What is Anti-communism?
Anti-communism is defined by what it is against. It is a wide camp and not a single creed. In it you find liberals, conservatives, social democrats, church groups, trade unionists and nationalists, but also military rulers and fascists. They agree on one point: communist parties and states, they say, crush freedom, property, faith or national independence. The movement grew up with the Russian Revolution and reached its peak in the Cold War, when the United States and the Soviet Union faced off from the late 1940s until 1991.
Core beliefs
- One-party communist rule removes free elections, a free press and private life.
- People should be able to own property and trade without forced collectivization.
- Communist states should be contained by alliances and military strength.
- Communist parties tied to a foreign power may be a danger to their own country.
- The deaths and prison camps under communist rule must be recorded and remembered.
- Churches and national customs need protection from a state that promotes atheism.
History
The roots lie in 1917. After the Bolsheviks took power in Russia, fear of revolution spread. America had a Red Scare in 1919 and 1920, with raids on suspected radicals. In 1920s and 1930s Europe, fear of the left helped conservatives and fascists win backing. In 1937 Pope Pius XI condemned communism in Divini Redemptoris. After the Second World War, the diplomat George Kennan argued for containing Soviet power, and the Truman Doctrine of 1947 gave aid to Greece and Turkey. NATO followed in 1949. At home, the years from about 1947 to 1954 brought loyalty hearings and blacklists, later tied to Senator Joseph McCarthy. Writers such as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn exposed the Soviet camp system. Communist rule in Eastern Europe fell in 1989, and the Soviet Union ended in 1991.
Variants
Liberal anti-communists spoke up for elections and personal rights. Social democrats wanted welfare and even public ownership, but would not accept a Soviet-style state. Religious and conservative anti-communists defended faith, family and tradition. The harshest form was military anti-communism, where generals used the threat of communism to justify seizing power and jailing opponents on the left.
Criticisms
Critics point to the harm done in its name. Innocent people lost jobs in the American blacklists. Western governments backed coups and strongmen, in places such as Guatemala and Chile, and in Indonesia in 1965 and 1966 army-led massacres killed many people accused of being communists. Some on the left say the label was used to smear union leaders, civil rights campaigners and mild reformers. Defenders answer that communist governments caused mass killing, famine and prison camps, and that resisting them helped keep democracy alive in Western Europe.
In practice
The effects were large. Anti-communism shaped Cold War alliances, spy agencies, foreign aid, and wars in Korea and Vietnam. West Germany banned its Communist Party in 1956, and other states banned theirs for a time. After 1989, many Eastern European countries opened secret police files, barred former officials from office and built museums for victims. On the 12 axes, it scores very high on Foreign policy toward Strength and high on Security toward Order.