The 74th anniversary of the Nazi-Soviet agreement. Two of the three great mass murderers of the last century, Mao would complete the trio, the marriage of convenience of Hitler and Stalin signaled the onset of World War II. Communists who had been calling for a common front with democrats to oppose Hitler immediately turned on a dime and denounced any involvement in an “imperialist war” against Hitler. When Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in June of 1941, communists around the globe turned on a dime again and called for all out war of all free peoples against the Hitlerian threat.
Orwell had the Nazi-Soviet Pact, and the quick double flips that Communists did in response to it, and the later invasion by Germany of the Soviet Union, when he wrote this passage in 1984:
At this moment, for example, in 1984 (if it was 1984), Oceania was at war with Eurasia and in alliance with Eastasia. In no public or private utterance was it ever admitted that the three powers had at any time been grouped along different lines. Actually, as Winston well knew, it was only four years since Oceania had been at war with Eastasia and in alliance with Eurasia. But that was merely a piece of furtive knowledge which he happened to possess because his memory was not satisfactorily under control. Officially the change of partners had never happened. Oceania was at war with Eurasia: therefore Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia. The enemy of the moment always represented absolute evil, and it followed that any past or future agreement with him was impossible.
The frightening thing, he reflected for the ten thousandth time as he forced his shoulders painfully backward (with hands on hips, they were gyrating their bodies from the waist, an exercise that was supposed to be good for the back muscles) — the frightening thing was that it might all be true. If the Party could thrust its hand into the past and say of this or that event, it never happened — that, surely, was more terrifying than mere torture and death?
The Party said that Oceania had never been in alliance with Eurasia. He, Winston Smith, knew that Oceania had been in alliance with Eurasia as short a time as four years ago. But where did that knowledge exist? Only in his own consciousness, which in any case must soon be annihilated. And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed -if all records told the same tale — then the lie passed into history and became truth. ‘Who controls the past,’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’ And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. ‘Reality control’, they called it: in Newspeak, ‘doublethink’.
The world of 1984 came frighteningly close to becoming a reality during Orwell’s lifetime, and the Nazi-Soviet pact was a key element in giving Hitler his opportunity to be one of the main powers in such a nightmare world.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukUw3RHIBrY[/youtube]
Reality control.
Perfect.
The evil of our day will be crushed.
The liar does not win the final battle.
Those Spin Doctors of the past, present and future will be enjoying themselves in everlasting torment, a world they created. A hell on Earth they forged, yet eternal hell is their reward.
Yes. Rant 101 and counting.
Compared to Uncle Joe, Hitler was an amateur. Koba had been in business far longer from 1905 or thereabouts and outlasted Hitler by nearly a decade. By every measure he can claim to be the mightiest dictator the world has ever seen, whose crimes are as monumental as they are unbelievable. Hitler was as Gen Manstein – who served the devil faithfully – wrote merely a gifted amateur, someone who is good when everything works well. Hitler could rant about world conquest as he had the best Army, and the technical genius of the Germans behind him. Short of that he would have been only another rabble-rouser. Stalin on the other hand had to contend with an army that largely hated him, which he kept under ruthless control with SMERSH. In the depths of defeat he could still direct Mao an overall strategy. It is now very clear, contrary to the Lattimores and Edgar Snows that Mao was effectively directed from Moscow (as the book Mao the Untold Story, based on Soviet archives affirms). What the anticommunists in the US had always suspected – that agents of influence continued to undermine Chiang Kai-Shek and thereby lose China, is more or less confirmed. But we’ll have to wait for hell to freeze over before we get any kind of apology from the fellow-travelers. If anyone answers the description of the Devil’s lieutenant, one Joseph D. may well be the genuine article.
“What the anticommunists in the US had always suspected – that agents of influence continued to undermine Chiang Kai-Shek and thereby lose China, is more or less confirmed.”
There were Communists in the State Department and they had zero to do with Chiang losing. He lost because of his own gross incompetence and the corruption of the Kuomintang which often operated as a gigantic, and incompetent, criminal conspiracy. Chiang and his party received immense aid from the US during the War and it all went down an immense rat hole. By the end of the War, as demonstrated by their huge Operation Ichi-Go offensive of April to December 1944, the Japanese could still advance at will against Chiang’s armies that usually specialized in retreating in terror.
As for Mao and Stalin they hated each other, and Stalin would not have wept a tear if Chiang had destroyed Mao.
