I recently heard a speech by one of our nation’s liberal religious leaders. He spoke eloquently about what he called the world’s number-one problem: the refugee problem. This religious leader had been to Vietnam to interview the boat people.
This religious leader spoke with passion about the genocide of four million Cambodians. He described the plight of refugees from Asia to Latin America, to Africa, to Europe. He pricked our conscience to do something about the millions in dire distress.
But amazingly, this liberal clergyman never mentioned what the refugees are fleeing from! Of course, the plain fact is that nearly all of the world’s refugees are fleeing from Communism. But the word “Communism” stuck in the liberal’s throat and just wouldn’t come out.
It is a peculiar quirk of liberal leaders, whether religious, political, academic or journalistic, that they refuse to face up to the fact that Communism is the most virulent problem and the central threat of our time. Unfortunately, their refusal to admit the existence of Communism will not make it go away.
The liberals remind me of the old rhyme: “As I was going up the stair, I met a man who wasn’t there. He wasn’t there again today. I wish, I wish he’d stay away.” The liberals keep saying that Communism isn’t there; they keep wishing that Communism would stay away. But each time they climb the stair of another current problem, the liberals will keep meeting the Communism they don’t believe is there.
Communism is the problem in Poland and in Afghanistan. Communism is the problem in Vietnam and in Cambodia. Communism is the problem in Angola and in the Persian Gulf. Communism is the problem in Cuba, in Nicaragua, in Granada, in Guatemala, and of course in E1 Salvador.
Communism explains why we are so concerned about SALT II and the arms limitation negotiations with the Soviet Union. Communism is the reason why we have to spend so much to defend our nation against any possible aggressor.
The Communists have always been very frank about their designs on the Caribbean. In the January 1981 issue of World Marxist Review, the most important international journal published by the Kremlin, Norma Guevara, member of the Military-Political Unified Revolutionary Leadership of El Salvador, tells her comrades that El Salvador’s guerrillas are preparing the “Eve of the Decisive Battle” for the Communist takeover. She boasts that “the socialist countries and the democratic, anti-imperialist and peace forces throughout the world” are lending vital support.
Then she hurled down the threat of Communist guerrilla war, telling the people they must realize that “there is no way out except by participating in or aiding the struggle.” This is a typical Communist tactic: terrorize the peasantry; join us or else! As Mao Tse-tung taught, “surround the cities from the countryside.”
Another Moscow publication, New Times, also boasted in January 1981 that “represen- tatives of the Salvadorian patriotic [Communist] forces” are “now touring various coun- tries” speaking to “people of good will” who “will demand an end to all assistance to the blood-stained regime and say ‘No to the United States’ interference” in E1 Salvador.
This Moscow-directed propaganda push explains why, says New Times, “the most diverse national and international organizations declare that they are on the side of the Salvadorian people in their hour of trial.”
The results of this Moscow-directed and orchestrated propaganda campaign should be no surprise. The Associated Press reported that “a fledgling anti-war movement is emerging in America” from campuses to churches. It didn’t just happen; it was planned by the Communists to stop U.S. aid to anti-Communists in Central America.
Those who doubt the existence of international Communist objectives with military dimensions should ponder the speech by Maurice Bishop, Communist ruler of Grenada in the Caribbean, delivered at the Second Congress of the Cuban Communist Party held in Havana in January 1981. He bragged about the military aid Castro is giving to other countries, and he articulated the link between Cuba, Nicaragua, Grenada, and El Salvador.
If the Communists succeed in their attempt to take over El Salvador, refugees will start fleeing, just as they have tried to escape from every other Communist country. How many more countries will fall to Communism before the liberals will admit what it is the refugees are fleeing from?
