idiots" is the editing. The names of Ramsey Clark, John Maynard Keyes, Sidney Bluemnthal, and Anastasio Somoza are misspelled. This is minor, but liberals are likely to try discrediting Charen's work on this basis in lieu of dealing with the substance (which, unlike Bill Clinton, is unimpeachable). None of those who gave this book a poor rating noted the misspelled words. This leads me to believe that they did not actually read the book.

Charen's book is an invaluable contribution to those of us who care about history being portrayed in an accurate manner. Liberals were clearly on the wrong side during the Cold War. As we continue to fight the war on terrorism, we should keep that in mind as the same liberals attempt to block President Bush's efforts.

I will often clip a quote or comment out of a newspaper and send it off to a friend or family-member. "How could someone ostensibly intelligent say something so dumb?" Mona Charen has compiled an entire book of intelligent people saying dumb things, and she shows that this is not adventitious, but the result of an ideology that blinds some liberals to America's virtues and from Communism's bloody vices. The book bogs down now and then as Ms. Charen details leftist muddle-headedness, but pick up any chapter on any topic and there are head-shakers that will have you muttering at the lack of common sense of some of our politicians, intellectuals, entertainers.
For another point of view, see Tampa, Fl's review down below.
He constantly calls Ms. Charen a "facist". I wish he had explained what a "facist" is. Someone who does not wear a mask?