In fact, if anything, more people live under communism now than did then because of the population growth rate in China. One of the greatest myths circulating in the world is that communism ended with the end of the Cold War. Second, we need to recognize how many people still live under that horrific system. Failure to do so is to give communism a victory that it does not deserve. Only by combatting this both in those countries and by erecting museums and carrying out educational programs can we truly honor those who suffered and fought against communism in the past and now. It is happening today at the Perm-36 Museum where exhibits showing how people suffered in the GULAG have been taken down and how exhibits praising such noxious figures as Abakumov and Beria have gone up. That is not something that is happening only in the imagination of anti-communists as some defenders of this whitewashing of history say. But more than that, we help encourage all those who are still struggling, including those in post-communist countries where some are building museums to remember the victims while others are gutting these institutions and making them into a celebration of the jailors. We are compelled to honor those who have suffered and died because only in this way can be we be true to ourselves and our values – especially at a time when many people have forgotten what has happened or seek to minimize it or even equate communism with other systems.īy remembering the victims of communism, we help ensure that future generations will not live under such a system and recommit ourselves to the defense of our own values which all too often get lost in the noise of political conflict. Hundreds of millions of dead, and millions more deprived of their inherent rights and opportunities. No political or economic system has claimed as many victims as communism. History did not end and the clash of civilizations did not eliminate the importance of ideology, however much some hoped for that outcome.Ĭonsequently, talking about communism, instead of being some kind of survival of a past that had disappeared, is still very important, and this evening I would like to offer ten reasons why I believe this may be even more important now than it was during the Cold War, why I remain an anti-communist, and why you should be too.įirst, we have an obligation to honor all those who suffered under communism. Vast numbers of people still live under communist dictatorships in China, Vietnam, Cuba, and elsewhere.

Many of the revolutions in the former Soviet bloc failed, with old communists remaining in power with only the party name changed.

We should have learned by now that none of those arguments holds is quite as convincing as they appeared. And others were seduced by the notions that the world had entered “the end of history,” that ideology was no longer relevant in a time of “the clash of civilizations,” and that talking about communism was passé at best. Some, especially those who had long fought for the end of communist rule in these countries, felt they had won and should now go on to other things. The following remarks were delivered at the Triumph of Liberty Reception & Dinner on Jin Washington, DC.Ī quarter of a century ago with the triumph of democratic revolutions first in Eastern Europe and then in the former Soviet Union, many people stopped thinking it was important to continue to be anti-communist.

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