Stalin may have hated Mao and used one faction against the other, as that was his default position with anyone. Mao on the other hand worshipped the Vodzh. He sent off a few millions to fight the Americans in Korea at the behest of Stalin and against the advice of many. The story of Chiang Kai-Shek’s incompetence and corruption has been seriously exaggerated by those who had to cover their tails. This is the same man who had to fight against Japanese collaborators, warlords and Communists for well on twenty years. True, the Nationalist could have given a better account in their fight against the Japanese, but they did fight. As opposed to the communists, who followed the Stalin line of letting the imperialists duke it out. The bad conscience of the communists stinks to this day. Whenever the Chicoms need to whip a little distraction by picking on the Japanese, they are caught in dilemma as all the newsreels from that era show fighting only between the Nationalists and Imperial Japan.
We all know about the advanced weaponry the Americans supplied Chiang through the Tigers, little of which could match what the Japanese had. But what about the great transfer of weapons to Stalin for his firework display against the Kwangtung Army, (needless after the atom bombs), all of which found their way to Mao.
It was the same story when South Vietnam fell, then it was all about their corruption and incompetence, nothing at all to do with the duplicity of the American left who did all they could to freeze out the ARVN of much needed supplies and air and moral support. No doubt the massive transfer of T-72s and Mig-23s by the Soviets to the NVA had no impact on the outcome. The bare-footed North won only by their grit and the genius of Giap.
Mao and Stalin never got along. Whatever cooperation they engaged in was a marriage of convenience only:
http://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/10/world/stalin-mao-alliance-was-uneasy-newly-released-papers-show.html
“He sent off a few millions to fight the Americans in Korea at the behest of Stalin and against the advice of many.”
Most of Mao’s Generals would eventually come to view the Korean War as a mistake, but Mao did not get involved because of Stalin but rather because he feared an American controlled Korea on his doorstep. He assumed that the US, sooner or later, would back Chiang on an attempted return to the mainland. A mistake on his part, but that was why he went into Korea and not because Stalin asked him.
“The story of Chiang Kai-Shek’s incompetence and corruption has been seriously exaggerated by those who had to cover their tails.”
Nope, the corruption was absolutely stunning without any exaggeration. When General Wedemeyer was sent out to replace General Stillwell in later 44 he initially did not believe that the corruption was as bad as painted by Vinegar Joe. Within a few months he was sounding just like Stillwell on the issue of corruption.
“This is the same man who had to fight against Japanese collaborators, warlords and Communists for well on twenty years.”
And doing a miserable job at it. Against the Communists he held all the aces and he blew it. The Japanese were always a secondary consideration for Chiang since they got him immense supplies from America and they posed no threat to his rule. In regard to the warlords, he “solved” that problem by bribing them so they would pay lip service to his government.
“but they did fight.”
Barely. The war was always low on Chiang’s list of priorities. After Pearl Harbor he knew the Japanese were doomed, and his policy was to use American aid to solidify his reign.
“Weall know about the advanced weaponry the Americans supplied Chiang through the Tigers, little of which could match what the Japanese had. But what about the great transfer of weapons to Stalin for his firework display against the Kwangtung Army, (needless after the atom bombs), all of which found their way to Mao.”
The Flying Tigers and the American air effort in China was merely the tip of a huge iceberg of aid given to Chiang, all of it wasted. Most of Mao’s advance weaponry came from the US, courtesy of what he seized after Nationalist units surrendered which they did with appalling regularity during the Chinese Civil War. Thus was lost the 4.43 billion in aid, most of it military, supplied by the US to Chiang after World War II. The only way that the US could have saved Chiang would have been with five million US troops in China, a price which the US people were not going to pay.
Donald, Mao’s deference to Stalin is obvious in all the pictures. He went into a snit over Khrushchev’s Secret Speech as he had worshipped Stalin. The book I mentioned, based on newly available archives makes this clear. The overall impression is one of subservience to Moscow. This is no surprise to me as I usually put the worst constructions on the actions of communists. The positions long maintained by the anticommunists (of the 40s and 50s) to the ridicule of the Left, are substantiated when checked against the archives. I have to defer to you on Chiang’s military ineptitude, as I do not know much about it.
Mao hated Stalin at least from the time of the Chinese Civil War when Stalin attempted to oversee a peace which would leave Chiang in control of China. Mao’s disastrous trip to Moscow in 1949 underlined his hatred for Stalin and the Soviet Union.
http://faroutliers.blogspot.com/2008/11/maos-humiliation-in-moscow-1949.html
In public he still would mouth friendly platitudes, but when he was strong enough he seized upon the de-Stalinization policy of Khrushchev as a pretext to break with the Soviet Union.