127 lines
7.6 KiB
Plaintext
127 lines
7.6 KiB
Plaintext
___ ___ ___
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___|: |___|: \ ___|: \ DizDate: 12/95
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_______\___ \___ \___ ___\_______ WordCount: 1010
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«¬¬¬¬¬¬| |: | |____| ___|¬¬¬¬¬¬«
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«¬¬¬¬¬| | |: | |: |¬¬¬¬¬« Subject/Topic is on:
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«¬¬¬¬| |: | |: | |¬¬¬¬« [The World Anti-Communist ]
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----\___|: |\__ |\__ |---- [League ]
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Grade Level: [ ]Grade School Type of Work: [ ]Essay/Report/Term
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[ ]High School [x]Informational
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[x]College [ ]Notes
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[ ]Misc
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ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ>ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ>ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ>Chop Here>ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ>ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ>ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ>ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
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The World Anti-Communist League:
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"Inside The League"
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by Scott Anderson, and Jon Lee Anderson
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Reviewed by Chip Berlet
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"Inside The League: The Shocking Expose Of How Terrorists, Nazis, And
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Latin American Death Squads Have Infiltrated The World Anti-Communist
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League." Scott Anderson and Jon Lee Anderson. Dodd Mead, New York, 1986.
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352 pages. $19.95 hardcover. ISBN 0- 396-08517-2. Publication date May 28,
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1986.
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For over ten years progressive researchers in this country and in
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Europe have been uncovering evidence linking certain American conservatives
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and rightists to racist and fascist movements around the globe through a
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shadowy organization called the World Anti-Communist League. Now the book
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"Inside the League" exposes the hidden nature of the League and documents
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in devastating detail a parade of League-affiliated authoritarian
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ideologues marching from the death camps of Nazi Germany into the parlors
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of Reagan's White House. The idea for the book came when Jon Lee Anderson
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was researching a series of columns on Latin American death squads for Jack
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Anderson, (Jon Lee's employer but not his relative). Enlisting the aid of
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his brother Scott, the two first began tracing the connections between the
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death squads but soon were unravelling networks and alliances that involved
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terrorists, Nazi collaborators, racists, assassins, anti-Jewish bigots, and
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right- wing anti-communist American politicians. The one factor all had in
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common was their involvement with the World Anti-Communist League.
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The Latin American death squads, for instance, were found to be linked
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through an umbrella group of Central and South American rightists called
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the Latin American Anti-Communist Confederation (CAL). CAL in turn was
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affiliated with the World Anti-Communist League (WACL), lead by a retired
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U.S. Major General, John Singlaub. Singlaub boasts WACL is the
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coordinating body for raising private aid for the Contras, a task support
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ed explicitly by the Reagan White House which has sent government officials
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and glowing letters of support to WACL meetings in recent years.
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WACL also serves as an umbrella for several Eastern European emigre
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groups founded and lead by Nazi collaborators, and there is far more. As
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the Anderson brothers write:
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"We have examined the World Anti-Communist League...because it is the
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one organization in which representatives of virtually every right-wing
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extremist movement that has practiced unconventional warfare are to be
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found. The League is the one constant in this netherworld; whether looking
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at Croation terrorists, Norwegian neo-Nazis, Japanese war criminals, or
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American ultra-rightists...." (p. x, Author's Note).
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WACL is more than a club for aging facists and their modern- day
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hero-worshipers, it serves as the primary coordinating body through which
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anti-communist groups meet and debate and implement strategies to prop up
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anti-Communist authoritarian regimes and defe at popular movements for
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social and political liberation around the world. The current strategy is
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to avoid when possible the use of military troops - and use instead a
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process called "unconventional warfare". This practice is employed by the
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Reagan administration but couched in popular terminology with calls for
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supporting heroic "freedom fighters" such as the Contras. The Scott
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brothers explain:
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"As defined by a League member who advocates its use, unconventional
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warfare includes 'in addition to terrorism, subversion and guerilla
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warfare, such covert and non-military activities as sabotage, economic
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warfare, support to resistance groups, black and gray psychological
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operations, disinformation activities, and political warfare.'
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"Certainly the Nazi forces of World War Two and the rightist death
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squads of El Salvador and Guatemala today are among this century's most
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accomplished practitioners of this unconventional warfare," write the
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Andersons. They note that many historia ns have made the comparison before
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them, but point out "What has not been as well publicized is that the
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Salvadoran rightist killing peasants today learned his methods from the
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Nazis and their collaborators in Europe, and that he didn't receive this
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knowledge through the reading of books but through careful tutoring"
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through the network established by the World Anti- Communist League.
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It is this group that President Reagan has praised for playing "a
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leadership role in drawing attention to the gallant struggle now being
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waged by the true freedom fighters of our day." A list of persons involved
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over the years with WACL is printed on the back cover of "Inside the
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League." Among the more notable:
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Yaroslav Stetsko, a Nazi collaborator who in July 1941 presided over
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the extermination of 7,000 Jews; Stefano delle Chiaie, a fugitive Italian
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terrorist wanted for robbery, kidnapping and murder; Mario Sandoval
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Alarcon, architect of the Guatemalan death squads; Chirila Ciuntu, a Romani
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an fascist who participated in a 1941 massacre of Jews; Ray Cline, former
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deputy director of the CIA; Jess Helms, Republican Senator from North
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Carolina; Fred Schlafly, Phyllis' husband; General Jorge Rafael Videla,
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former Argentine dictator now imprisoned for mass-murder; and Roger
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Pearson, a scientific racist whose books on racial superiority are still
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sold today by American neo-Nazi groups.
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The authors devote considerable attention to showing that Reagan
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administration officials and U.S. supporters of the World Anti-Communist
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League cannot claim lack of knowledge or evidence to support the charges
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that WACL is riddled with fascists. Almost apologetically they reach the
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conclusion that in, essence, certain anti-communist forces in this country
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have decided that working with fascists is an acceptable alternative to
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dealing with communism. The book sets out to show how Nazis have
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infiltrated a worldwide anti-communist organization. It achieves this goal
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admirably, using a p opular style and approach that should have attracted
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far more media attention than it has so far received. It is almost as if
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reporters cannot accept the evidence because the conclusions conflict with
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our basic notions of decency and morality - how hard it must be for most
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Americans to believe that among the hands that have crafted our current
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foriegn policy are those bloodied through participation in the Nazi
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Holocaust and latter-day bloodbaths. But then history does reveal that the
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Nazi movement was, among other things, ardently anti-Communist. Why are
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these lessons so hard to recall, and why do so many voices that still cry
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out against Nazi ideology remain silent when the Nazis themselves receive
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letters of praise from our President?
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